counterman

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.

counterman n.
A man who tends a counter, as in a diner. [AHD4]

rough-and-ready

It was an eventuality he had prepared for; but again, with his rough-and-ready tools, the chances of success were far less than with the kind of instruments he was accustomed to having at his disposal. Certainly, his magnetic picklock was not an impressive-looking piece of equipment, having been jury-rigged with electrical tape and epoxy. He had removed the core of the solenoid and replaced it with a steel rod. At the other end of the rod, he had attached a thin rectangle of steel, which he had cut from a tin of butter cookies using heavy-duty scissors. The electronic part ー a random noise generator ー was a simple circuit of transistors he had extracted from a Radio Shack cell phone. Once he connected a pair of AA batteries to the apparatus, a quickly oscillating magnetic field was created: it was designed to pulse at the sensors until they were activated.

Robert Ludlum, The Janson Directive, 2002.

rough-and-ready adj
1) crude, unpolished, or hastily prepared, but sufficient for the purpose
2) (of a person) without formality or refinement; rudely vigorous [CED]

rough-and-ready adj.
Rough or crude but effective for a purpose or use. [AHD4]

joking apart/aside

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.

joking apart/aside
said when you want to start speaking seriously about something after making jokes and laughing about it:
Joking apart, will you be able to manage on your own? [Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus]

joking apart
seriously: said to recall a discussion to seriousness after there has been joking [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]

handyman

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.

handyman noun
a man who is skilled at repairing and making things inside or outside the house and who does this in his own home or as a job [CALD]

handyman n.
A man who does odd jobs or various small tasks. [AHD4]

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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and & and

“Tibor,” he said, “wie geht es Heute?”

“Es geht mir gut,” Tibor responded instantly.

They mutually loved their recollection and their use of German. It meant Goethe and Heine and Schiller and Kafka and Falada; both men, together, lived for this and on this.

Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny, Deus Irae, 1976.

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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tradesman

The answer, for the merchant, trade, and professional classes, was that marriage was the key to achieving social, financial, and political adulthood. For example, a journeyman or tradesman who had completed his apprenticeship and could now support a wife endeavoured to coordinate the transition to master by marrying.

Elizabeth Abbott, A History of Marriage, 2010

tradesman n
1) BrE someone who buys and sells goods or services, especially in a shop
2) especially AmE someone who works at a job or trade that involves skill with your hands
3) BrE someone who goes to people’s houses to sell or deliver goods [LDCE]