Friday, October 5, 2012

Quadrantids

Meaning: it's a meteor shower which occurs in January, and is named after an obsolete constellation (do constellations get severance pay?), Quadrans Muralis. The Quadrantids now live in the Boötes constellation, but have kept their original name. Boötids certainly doesn't have the same ring to it.

Usefulness: 3 (you wouldn't get to say it much; useful if around astronomers, in need of a particularly difficult trivia question, or looking for a name for an alien species in your latest SF work)

Logofascination: 1 (it just sounds lovely)

In the wild: In a poem by Ms Biro, which, you should be warned, might induce a desire to go walkabout.

Degrees: 2

Connections: Quadrantid - quadrives (via quad, of course)

Which is used in: G&P, Second Book, VI: How Pantagruel met with a Limousin, who too affectedly did counterfeit the French language. We're back with our friend the Limousin, and this is a sample of what inspired Pantagruel to threaten him with flaying:
"we deambulate by the compites and quadrives of the urb; we despumate the Latial verbocination".  
Pantagruel has asked how Parisian students spend their time - it translates (roughly) to 'we wander about the cross-ways and quarters of the city, skimming off Latin'.  There's about eight more posts in all the other things they get up to. 

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