One-Letter Words A Dictionary 7

M M M IN PRINT AND PROVERB 1. (phrase) To have an M under one’s girdle means to show courtesy by using the title Mr., Mrs., or Miss. 2. (in literature) “The letter m in the word am means I; so that in the expression I am, a superfl uous and useless rudiment has been retained.” —Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man 3. (in literature) “M is a mountain or a camp with tents pitched in pairs.” —Victor Hugo, quoted in ABZ by Mel Gooding 4. n. In printing, a pica or unit of measure (“em” space). 5. n. A written representation of the letter. Through one street and the next, until she’d come upon the red M of a Metro station. Descending, she’d purchased, with too large a bill and some diffi culty, tokens of what appeared to be luminous plastic, the color of glow- in- the- dark toy skeletons, each with its own iconic M. —William Gibson, Pattern Recognition [The curve of the handwritten line,] galloping like the wind, cutting across itself, soars up to the sky, so that it can start turning into the letter M. —Peter Esterhazy, Celestial Harmonies: A Novel 6. n. A device, such as a printer’s type, for reproduc - ing the letter. CLASSIFICATIONS AND DESIGNATIONS 7. n. Classification of a rifl e, as in M- 1 and M- 16. Do you wonder why that rifle/Is hanging in my den?/You know I rarely take it down/But I touch it now and then./It’s rather slow and heavy/By stan - dards of today/But not too many years ago/It swept M 109 the rest away./It’s held its own in battles/Through snow, or rain, or sun/And I had one just like it,/This treasured old M- 1. —R. A. Gannon, “M- 1” 8. n. Something arbitrarily designated M (e.g., a per- son, place, or other thing). [In response to a blind taste test conducted by Pepsi, in which people were asked to choose between two products labeled Q and M, the Coca- Cola Company] churned out a bewildering set of statements and commercials aimed at disparaging Pepsi’s results, starting with the claim that people had a psycho - logical preference for the letter M over the letter Q, unfairly skewing the outcome [in Pepsi’s favor]. Pepsi . . . hit back immediately with a new set of taste tests using the letters L and S that also detected a preference for Pepsi. Coca- Cola answered that salvo with a faux- comic spot in which people explained why they liked the letter L better than the letter S. —Frederick L. Allen, Secret Formula 9. n. Someone called M. [I am psychically picking up on] the letter M. It’s very strong in this room . . . . You have helped me before; I need your help now, M. M, come to me. I will aid you in your fight against the spirit you oppose. But you must tell me where to look. Are you trying to reach me, M? —Dark Shadows, Episode 648 Yet Leonardo must have hoped that . . . some objec - tive observer would one day seize on the image of this mysterious woman linked with the letter “M” and ask the obvious questions. Who was this “M” and why was she so important? —Lynn Picknett, The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ 10. n. The thirteenth in a series. M 110 11. n. The Millennium Hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The M has several spaces for comfy socializing. —Davey Snyder, quoted in NeilGaiman.com HEALTH ISSUES 12. n. An antigen of human blood responsible for the production of antibodies. The M antigen, and its antithetical partner, N, were first detected using sera obtained from rabbits immunized with human red cells. —Immucor 13. n. A vitamin (folic acid). Folic acid is essential to many of the body’s enzyme activities, including the synthesis of protein and the genetic materials RNA and DNA. It also works with vitamin B12 to produce red blood cells. Folic acid may help prevent some cancers, heart disease, and stroke. Adequate intake during pregnancy is crucial, as folic acid appears to protect against some birth defects . . . . Rich sources of folic acid include vegetables (particularly the dark- green ones); organ meats, whole- wheat products, legumes, and mushrooms. —American Medical Association SCIENTIFIC MATTERS 14. n. A Roman numeral for 1,000. 15. n. With a line above it, a Roman numeral for 1,000,000. 16. n. A computer programming language. M is a procedural, general purpose language with well- developed database handling capabilities . . . . M 111 [It has been theorized that] the choice of a single letter [name] was to get a free ride from the popu - larity of C, a single letter compiler which is very popular. —Chris Bonnici 17. n. (calculus) The lower limit of summation. 18. n. (astronomy) A class of red stars. [F]or red stars like Betelgeuse, we use the letter M. —Dennis Richard Danielson, The Book of the Cosmos CONTRACTION ’M 19. v. Am. I’m going. 20. pronoun. Him. Give ’m the whole story. 21. n. Madam. Yes ’m. MISCELLANEOUS 22. n. Any spoken sound represented by the letter. The sound vibration of the consonant M means “to bring forth, manifesting, matter.” —Joseph E. Rael, Tracks of Dancing Light: A Native American Approach to Understanding Your Name 23. n. The thirteenth letter of the alphabet. “They drew all manner of things—everything that begins with an M.” “Why with an M?” said Alice. “Why not?” said the March Hare. —Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland Big guy, looks . . . what’s the word. Begins with an M. —Neil Gaiman, American Gods Two massive columns supported a lintel that dipped M 112 in the center to a sharp point, giving the whole monument the shape of a gigantic letter “M.” —Stan McDaniel, The Letterseeker [K]illing some hours by circling in blue ball- point ink every uppercase M in the front section of a month- old New York Times. —Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections 24. n. Something having the shape of an M. Breakfast time is his time for sitting atop that spherical white buoy . . . his wings held in the shape of an M. —William Calvin, The Cerebral Symphony The slope was so sheer it hid the M- stone as if it had never existed, and the glare from the sun fl ashed off the wet surface like a mirror. —Stan McDaniel, The Letterseeker Both orbital rims and brow ridges are oblique in such a way as to describe a stretched- out letter M above the eyes. —Stephen Rogers Peck, Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist 25. n. The thirteenth section in a piece of music. 26. n. M roof: a double- peaked roof. 27. n. Deep dreamless sleep. M [of the sacred Hindu syllable AUM] is of Deep Dreamless Sleep, where (as we say) we have “lost” consciousness, and the mind (as described in the Indian texts) is “an undifferentiated mass or con - tinuum of consciousness unqualified,” lost in dark- ness. —Joseph Campbell, The Mythic Image M 113 N N . Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, V.ii.81 7. (in literature) As an affl iction: “Why should you fall into so deep an O?” —William Shakespeare, Romeo and. vibration of the consonant N means “the personal and infi nite self.” —Joseph E. Rael, Tracks of Dancing Light: A Native American Approach to Understanding