Word of the Week
Created | Updated Mar 18, 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
Sunday is Mothering Sunday so this week's word is one of those words
which most mother's will end up like for their children. It was suggested on 24 November 2000 by M@x.
Retroflex
adj. Bent or curved backwards.
Researchers have hardly been bending over backwards to use this word as its only use is in M@x's post to suggest it for WOTD. And here's me
trawling retroflexively through your suggestions every week so as not to be accused of procrastination.
From the Archive
This week's peek into the archives is for a word which some of you may well have tried to forge and say it was from your mother.
Exeat
n. Permission to leave school, college, religious order. Or permission from the Bishop for a priest to out of his diocese.
The word has featured in only one edited entry - that on University of Cambridge, UK. It is not surprising that this word should feature in an entry about one of the UK's oldest collegiate universities.
Archangel Silly Willy was looking for some
information from St. Killer Queen on 11.11.00, however it was needed by the Tuesday before the exeat weekend. LadyChatterly works in a boarding school and was logged on to hootoo in June 2003 during an exeat period. She disappeared that night to mark some more exams papers; it's good to know even teachers get distracted by h2g2. She goes on in another forum to discuss exactly what exeat weekends are in public schools. These are weekends when day pupils do work on Saturday mornings; makes me glad I went to a state school.
Another researcher who experienced exeat weekends at school is Clelba who talked about a 'not exactly one' on 10
February 2002. We won't mention skiving off Spanish classes though!
So I'm sure Shazz and the Post Team will give me an exeat until next
week.
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.
