My Science School

Ever wondered how words are formed? Our language is ever-evolving. Every year, hundreds of words get added to our vocabulary. Did you know that some of the words were contributed by the authors themselves or that those words became popular among the masses? Some even found a place in the dictionaries. Let's take a look at some of the authors who have offered us their repertoire of words which subsequently became famous.

PANDEMONIUM – BY JOHN MILTON

A word used to refer to chaos and uproar. "pandemonium" is a highly mainstream word. The word is created by poet and writer John Milton. It was in the poem "Paradise Lost that Milton referred to the capital of Hell as Pandemonium. And the word came into being! And that is not all. He is credited with introducing as many as 630 words to the English language. Did you know that the oft-used words such as "liturgical", "debauchery", "besottedly", "unhealthily", "padlock", "dismissive", "terrific". "embellishing", "fragrance", "love-lorn" and "complacency" were created by the poet?

SERENDIPITY- BY HORACE WALPOLE

 Serendipity is one of the magical words in the English language. It refers to happy accidents, the fact of finding something interesting or valuable by chance. There is even a movie titled "Serendipity," starring John Cusak. And we credit Horace Walpole for the word. He is said to have been inspired by a fairy tale called "The Three Princes of Serendip" and used the word and announced his coinage in one of his correspondence letters. He uses the word in a letter to his friend Horace Mann. Did you know that "serendip" was actually another name for Sri Lanka?

CHORTLE - BY LEWIS CARROLL

The man who wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" gave us not just remarkable characters such as the Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat or Alice but also new words. "Chortle" is one such word coined by the author. A word that means a kind of laugh which is a mix of a chuckle and snort, the word was used in the nonsense poem by the author Jabberwocky. "Galumphing" is another word from the poem that is also used in modern language that means "galloping in a triumphant manner. Another word invented by the author is "portmanteau word. The word portmanteau did exist already but the author created a portmanteau word which means a word made by joining two words. "Frabjous" is a word in the dictionary that has been coined by Carroll that means joyous. "Mimsy" is yet another word coined by him which means prim or underwhelming.

ALLIGATOR - BY SHAKESPEARE

Shakespeare has been credited with having invented hundreds of words by scholars. Let's take a look at some of the words he came up with. Did you know that the word "alligator first appeared in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet? It is the anglicised version of the Spanish words ‘el lagarto’. Some other words include "arch-villain", "green-eyed", "dauntless", "besmirch", "lackluster", "dwindle" and so on.

TWEEN – BY J.R.R. TOLKIEN

Tolkien gifted us Middle Earth, a fantastical universe with wizards, elves, dragons, dark lords, trolls, dwarves, orts, and so on. The fictional land has a fictional language too, containing many new words. His fictional works "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" have many words coined by him. Did you know that ‘Hobbit’ was included in the Collins English Dictionary? It is defined as 'one of an imaginary race of half-size people living in holes’. The word 'orc’ was also made popular by him. Derived from the Italian word Orco, which means man-eating giant, the word orc was reimagined by him. ‘Tween' is another word that we have borrowed from the author. The word is used to refer to a preteen, someone who is nearing teenage but who is not yet a teenager. The word was used by Tolkien to refer to the hobbit's "irresponsible twenties". ‘Mithril' is yet another word. A fictional metal found in Tolkien's Middle Earth, Mithril is also a popular word.

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Despite being one of the largest star patterns, the constellation itself is relatively dim but can be spotted as they are bordered by brighter constellations

David Prosper

Hercules is one of the standout heroes of Greek mythology, but his namesake constellation can be surprisingly hard to find! Once you find the stars of Hercules, look deeper, barely hidden in the space around his massive limbs and "Keystone" asterism are two beautiful globular star clusters: M13 and M92!

Since the constellation itself is relatively dim but bordered by brighter constellations, you can find the stars of Hercules by looking between the bright stars Vega and Arcturus. They are fairly easy to identify. Vega is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra and one of the three stars that make up the Summer Triangle. Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation Bootes. You may be able to find Hercules "Keystone" asterism first; this distinct pattern of four stars is traditionally shown as the torso of the great hero.

