Words Du Jour

adamantine One entry found for adamantine. Main Entry: ad·a·man·tine Pronunciation: "a-d&-'man-"tEn, -"tIn, -'man-t&n Function: adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Latin adamantinus, from Greek adamantinos, from adamant-, adamas 1 : made of or having the quality of adamant 2 : rigidly firm : UNYIELDING 3 : resembling the diamond in hardness or luster

Richard Loranger inscribed his superfine Poems for Teeth for me with a word I had never heard before, "adamantium."

At first, I mistakenly looked up the word, "adamantine", as above.

Then I realized my mistake and found the following:

Adamantium is a virtually indestructible man-made steel alloy which does not occur in nature and whose exact chemical composition is a United States government classified secret. Adamantium is not an element: its properties do not qualify it for any known space on the Periodic Table of Elements. Rather, Adamantium is a series of closely related compounds of iron created through a secret process discovered by the American metallurgist Dr. Myron MacLain.

Author Monique Truong was the first person to tell me to use
www.webster.com
to look up words because I made the comment that I know a lot of words only by sight and therefore, I don't know how the heck to pronounce them. She informed me that there was a function on the webster page where you just click and hear how it is said. Thanks so much for the helpful hint, Monique!

The best thing I saw on television last week:

Def Jam mogul, Russell Simmons in the back of a limo... A dude was playing a rough cut of a new hip hop/rap song that started with trumpets and horns, as if gladiators were about to enter a stadium... Russell was so excited he put his foot behind his head -- a yoga-like move that made me cock my head to the side, much like Scooby Doo, and audibly say, "Huh?"