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unusual facts about wiktionary:rara avis



Algonquian languages

:See the lists of words in the Algonquian languages and the list of words of Algonquian origin at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sibling project.

Autotransformer

The "auto" (Greek for "self") prefix refers to the single coil acting on itself and not to any kind of automatic mechanism.

Bartholomew John

In 2005 John portrayed John Forsythe in Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure, a fictionalized television movie based on the creation and behind the scenes production of the 1980s prime time soap opera Dynasty.

Beatus of Lungern

Though his legend states that he died in the 2nd century, it is likely that his story has been conflated with other saints of the same name, especially Beatus of Vendôme, and an Abbot Beatus who received a charter in 810 from Charlemagne to confirm that Honau Abbey would be administered by Irish monks.

Behind That Curtain

It is set almost exclusively in California (as opposed to Chan's native Hawaii), and tells the story of the former head of Scotland Yard, a detective who is pursuing the long-cold trail of a murderer.

Bible society

In 797, Charlemagne commissioned Alcuin to prepare an emended text of the Vulgate; multiple copies of this text were created, not always accurately, in the famous writing schools at Tours.

Bill Bogash

After retirement in 1958, Bogash went on to be a restaurateur in Los Angeles, California.

China Railway Engineering Corporation

In addition to the core business of construction, the company does business in surveying and designing, installation, manufacturing, R&D, technical consulting, capital management as well as international economic and trade activities.

Chinese swords

The weapon, also known as dan dao (single knife) when just one is used, is thereby thought to be an adaptation of the kitchen knives common to Chinese cuisine.

Febrile neutrophilic dermatosis

Sweet, working in Plymouth in 1964, described a disease with four features: fever; leukocytosis; acute, tender, red plaques; and a papillary dermal infiltrate of neutrophils.

Fuel injection

By virtue of better dispersion and homogeneity of the directly injected fuel, the cylinder and piston are cooled, thereby permitting higher compression ratios and more aggressive ignition timing, with resultant enhanced power output.

G2G

"Got to go", "Good to go", and "Get together"; various Internet slang ("g2g" and "GTG" also used with the same meaning); see also English internet slang on Wiktionary

History of Indian influence on Southeast Asia

Vietnam, or then known as Annam (; pinyin: Ānnán), experienced little Indian influence - usually via Champa.

Hoi Ping Chamber of Commerce Secondary School

In line with the school motto Morality (德, "Tak"), Wisdom (智, "Chi"), Health (健, "Kin") and Diligence (勤, "Kan"), the school emphasizes a balanced development in students' conduct, academic pursuit and extracurricular activities.

Iowa Highway 1

This road, authorized by President Martin Van Buren in 1839, was known as Dillon's Furrow, named after the Dubuque merchant Lyman Dillon who surveyed the route and marked it with a furrow.

Iran–United Kingdom relations

On 19 June 2009, the Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Khamenei described the British Government as the "most evil" of those in the Western nations, accusing the British government of sending spies into Iran to stir emotions at the time of the elections, although it has been suggested by British diplomats that the statement was using the UK as a "proxy" for the United States, in order to prevent damaging US–Iranian relations.

James A. McIntyre

He is a Master of the Enright Chapter of the American Inns of Court, a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a Diplomate of the American Board of Trial Advocates and had an "AV" rating in Martindale-Hubbell (the highest rating possible).

Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society

Originally intended to be published along with the author's 1958 work Culture and Society, this work examines the history of more than a hundred words that are familiar and yet confusing: Art; Bureaucracy; Culture; Educated; Management; Masses; Nature; Originality; Radical; Society; Welfare; Work; and many others.

La Ribambelle

La Ribambelle (French for "flock" or "throng") is a Belgian comics series about a gang of kids living in the same neighbourhood.

Lake Discharge Problem

Discharge at the lake outlet will vary based on the normal depth calculated from the lake and channel characteristics.

Laurens, Iowa

Laurens, France, became a sister city to Laurens, Iowa during the preparations for the 2007 quasquicentennial (125th anniversary).

Lone Scouts

A Lone Scout must meet the membership requirements of the Scouting organization to which they belong and have an adult Scout leader or counselor who may be a parent, guardian, minister, teacher, or another adult.

Love on Arrival

A 1950s-style rock 'n' roll tune with a prominent saxophone, the singer and his girlfriend communicate using common abbreviations, such as PDQ, TGIF (although here, it means "Thank God I found" you) and TLC.

Love the Music, Hate the Kids

Ensign's journey from hardcore punk on their debut, Direction of Things to Come in 1997 through to metalcore on The Price Of Progression – taking a middleground stance on Cast the First Stone in 1999 – saw them now turning full-circle into seminal, old school punk and doing an album of cover versions which were important to them in their formative years and recognised by many fans as important to the genre.

Major Bowes Amateur Hour

Ted Mack, who had supervised the auditions for Bowes, became the interim host of the radio show and a few months later moved it to the fledgling medium of television.

Margaret Heffernan

Examining examples of willful blindness in the Catholic Church, the SEC, Nazi Germany, Bernard Madoff’s investors, BP’s safety record, the military in Afghanistan and the dog-eat-dog world of subprime mortgage lenders, the book demonstrates how failing to see—or admit to ourselves or our colleagues—the issues and problems in plain sight can ruin private lives and bring down corporations.