Fluffy and dense

Globular star clusters appear fluffy, round and dense with stars, similar to a dandelion gone to seed, in contrast to the more scattered and decentralised patterns of open clusters. Open clusters are generally made up of young stars that are gradually spreading apart and found inside our Milky Way galaxy, while globular clusters are ancient clusters of stars that are compact, billions of years old, bound to each other and orbit around our galaxy. Due to their considerable distance, globular clusters are usually only visible in telescopes, but one notable exception is M13, also known as the Great Cluster or Hercules Cluster.

During very clear dark nights, skilled observers may be able to spot M13 without optical aid along the border of the Keystone, in between the stars Zeta and Eta Herculis. Readily visible as a fuzzy "star" in binoculars, in telescopes M13 explodes with stars and can fill up an eyepiece view with its sparkling stars, measuring a little over half the diameter of a full Moon in appearance!

When viewed through small telescopes, globular clusters can appear orb-like and without discernable member stars, similar in appearance to the fuzzy comae of distant comets. That's why comet hunters Edmund Halley and Charles Messier discovered and then catalogued M13, in 1714 and 1764 respectively. marking this faint fuzzy as a "not-comet" so as to avoid future confusion.

While enjoying your view of M13, don't forget to also look for M92! This is another bright and bold globular cluster, and if M13 wasn't so spectacular, M92 would be known as the top celestial sight in Hercules. M92 also lies on the edge of naked-eye visibility, but again, binoculars and especially a telescope are needed to really make it pop.

Far, far away

Even though M92 and M13 appear fairly close together in the sky, in actuality they are rather far apart: M13's distance is estimated at about 25,000 light years from Earth, and M92's at approximately 27,000 light years distant. Since M13 and M92 appear so close together in our skies, switching between these two clusters in your scope makes for excellent star-hopping practice.

Globular clusters are closely studied by astronomers for hints about the formation of stars and galaxies. The clusters of Hercules have even been studied by NASA's space telescopes to reveal the secrets of their dense cores of hundreds of thousands of stars.

(This article is distributed by NASA's Night Sky Network. Visit nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov for more space news)

ASTRONOMY TERMS

Constellation: a group of stars forming a recognizable pattern

Asterism: a prominent pattern or group of stars that is smaller than a constellation

Keystone: an asterism formed by four relatively bright stars in the constellation Hercules: Pi, Eta, Zeta and Epsilon Herculis

Light year: the distance light travels in one year. Light zips through interstellar space at 3,00,000 km per second and 9.46 trillion km per year

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Meaning: This noun refers to a small wheel to support heavy weights.

Origin: The word in use since the 16th Century is assumed to have been derived from the Middle English words trendle to refer to "wheel, suspended hoop", which, in turn, is from the Old English word trendel, meaning "ring, disk". It is also perhaps derived partly from the Old French word trondeler, meaning "to roll down, fall down".

Usage: I simply loved the low-level trundle bed on the e-commerce site.

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Meaning: The word scarce is used to denote that something is insufficient for the demand and is used especially for food, money and other such resources.

Origin: The word, which has been around since 1300, is derived from Old French scars meaning "scanty", which according to the Oxford English Dictionary is from Vulgar Latin In the past two centuries, the usage of the word has been decreasing and it is currently at its lowest in this period.

Usage:  With jobs so scarce in the market, many young graduates are finding it hard to get their careers started.

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Meaning: The word anguish can be used both as a noun and as a verb. While the noun form of the word can be used to mean mental or physical pain or suffering, the verb form denotes being extremely distressed about something.

Origin:  The noun form of the word has been in use from around 1200. It is derived from Old French anguisse, angoisse meaning "choking sensation, distress, anxiety which is from Latin angustia for "tightness, narrowness". The verb form, meanwhile, has been around since the mid 14th Century. Even though the word has been around for centuries, its usage saw a steady decline from 1800 till around the 1950s. While its usage was steady from then till about the turn of the century, it has again seen an increase in usage since then.

Usage: The COVID-19 pandemic has left several families in anguish worldwide.

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Meaning: This adjective means not readily investigated, interpreted, or understood.

