A Word a Day Keeps the Teacher at Bay

It seems the past week or so my vocabulary has been expanding. I love learning new words, but only seem to remember them if I learn them some way other than mindless memory from a dictionary. I’ve tried several times to memorize Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day and it just doesn’t work out.

So, here are my new words to share with you, and hopefully you’ll remember them.

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Trousseau (troo so): a woman’s possessions such as clothing, lingerie and linens that accompany her into marriage. The origin of Trousseau is taken from the French trousse, meaning a small bundle.

Threading: An ancient method of hair removal using cotton thread rolled over hairlines, plucking the hair at the follicle level. Unlike tweezing where a single hair is pulled out each time, threading can remove an entire row of hair, resulting in a straighter line. It is popular in Arabic culture, as well as Indian and Persian culture.

Bracketology: the process of predicting the field of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, named as such because it is commonly used to fill in tournament brackets for the postseason. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi is the inventor of the term “bracketology”, starting first as the owner and editor of the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook and ending up as the resident bracketologist on ESPN.

Onus: used to refer to something that is one’s duty or responsibility; a burden; an obligation

Biophilia: innate, instinctive love of nature.