I ought to be in bed

[conuly]

and I'm going just now, but I have to share two words I learned just now: kolk and riprap. I probably will never have a chance to say "kolk" again, but, as I live in a city of islands it is very possible for me to take walks that allow me to casually walk by riprap and refer to it as such! I actually do this already, except I've never had a specialized word for those rocks before!

...occasionally, I have cause to identify very strongly with Tiffany Aching.

There was a lot of mist around, but a few stars were visible overhead and there was a gibbous moon in the sky. Tiffany knew it was gibbous because she’d read in the Almanack that gibbous meant what the moon looked like when it was just a bit fatter than half full, and so she made a point of paying attention to it around those times just so that she could say to herself: “Ah, I see the moon’s very gibbous tonight....”

It’s possible that this tells you more about Tiffany than she would want you to know.

Anyway, riprap is now my second favorite rock related word, immediately after "chossy" but before "scree".

Comments

[conuly]

I don't think you can lay your lack of math at your English teacher's feet, though.

[marahmarie]

I can, and I will.

It's her fault because as she explained at some point for the denser kids in class (me, possibly others) perpendicular means upright, which I associated with vertical, so there.

(Actually this is not a bad argument; if an English teacher's going to borrow math terminology they should at least explain what perpendicular means on the off chance some of us like, literally are majoring in English. I didn't take math the last two years of high school, which overlaps with when I was in her class, because once I forgot how to calculus and even do fractions that was it, I never wanted to do math again. (I feel differently now.))

[marahmarie]

Also, I'm very literal (another math pun) if that helps.