Word of the week F block

  Fetter (Verb) to restrict or restrain (someone) in an unfair or undesirable fashion “The United States is the world’s best hope, but if you fetter her in the interest through quarrels of the others nations, if you tangle her in the intrigues of Europe, you will destroy her powerful good, and endanger her very existence” (History Primary Source - Henry Lodge’s Stance on League of Nations) When I first read this sentence I did not understand what the speaker meant to convey. I initially thought in this sentence Lodge expressed that the other nations must not exploit the Unites States. After learning the meaning of the word ‘fetter’, I properly understood that Lodge meant to emphasize the harm in restricting the United States rather than accusing the other countries of wrongly take advantage of the United States. 

  Earl(N):  a British nobleman ranking above a viscount and below a marquess - “Every pine and fir and hemlock / Wore ermine too dear for an earl”  (“The First Snowfall” James Russel Lowell) This word made me laugh when I read this because pre-pandemic I was at a fancy restaurant and I ordered this ice cream with a fancy name. I thought it was going to be chocolate or something and when I took a bite I was shocked. To my surprise it was earl gray ice cream and it was not good to say the least. It was a big joke in my family after that.

 This came out a lot later than I wanted. I forgot about this for a bit. Whoops. Anyways I should be able to catch up on everything. N - A type of non euclidean space where every point has a negative curvature (thing pringle/saddle shaped instead of spherical) The straight lines form hyperbolas in this type of space. This wasn't really much of a vocab word to be honest, but more of an interesting topic I learned about and did a bit of research on to learn more about. Anyways, Hyperbolic space is where every direction of travel is in a hyperbola. Due to this, equilateral triangles have angles of less than 60 degrees, and circles are rather strange. In euclidean geometry, a circle’s circumference is C=2pi*r. This is a linear relationship. However, in hyperbolic space this relationship is hyperbolic (C = 2πsinh(r)). This means that a 2D circle in hyperbolic space would have to be displayed in 3D euclidean space as wrinkled in order to actually fit the extra circumference. This is what...

 (n) A sport popular in Russia where you alternate rounds of boxing and chess until you lose. Or something that’s a strange combination. I was reading a book about emergent technologies, and in its introduction the authors explained why flying cars aren’t common as of now. “Yes, time travelers from the year 1920, we have flying cars. No, nobody wants them. They’re the chessboxing of vehicles - amusing to see once in a while, but most of the time you’d rather the two parts separate,” (Weinersmith 2). I chose this word because it's very funny, but actually could easily be used. Unlike a lot of other strange words, this one isn't just about some very specific topic, but rather a concept that's quite common: People combining things that should never have been combined. As a side note, apparently underwater hockey is also a thing

  Quintessentially adv used to emphasize the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class. One of the most celebrated poets in America, Robert Frost was an author of searching and often dark meditations on universal themes and a quintessentially modern poet in his adherence to language as it is actually spoken, in the psychological complexity of his portraits, and in the degree to which his work is infused with layers of ambiguity and irony.-Article on Robert Frost  I chose this word because I know that I have used it before and so have other people I know but I never knew what it actually meant and if I was using it correctly.

 Somnambulatory - adj - (figurative) going through the motions "... whereupon Mr. Wolfsheim swallowed a new sentence he was starting and lapsed into a somnambulatory abstraction" (The Great Gatsby pg 69) I chose this word for the week because I liked the way that it sounded and I found it interesting that such a long word had such a simple meaning.