In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
PALMERWORM
Etymology
Noun
palmerworm (plural palmerworms)
(archaic) Any small, terrestrial invertebrate, usually an agricultural pest and having many legs and a hairy body.
A gelechiid moth, Dichomeris ligulella, destructive to fruit trees.
Source: Wiktionary
Palm"er*worm`, n. (Zoöl.) (a) Any hairy caterpillar which appears in great numbers, devouring herbage, and wandering about like a palmer. The name is applied also to other voracious insects. Joel. i. 4. (b) In America, the larva of any one of several moths, which destroys the foliage of fruit and forest trees, esp. the larva of Ypsolophus pometellus, which sometimes appears in vast numbers.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
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12 February 2025
MEGACOLON
(noun) an abnormal enlargement of the colon; can be congenital (as in Hirschsprung’s disease) or acquired (as when children refuse to defecate)
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