Word of the Week
Created | Updated Feb 25, 2004
In the dim dark recesses of h2g2 history before we moved lock, stock and barrel to our new BBC home there used to be a front page feature The h2g2 Word of the Day. It was a way to highlight some of the lesser occurring or largely obscurer words in the English language. Sadly this feature was discontinued.
Until now...
Word for the Week
I'd like to thank dimmuborgir and his families' playing of 'Beyond Balderdash' for this weeks word. So as well as Ohio providing the first Primary win for John Kerry this week that great American state is also proud to give you:
Farding-bag
n. The Upper Stomach of a cow, or other ruminant
animal; the rumen
The word had never been used on h2g2 before last week when it was
suggested for this column. However doing a quick search on the internet
shows it turning up on various mobile phone pages mentioned in conjunction with ring tones. Also it is mentioned in close association with Naval references so there may be a device based on the part of the cow or even using it. Any sailors out there please advise.
From the Archive
As the word of the week looks at the rumination mechanisms of animal I've chosen this week's recycling from the archives to be along a similar theme, even though it does apply more to plants. We sadly have no record of who suggested this word for Word of the Day as there is no refence I could find doing a search. If it was you please shout.
Saprotrophic
adj. Biology Feeding on decaying matter.
This week's work has actually been used in the edited guide - no doubt to the relief of all you biologists, biochemists or whatever out there. The researcher who used it was Hussassan the Silicon Samurai in his informative entry Classification of Living Organisms. Strangely, some of you might think, this word has not be used at all in polite conversation on h2g2.
How can you contribute?
- Go and check out words in the archive to
avoid duplication. - Check out the discussion threads and nominate a word that you feel was overlooked before discontinuation.
- Suggest a new word or your forgotten word in the word of the week archive
conversation.
