Today's Words: Dendroglyph, Nebulous, Desuetude

Dendroglyph

[ den-droh-glif ]  

noun

an image, message, or symbol carved into a tree, especially by Indigenous people and often hundreds of years old, providing cultural and historical information not available from other sources.

• More about Dendroglyph
• 
  
• Coined in 1918 by Australian Curator Robert Etheridge, Jr.
• Formed from dendro-, “tree,” and glyph, “carving,”
• This term replaced the earlier term arborglyph.
• 
  
• 
  

• Examples of Dendroglyph
• 
  
•  Walking through the ancient forest, we stumbled upon a mysterious dendroglyph carved into the trunk of a mighty oak tree.
• 
  
• Conservation efforts were put in place to protect the valuable history preserved in each delicate dendroglyph scattered throughout the woodland.

Nebulous

[ neb-yuh-luhs ]  

adjective

hazy, vague, indistinct, or confused.

• More about Nebulous
• 
  
• First recorded in 1375–1425.
• Comes from late Middle English from the Latin word nebulōsus, meaning “full of mist, foggy, cloudy.”
• 
  
• Nebulōsus comes from nebul(a) “cloud, mist, vapor,” from which we get nebula, “a cloud of interstellar gas and dust.”

• 
  
• Examples of Nebulous
• 
  
• His explanation was so nebulous that it left everyone in the room puzzled and unsure of what to do next.
• 
  
• The line between dreams and reality felt increasingly nebulous as she struggled to wake up.

Desuetude

[ des-wi-tood ]  

noun

the state of being no longer used or practised.

More about Desuetude

• 
  
• First recorded in 1425–75.
• Comes via late Middle English from the Latin word dēsuētūdo, equivalent to the base of dēsuēscere, “to become disaccustomed to, unlearn.”

• Examples of Desuetude
• 
  
• Over time, the once bustling marketplace fell into desuetude as modern shopping centres took over.
• 
  
• As technology advanced, many manual skills and crafts fell into desuetude, replaced by automation and machinery.

Inputs Courtesy: Dictionary.com