Memoirs v. Massachusetts

The book in question in this case was Fanny Hill (or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, 1749) by John Cleland and the Court held in Memoirs v. Massachusetts that, while it might fit the first two criteria (it appealed to prurient interest and was patently offensive), it could not be proven that Fanny Hill had no redeeming social value.

Metalorganics

The vapour pressure of a metalorganic precursor is a crucial parameter that governs the concentrations of metalorganic precursors entering the reactor, and subsequently the rate of deposition in MOVPE process.

Miosis

Miosis (or myosis, from Ancient Greek μύειν, mūein, "to close the eyes") is a term with various definitions, which generally include constriction of the pupil.

Monolingual learner's dictionary

Others, like Wordnik or Wiktionary, don't have that explicit focus, yet provide useful resources to learners due to their collaborative nature, which tends to produce definitions and sample sentences that are more diverse, and written in popular terms.

Nadia G's Bitchin' Kitchen

Nadia G's Bitchin' Kitchen (Originally titled in Canada and the UK as "Bitchin' Kitchen") is an offbeat cooking show starring Nadia Giosia that used to air exclusively on the Food Network Canada.

Navi Mumbai Holi riots

The feuding parties were Ghansoli Agri & Koli locals and mathadi settlers, with pre-existing "native vs. immigrant" political bad blood between the two communities serving as a tinderbox.

Of All People

This series featured profiles of Canadians who were not celebrities such as couple Fred and Mary Allison celebrating a 50th anniversary, octogenarian coin and stamp collector Vinnie Green, Newfoundlander Leonard Evans and his 14 children, Uxbridge Township dogcatcher Anne Barrett.

OpenLP

It includes the ability to search through lyrics for certain words; search for Bible verses in the Bible; display lyrics and Bible verses in a friendly way to the congregation; interact with Microsoft PowerPoint to provide users with an easy way to control Powerpoint.

Patrick Dewaere

In 1968, he joined Café de la Gare, the troupe of performers which also included such future stars as Gérard Depardieu and Miou-Miou.

Putto

They also experienced a major revival in the 19th century, where they gamboled through paintings by French academic painters, from Gustave Doré’s illustrations for Orlando Furioso to advertisements.

Saratoga Race Course

Saratoga Race Course has several nicknames: The Spa (for the nearby mineral springs), the House of Upsets, and the Graveyard of Champions. Famous race horse Man o' War suffered his only defeat in twenty-one starts while racing at Saratoga Race Course; Secretariat was defeated at Saratoga Race Course by Onion, after winning the Triple Crown; and Gallant Fox had been beaten by the 100-1 longshot Jim Dandy in the 1930 Travers Stakes.

Scillitan Martyrs

The Acta of the Scillitan Martyrs are considered to be the earliest documents of the church of Africa and also the earliest specimen of Christian Latin.

SedDB

SedDB is based on a relational database that contains the full range of analytical values for sediment samples, primarily from marine sediment cores, including major and trace element concentrations, radiogenic and stable isotope ratios, and data for all types of material such as organic and inorganic components, leachates, and size fractions.

Sedgwick Gardens

Most of the cabana doors are still intact and date back to the 1930s when architect Mihran Mesrobian designed the building.

Serono

Serono as a stand-alone company develops and markets pharmaceuticals in the fields of Reproductive Health, Multiple Sclerosis, Growth & Metabolism and Dermatology.

Shayne McCosh

He played with Sheffield for two seasons, during which time he helped them to win the Challenge Cup in 1999–00 and a Grand Slam of all available trophies in 2000–01.

Sidesperson

A sidesperson, correctly known as a sidesman or usher, in the Anglican Church is responsible for greeting members of the congregation, overseeing seating arrangements in church, and for taking the collection.

Sighsten Herrgård

In the 1970s Herrgård established internationally in Paris and North America; he also started a company in Stockholm and worked with television, magazines and shows.

The Book of Negroes

Aminata Diallo, the daughter of a jeweller and a midwife, is kidnapped at the age of 11 from her village Bayo, near Segu in West Africa and forced to walk for days to the sea in a coffle with hundreds of strangers and a handful of people from her village.

The Winslow

The Winslow is technically sentient and capable of speech, though rarely says anything more than the informal, colloquial greeting "Hi!", which it often enjoys repeating ad nauseam.

Tryphena of Rome

Tryphena of Rome is a Christian woman mentioned in Romans 16:12 of the Bible ("Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord." KJV) According to Wiktionary, the name 'Tryphena' is of Greek origin meaning 'dainty' or 'delicate' although Strong's Concordance derives the name from the Greek truphe, meaning 'luxurious'.

Udon

Zaru udon: Chilled udon noodles topped with shredded nori and served on a zaru ( or ざる), a sieve-like bamboo tray.

Zeuxis

In a 1964 seminar, the psychoanalyst and theorist Jacques Lacan observed that the myth reveals an interesting aspect of human cognition: While animals are attracted to superficial appearances, humans are enticed by the idea of that which is hidden.


see also