Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.
LIGNIFY
lignify
(verb) convert into wood or cause to become woody
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Verb
lignify (third-person singular simple present lignifies, present participle lignifying, simple past and past participle lignified)
(intransitive) To become wood.
(intransitive, botany) To develop woody tissue as a result of incrustation of lignin during secondary growth.
(intransitive, by extension) To become rigid or fixed, like something made of wood.
(transitive) To turn into wood; to make ligneous.
Source: Wiktionary
Lig"ni*fy, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Lignified; p. pr. & vb. n. Lignifying.] Etym: [L. lignum wood + -fy: cf. F. lignifier.] (Bot.)
Definition: To convert into wood or into a ligneous substance.
Lig"ni*fy, v. i. (Bot.)
Definition: To become wood.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
8 November 2024
REPLACEMENT
(noun) the act of furnishing an equivalent person or thing in the place of another; “replacing the star will not be easy”
Coffee Trivia
