Often I recycle pages from my 365 New Words-a-Year calendar, and use them to jot down lists or notes; I saved a few words from January to use for BermudaOnion's weekly meme, Wondrous Words Wednesday. On the reverse side of each page there's additional information about each word, and I've included some of this as well.
1. extremophile: an organism or microbe that lives under extreme environmental conditions (as in a hot spring or ice cap)
I joked with Annie that she was an extremophile, taking red-eye flights and pushing herself to the limit with her running regime.
Because of their ability to live in extreme conditions, extremophiles may have a lot in common with the first organisms that appeared on Earth billions of years ago, and may give us clues about how life on earth developed.
2. nidus: a nest or breeding place; a place where something originates or develops
The abandoned shed near the transit center became a nidus for teenagers who smoked pot and drank beer after school.
To scientists, "nidus" refers to a breeding ground as for bacteria . Although it means "nest" in Latin, the word often has negative connotations, as a source of or breeding ground for infection or undesirable opinions or habits, although variations of the word refer to homier places, such as "nidicolous", which means reared in a nest.
3. sastruga: a wavelike ridge of hard snow formed by the wind, usually used in plural (sastrugi)
Sastruga originates from the Russian word zastruga, which means groove or small ridge, and is not widely used in English. Sastruga is mentioned in the book The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, a survivor of the 1910 –1913 British Antarctic Expedition, led by Robert Falcon Scott.
What new word discoveries have you made recently?