catch-22

There’s a catch-22 for wine lovers who have really caught the bug: The more desirable a wine is, the harder it is to get. And the harder it is to get, the more desirable it is.

Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan, Wine for Dummies, 4th Edition, Wiley, 2006.

catch-22 n
1) a situation in which a person is frustrated by a paradoxical rule or set of circumstances that preclude any attempt to escape from them
2) a situation in which any move that a person can make will lead to trouble [CED]

Catch-22 n [U]
an impossible situation that you cannot solve because you need to do one thing in order to do a second thing, but you cannot do the second thing until you have done the first:
It’s a Catch-22 situation ー without experience you can’t get a job and without a job you can’t get experience. [LDCE]

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deceptively

Like many of the Mother Goose rhymes, the verse about the Tommyknockers is deceptively simple. The origin of the word is difficult to trace. Webster’s Unabridged says Tommyknockers are either (a) tunneling ogres or (b) ghosts which haunt deserted mines or caves. Because “tommy” is an archaic British slang term referring to army rations (leading to the term “tommies” as a word used to identify British conscripts, as in Kipling—“it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that …”), the Oxford Unabridged Dictionary, while not identifying the term itself, at least suggests that Tommyknockers are the ghosts of miners who died of starvation, but still go knocking for food and rescue.

Stephen King, The Tommyknockers, 1987

deceptively adv.
In a deceptive or deceiving manner; so as to deceive.
Usage Note: When deceptively is used to modify an adjective, the meaning is often unclear. Does the sentence The pool is deceptively shallow mean that the pool is shallower or deeper than it appears? When the Usage Panel was asked to decide, 50 percent thought the pool shallower than it appears, 32 percent thought it deeper than it appears, and 18 percent said it was impossible to judge. Thus a warning notice worded in such a way would be misinterpreted by many of the people who read it, and others would be uncertain as to which sense was intended. Where the context does not make the meaning of deceptively clear, the sentence should be rewritten, as in The pool is shallower than it looks or The pool is shallow, despite its appearance. [AHD4]

deceptively adverb
used for saying that something is different from how it appears:
The house looks deceptively small from the outside (=but really it is big). [MEDA]

eggbeater

With the little time he had left, he had to make a number of stops, a number of acquisitions. At a roadside flea market, he bought an electric eggbeater, though all he wanted was the solenoid motor. A strip-mall Radio Shack sufficed for a cheap cell phone and a few inexpensive add-ons. At the Millington grocery store, he bought a large round container of butter cookies, though all he wanted was the steel can. Next was the hardware store on Main Street, where he bought glue, a canister of artist’s powdered charcoal, a roll of electrical tape, a pair of heavy-duty scissors, a compressed-air atomizer, and a locking extensible curtain rod. “A handyman, are you?” asked the blonde in denim cutoffs as she rang up his purchase. “My kinda guy.” She gave him an inviting smile. He could imagine the counterman across the street glowering.

Robert Ludlum, The Janson Directive, 2002.

eggbeater n
1) Also called: eggwhisk
a kitchen utensil for beating eggs, whipping cream, etc.; whisk
2) chiefly US and Canadian an informal name for helicopter [CED]

one-of-a-kind

Sipperly laughed wheezily, then he saw that Janson was serious. An avaricious look crept over his fleshy features. “Well, joking aside, I’m really very fond of that dog,” he recovered. “He’s truly one-of-a-kind. Excellent guard dog … “

Robert Ludlum, The Janson Directive, 2002.

one-of-a-kind adjective [before noun]
used to describe a product or service that is the only one of its type, or that is very unusual:
The one-of-a-kind pieces are due to go to auction later this month. [Cambridge Business English Dictionary]

solenoid

He sat behind the wheel a moment, staring stupidly down at the red idiot lights. He threw the transmission into Park and turned the key. The motor didn’t crank. Hell, the solenoid didn’t even click.

Battery cable came off, maybe.

It wasn’t a battery cable. If it had been, the OIL and AMP lights wouldn’t be glowing. But that was minor. Mostly he knew it wasn’t his battery cable just because he knew it.

Stephen King, The Tommyknockers, 1987

solenoid n
1) a coil of wire, usually cylindrical, in which a magnetic field is set up by passing a current through it
2) a coil of wire, partially surrounding an iron core, that is made to move inside the coil by the magnetic field set up by a current: used to convert electrical to mechanical energy, as in the operation of a switch
3) such a device used as a relay, as in a motor vehicle for connecting the battery directly to the starter motor when activated by the ignition switch
Etymology: C19 from French solénoïde, from Greek sōlēn a pipe, tube [CED]

solenoid. An electromagnetic coil of insulated wire that produces a magnetic field within the coil. Most often it is shaped like a spool or hollow cylinder with a movable iron core that is pulled into the coil when electric current is sent through the wire. It then is able to move other instruments, for example, relay switches, circuit breakers, automobile ignitions. [Robert E. Krebs, Encyclopedia of Scientific Principles, Laws, and Theories, vol. 2, Greenwood Press, 2008, p.608]

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concave & convex

The Adventurers looked down over the rocky decline that separated them from the stronghold of the Cabal. A wisp of pale smoke drifted up from a round ventilation hole, marking the spot.

