Way OT... one of my new favorite words

We need a new word...

Martin from Granbury

>We have widows and widowers, but what do you call someone who has lost a child? No, not me, but a friend has. Seems to me there should be a word for this.

I agree(sort of)

Jack Guzman from Maine

>I have a good vocabulary.I've been a lover of words all my life. I started doing crossword puzzles as a child.

However I find alot of words to be obnoxious and snobby.Complex words with a much simpler and more common synonym.These words are good for literature and for precise descriptions but useless in common use.The reason being is that most people(in my experience)don't know the meaning of them.

As a result of this one fact,I "dumb-down" my word choices in conversation and find it irritating when someone uses a word that I'm sure most listeners don't understand.---Jack

How to name a bug

Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI

>As a fly fishermen I also thought the latin naming of insects was just plain stupid but after digging into it, it actually makes sense. Latin is a universal language. One thing that does not really make sense to me is to define a species based on one miniscule difference from another species. I am not sure how many different mayflies there are but there are a lot. Hundreds of different species. The interesting thing is that in the scientific community the bug has the same name no matter what language you speak. If you gain an interest in a species they are not that hard to learn.

Penecontemporaneous

Jim Shaver - Oakville, Ontario

>I always smile inside when I read that word....it reminds me of my structural geology prof in university. Dr. Henry Dr Romer was a global structural expert and words like penecontemporaneous would just pop out in his descriptions of road side out crops with ease and grace.

By the way a penecontemporaneous structure is one with small folds and faults that form in sediments shortly after they are deposited, in igneous rocks as they solidify, and in metamorphic rocks as they recrystallize.

Sigh....I miss it.

Take care,

Jim