Cachet

A cachet (Ka-SH-ay) is a special characteristic or quality; an indication of approved or superior status.


It also means a seal, as of a letter; a warrant formerly issued by a French king who could warrant imprisonment or death in a signed letter under his seal; a design or artwork on the left hand side of an envelope, found primarily on first day covers.

Jurist

A jurist is not someone who sits on a jury - that is a juror.

A jurist is a legal scholar versed in civil law or the law of nations; a judge: a public official authorized to decide questions brought before a court of justice; a professional who studies, develops, applies or otherwise deals with the law.


If I use this illustration does it make me a Jester?

Jejune

Jejune means insubstantial; insipid; lacking in nutritive value; displaying or suggesting a lack of maturity; lacking interest or significance or impact; meagre; scanty; dull or uninteresting and is used primarily of ideas and arguments.

It was a fairly jejune novel.
 

Parthenogenesis

Parthenogenesis is an asexual form of reproduction found in females where growth and development of embryos or seeds occurs without fertilization by a male; the development of an individual from an egg without fertilization.


On 21st May 2006, Flora, a female Komodo Dragon (Varanus komodoensis) at Chester Zoo laid eleven eggs. It was a big surprise when these eggs turned out to be fertile since Flora had never been with a male Komodo Dragon. This is one of the 'babies' at the age of three.

DNA-testing at Liverpool University showed that Flora was the mother AND the father.


The effort of being a Mum and Dad!


Other lizard species are known to be able to reproduce by parthenogenesis but this was the first time it had been seen in Komodo Dragons.
 

Scintillate

To scintillate (SIN-till-ate) means to sparkle with brilliant light. I think it's a lovely word.

Syzygy

Syzygy is the alignment of any three celestial bodies. For example, the Sun, Earth, and Moon - such that one body is directly between the other two, such as occurs at an eclipse.

Trebly

Sometimes the crossword compliers get really desperate. The other day we had a six letter answer to find for the clue ‘Three times’. Perhaps not surprisingly we tried ‘Thrice’. when that didn’t fit in with other prospective answers we eventually realised the word was supposed to be trebly.

Have you ever heard anyone use the word trebly? I certainly haven’t.

Chips

In Britain a chip is a piece of potato cut lengthwise and square to make a straight sided stick shape, deep fried and served when slightly crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.


They may be made at home from raw potatoes and cooked in a chip pan or, nowadays, they may be bought as pre-cut potatoes, glazed lightly with oil which can be cooked in the oven.


Fish and chips is a traditional 'take-away' dish from 'chip-shops' in the UK.


Elsewhere they may be termed French fries and they are fairly common in restaurants in France, where they are called pommes frites. In Britain the term French Fries tends to be used in ‘posh’ restaurants to mean a chip or elsewhere to mean a thinner cut form of stick.


In the US a chip is a finely sliced piece of potato – cut in a cross section so as to be round. This is then deep fried until crisp.


They are usually made commercially and supplied in a sealed bag.


In Britain these are known as crisps. The first British potato crisps were manufactured by a man named Carter in 1913. He allegedly discovered them in France. In 1920 Smiths, a family business, began the first commercial production in Britain. Mrs Smith washed, cut and fried the potatoes in a garage in North London. Frank Smith packaged them in greaseproof paper bags and sold them from his pony and trap. A twist of blue paper with salt in it was provided to flavour the crisps. By then end of 1921 the Smiths had moved to larger premises and employed 12 staff .

TTFN

I came across one of those phone texting glossaries the other day and was amused to see TTFN. The glossary explained it as “Ta ta for now”. Unlike WYSIWYG – “what you see is what you get” – TTFN needs no explaining to my generation or even the previous one.


The phrase and its abbreviation appeared in the World War II BBC radio show called "It's That Man Again", otherwise known as ITMA, that ran ten years from 1939 to 1949. Tommy Handley was the host of this weekly comedy show, featuring a stable of regular quirky characters and their catchphrases.

"TTFN," was part of a running joke that, following the practice of the military, abbreviations were vigorously substituted for full words -- the name of the show, ITMA, being a prime example of that.

Done to a turn

When meat is described as being ‘done to a turn’ it simply means it is adequately cooked.


The phrase comes from the days when meat was cooked on a revolving spit over an open fire. Once one side was cooked the spit was turned to cook another side – so the first side was ‘done to a turn’.