“I think I see a path,” Francis Hebert said. “See there?”

Max shielded his eyes. “Dammit, I can’t tell whether that’s concave or convex. This place is crazier than chopsticks for a snake.”

Larry Niven And Steve Barnes, The Barsoom Project, 1989.

Concave means ‘having an outline or surface curved like the interior of a circle or sphere’. Convex means ‘having an outline or surface curved like the exterior of a circle or sphere’. [The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage, Revised 3rd ed.]
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anode & cathode

Over the next few years, Faraday merged his knowledge of chemistry with the developing field of electricity. Years before, Davy had figured out how to separate metals by passing an electric current through them. Faraday called this process electrolysis, the chemical decomposition of a compound by sending an electric current through it. In 1833, he established two basic laws of electrolysis. The first law stated that the quantity of metal liberated was proportional to the quantity of electricity used. The second law stated that the electricity required to liberate the unit equivalent mass of any element was precisely the same. To describe his research, he had to make up several new words, including anode, cathode, electrode, electrolyte, anion, and cation. These are now an essential part of scientific vocabulary.

Katherine Cullen, Physics : The People behind the Science, Chelsea House, 2006.

anode【名詞】
【電気】 アノード 《正電荷が流れ出す電極; ⇔ cathode》:
1 (電解槽・電子管の)陽極.
2 (蓄電池などの)陰極.
[ギリシャ語 ‘a way up’ の意][研究社新英和中辞典]

cathode【名詞】
【電気】 カソード 《正電荷が流れ込むほうの電極; ⇔ anode》:
1 (電解槽・電子管の)陰極.
2 (蓄電池などの)陽極.
[ギリシャ語 ‘a way down’ の意][研究社新英和中辞典]

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jus ad bellum & jus in bello

The implications of the distinction are that jus in bello has to be completely distinguished from jus ad bellum, and must be respected independently of any argument concerning the latter. This is so because ‘the two sorts of judgement are logically independent. It is perfectly possible for a just war to be fought unjustly and for an unjust war to be fought in strict accordance with the rules’. In other words, ‘the limitation on jus ad bellum has no influence on jus in bello’. This is so even though the two bodies of law operate simultaneously in many situations. For, although the mainstream view is that the two bodies of law apply at different stages of a conflict (jus ad bellum affects the legality of the initial recourse to force, whereas jus in bello logically applies after hostilities have begun), it is questionable that this sequential distinction is still relevant. Recent developments have entailed that the two bodies of law no longer operate at different stages; once hostilities begin it is necessary to consider and apply both. jus ad bellum thus applies ‘not only to the act of commencing hostilities’ but also to each subsequent act involving the use of force, which has to be justified by reference to the principles of necessity and proportionality. Simultaneous application of jus ad bellum and jus in bello should not imply that the two concepts are linked or interdependent. Acts that are in complete conformity with jus in bello may nonetheless be prohibited under jus ad bellum. Similarly, an attack that is inconsistent with jus in bello does not necessarily affect the legality of the use of force.

Jasmine Moussa, “Can jus ad bellum override jus in bello? Reaffirming the separation of the two bodies of law,” International review of the Red Cross, vol. 90, Issue 872, 2008, pp. 967-978.

chelonian

chelonian
n 1) any reptile of the order Chelonia, including the tortoises and turtles, in which most of the body is enclosed in a protective bony capsule
adj 2) of, relating to, belonging to, or characteristic of the Chelonia
Etymology: C19 from New Latin Chelōnia, from Greek khelōnē tortoise [CED]

Chelonians
The order of the testudines differentiated itself from the rest of the reptile world during the Triassic Period. Today it comprises marine turtles and terrestrial turtles. The species of this order are unique. They are covered with shells that consist of a dorsal carapace and a ventral plastron. These shells are so much a part of these animals that their thoracic vertebrae and ribs are included in them. Since these rigid shells do not allow turtles to expand their chests to breathe, these animals use their abdominal and pectoral muscles like diaphragms.

Reptiles and Dinosaurs, Britannica Illustrated Science Library, 2008.

carapace & plastron

carapace (カメなどの)背甲

plastron (カメなどの)腹甲

Turtles, like frogs, cannot be mistaken for any other animal (Fig. 1.3). The body is encased within upper and lower bony shells (carapace and plastron, respectively). In some species, the upper and lower shells fit tightly together, completely protecting the limbs and head. Although turtles are only moderately speciose, they are ecologically diverse, with some fully aquatic (except for egg deposition) and others fully terrestrial. Some are tiny in size whereas others are gigantic, and some are herbivores and others are carnivores.

Laurie J. Vitt and Janalee P. Caldwell, Herpetology : An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles, 3rd ed., Academic Press, 2009, p.4.

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