The word “coffee” entered the English language in 1582 via the Dutch “koffie,” borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish “kahve,” borrowed in turn from the Arabic “qahwah.” The Arabic word qahwah was traditionally held to refer to a type of wine.
MEIOSIS
litotes, meiosis
(noun) understatement for rhetorical effect (especially when expressing an affirmative by negating its contrary); “saying ‘I was not a little upset’ when you mean ‘I was very upset’ is an example of litotes”
meiosis, miosis, reduction division
(noun) (genetics) cell division that produces reproductive cells in sexually reproducing organisms; the nucleus divides into four nuclei each containing half the chromosome number (leading to gametes in animals and spores in plants)
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
meiosis (countable and uncountable, plural meioses)
(countable, rhetoric) A figure of speech whereby something is made to seem smaller or less important than it actually is; understatement.
(uncountable, cytology) Cell division of a diploid cell into four haploid cells, which develop to produce gametes.
Synonyms
• (rhetoric): See understatement
• (cytology): reduction division
Antonyms
• (rhetoric): See hyperbole
• (cytology): mitosis
Meronyms
• (cytology): prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase, reduction division, equation division
Source: Wiktionary
Mei*o"sis, n. Etym: [NL., fr. Gr. Meionite.] (Rhet.)
Definition: Diminution; a species of hyperbole, representing a thing as being less than it really is.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
25 February 2025
ENDLESSLY
(adverb) (spatial sense) seeming to have no bounds; “the Nubian desert stretched out before them endlessly”
Coffee Trivia