Origin: This word is derived from the Latin adjective 'inscrutabilis' which can be traced back to the verb scrutari, meaning "to search or examine". This word was first used in the English language in 15th Century.

Usage: He stood silent and inscrutable.

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Meaning: This noun refers to a strong, coarse, loosely woven material made from jute or hemp for bagging and sacking.

Origin: In use since the early 18th Century, gunny has its origin in the Sanskrit word "goni", meaning sack.

Usage: These gunny bags are huge and sturdy.

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Meaning: The word strobe corresponds to a light or lamp that flashes on and off quickly.

Origin: Strobe is arrived by shortening the word stroboscope. It has been used as the shortened form of strobe light from 1949 and as an adjective from 1942. Stroboscope is an instrument for studying light using periodic motion. In use from 1896, it is arrived at by adding the suffix scope to the Greek word strobos meaning "a twisting, act of whirling".

Usage: Strobe beacons were used in NASA's final Mercury mission to see if tracking was possible by astronauts.

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Meaning: The word twitch is used both as a verb and as a noun. The verb form corresponds to give or cause to give a short, sudden jerking or convulsive movement. The noun form meanwhile, denotes a short, sudden jerking or convulsive movement.

Origin:  The verb form of the word has been around since the late 12th Century. The word is derived from to-twic-chen, meaning "pull apart with a quick jerk, which is related to Old English twiccian meaning "to pluck, gather, catch hold of." which in turn has a Proto-Germanic root. The noun form of the word has been in existence from the 1520s. The word, which has seen steady usage through the centuries, saw an increased usage this century. The frequency of usage has been especially pronounced in the last decade or so, nearly doubling from before. This can be attributed to the popular American video live streaming service that shares the same name.

Usage:  She tried to suppress her smile but felt a twitch in the comer of her mouth.

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Meaning:  As a verb to teem with something is to be full of or swarming with it.

Origin: This word is derived from the Old English 'timan', which originally meant to bring forth offspring' or 'to give birth to' in the late 16th Century.

Usage: The river teems with fish.

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Meaning: Pronounced taw-tee-uh, this noun refers to a type of thin, round Mexican bread made from maize or wheat flour.

Origin: This Spanish word from the 17th Century has its origins in the Spanish words "torta", meaning cake and "-illa", a diminutive suffix derived from the Latin word "ella".

Usage: The sweet aroma of sugared tortilla filled our room.

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Meaning: This intransitive verb refers to talking foolishly or nonsensically.

Origin: In use since 1868, the word blither is a variant of blether - meaning "talk nonsense" - a northern British and Scottish word, with origins in the word blather, with the same meaning.

Example: So blither if you like, she said softly.

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The word insipid corresponds to lacking flavour and being weak or tasteless. It can also be used to denote lacking interest or vigour.

Origin:  The word, which has been in usage since 1610s, comes from French insipide, from Latin inspidus meaning tasteless.

The figurative meaning of being uninteresting or dull was first recorded in English in the 1640s, probably from Medieval Latin. The word saw a rapid decline in usage in the 19th Century, but has maintained that level since then.

Usage: Despite an insipid performance in first half of the play, the children more than made up in the second half to make it an enjoyable show overall.

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Meaning: The word cauldron corresponds to a large metal pot with a lid and a handle that is used for cooking over an open fire. Cauldron can also denote a situation that is characterised by instability and strong emotions

Origin: The word has been around since 1300 and is derived from Anglo-French caudrun, Old North French caudern from augmentative of Late Latin caldaria meaning "cooking pot from Latin calidarium used for "hot bath", from calidus meaning warm, hot. The 1 was inserted in 15th Century in imitation of Latin.

The word which has been in constant usage through the centuries, has enjoyed a burst of popularity in the recent decades.

Usage:  The Santiago Bernabeu Stadium was a cauldron of emotions when Real Madrid welcomed Manchester City for the second leg of their Champions League semi-final in 2022.

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Meaning: A confidant is someone to whom secrets can be entrusted, and especially a very close friend.

Origin: This word comes from the Italian confidente, meaning 'having trust in' which in turn is derived from Latin 'confidere' meaning to put one's trust in, have confidence in.

Usage: He has since become a close friend and confidant.