ONE - LETTER WORDS A Dictionary phần 5 pot

24. n. The ninth in a series. 25. n. The ninth section in a piece of music. 26. n. I bar: a steel beam whose cross- section is I- shaped. 27. n. I girder: a steel beam whose cross- section is I- shaped, used as a structural support in buildings or bridges. An investigation uncovered improper reinforce - ment in the flanges of precast concrete I- girders that supported the double- tee roof deck. —Jacob Feld, Construction Failure 28. n. I hat: a cap with a fl oppy brim. 29. n. I iron: a steel beam whose cross- section is I- shaped. 30. n. I ring: a metal band encircling a metal drum. 31. n. I formation: “an offensive football play in which the quarterback, a half back, the full back, and the tail back line up behind the center.” —Dr. John Burkardt SCIENTIFIC MATTERS 32. n. Electrical current. Before WW2 acceptable symbols for current had been C for obvious reasons, and sometimes A for amperage. After the war the Electrotechnical Com - mission was set up to standardise the symbols used in Electronics . . . . They decided that current would be called I. The reason is that in French current is known as “intensité de courant.” —Phil Picton 79 I 33. n. (mathematics) Imaginary number (equal to the square root of -1). i for the imaginary unit was first used by Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) in a memoir presented in 1777 but not published until 1794 in his “Institutionum calculi integralis.” —Jeff Miller, “Earliest Uses of Various Mathematical Symbols” 34. n. (astronomy) The inclination of an orbit to the ecliptic. 35. n. (chemistry) The symbol for the element iodine in the periodic table. 36. n. (logic) The notation of a particular affi rma- tive statement, such as “some humans are men.” In categorical logic, the square of opposition describes the relationship between the universal affi rmative A, the universal negative E, the par- ticular affi rmative I, and the particular negative O. 37. n. A unit vector parallel to the x- axis. 38. n. Candlepower. The term candlepower is based on a measurement of the light produced by a pure spermaceti candle weighing one sixth of a pound, burning at a rate of 120 grams per hour. Spermaceti is found in the head of Sperm Whales, and once was used to make candles. —Bob Sherman, Candle History FOREIGN MEANINGS 39. interj. (German) “What next?!” 40. interj. (German) “Nonsense! rubbish!” 80 I 41. interj. (German) “Certainly not!” 42. conj. (Polish) also, too. FACTS AND FIGURES 43. Lowercase i earned the right to a dot owing to its small size. However, the Turkish capital I is some- times dotted. 44. Most of Emily Dickinson’s poems (over 150 of them) begin with the word I. For example, “I heard a Fly Buzz When I Died.” 45. American Health has reported that the less one uses the first- person pronoun, the less one’s risk of coronary heart disease. 81 I J J J IN PRINT AND PROVERB 1. (in literature) “They decided to substitute for the lost jack a piece of card- sized paper on which they were going to draw a face both ways up, a club, a capital J, and even the jack’s name.” —Georges Perec, Life: A User’s Manual 2. (in literature) “J is the plowshare and the horn of plenty.” —Victor Hugo, quoted in ABZ by Mel Gooding 3. n. A written representation of the letter. 4. n. A device, such as a printer’s type, for reproduc - ing the letter. If my mind orders my right forefinger to type the letter J, it obeys. —Houston Smith, Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief SHAPES AND DESIGNATIONS 5. n. Something having the shape of a J. [Puzzle] pieces shaped like J, K, L, M, W, Z, X, Y, and T. —Georges Perec, Life: A User’s Manual 6. n. Something arbitrarily designated J (e.g., a per - son, place, or other thing). After J, there would be K and L and M, right down the alphabet. It’s no use being sentimentally cynical about this, or cynically sentimental. Because J isn’t really what I want. J has only the value of being now. J will pass, the need will remain. The need to get back into the dark, into the bed, into the warm naked embrace, where J is no more J than K, L, or M. —Christopher Isherwood, Prater Violet J 85 7. n. J turn: “a test of a car’s reliability, made by mak- ing a sudden sharp turn around an obstacle like another car or an animal, resulting in a path that looks something like a J.” —Dr. John Burkardt As the first two attackers stormed out of the house after them, Liz gunned the engine and screeched the Jeep in a sharp J- turn, fishtailing until her tires gripped the cobblestones and the vehicle straight - ened out. —Gail Lynds, The Coil: A Novel 8. n. Someone called J. [W]ho is sitting out on a curbing on Haight Street but J—of Pump House days gone by. —Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool- Aid Acid Test 9. n. J bar: a reinforcing rod whose cross- section is J- shaped. 10. n. J stroke: in rowing, an oar or paddle stroke tra- versing the figure of a J. I could see the outline of a kneeling man, drawing the paddle through the water in silent J- strokes. —James Lee Burke, Purple Cane Road 11. n. J bolt: a bolt in the shape of the letter J. 12. n. J box: “a J- shaped box through which fabric is passed for a process such as bleaching.” —Dr. John Burkardt PICK A NUMBER 13. n. A medieval Roman numeral for one. (See I.) 14. n. The tenth in a series, or the ninth (when I is omitted). Toqueville did not include the letter J in numbering J 86 his appendices. —Editor’s footnote in Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville 15. n. (economics) J curve: “a curve, suggestive of the shape of a J, that illustrates how after a currency falls in value, the trade deficit grows fi rst before shrinking. It can also look like a reversed J, similar to a hyperbola, and is referred to in biology as rep - resenting a typical distribution of species in an area, with a few numerous species, and many species with just a few representatives.” —Dr. John Burkardt THE HEAT IS ON 16. n. (radiometry) Radiant intensity, or the fl ux from a point on a light source that is radiated into a unit solid angle. 17. n. (thermodynamics) Mechanical equivalent of heat, which is the energy of motion tied up in the ceaseless motion of the atoms in all substances. MISCELLANEOUS 18. n. Any spoken sound represented by the letter. The sound vibration of the consonant J means “sight, seeing, vision.” —Joseph E. Rael, Tracks of Dancing Light: A Native American Approach to Understand - ing Your Name 19. n. The tenth letter of the alphabet. He checked the mechanism. He stooped and typed C. The letter J lit up. He typed L and got a U. A, I, R and E yielded, successively, X, P, Q, and Q again. —Rob - ert Harris, referring to the infamous Nazi Enigma code in his novel Enigma J 87 20. n. The tenth section in a piece of music. 21. n. J bag: a golf bag used for carrying clubs. 22. n. J stik: a joystick used in video game machines which allows for fast motions. FOREIGN MEANINGS 23. n. (French) Zero, as in le jour J, “zero day.” FACTS AND FIGURES 24. In Medieval Latin, the letter J developed as a form of I, and both were used interchangeably. Under the influence of French, J became a separate sign with its own phonetic value. J 88 . universal negative E, the par- ticular affi rmative I, and the particular negative O. 37. n. A unit vector parallel to the x- axis. 38. n. Candlepower. The term candlepower is based on a measurement. notation of a particular affi rma- tive statement, such as “some humans are men.” In categorical logic, the square of opposition describes the relationship between the universal affi rmative A, . made by mak- ing a sudden sharp turn around an obstacle like another car or an animal, resulting in a path that looks something like a J.” —Dr. John Burkardt As the first two attackers stormed