More Vocabulary and Perceptual Accentuation

A few weeks ago I wrote about a word that somehow had escaped me for all these years: portcullis. Now I can't get away from it. Last night at Spamalot I opened the Playbill and what did I see as the setting for the first act? The Mighty Portcullis. It's everywhere. As Lady Jan Brady of Bunchwick would say: Portcullis, Portcullis, Portcullis!

So what a shock it is that I learned ANOTHER vocabulary word this week: Idempotent. No, it's not what Bob Dole said after he took the little blue pill. Here's what Wikipedia says it is:

In mathematics, the concept of idempotence (IPA: [ˈaɪdɪmpoʊtəns]), which roughly means that some operation yields the same result whether it is done only once or several times, occurs in several places in abstract algebra, in particular in the theory of projectors and of closure operators.

So, how does a word like "idempotent" come up in everyday speech? Well, we were talking about a voting process on a cool little Twitter app we're building and the subject of vote loading came up. And Charlie, the guy who stopped cars from squishing me on the streets of Philadelphia, says, "We can make the input idempotent." I just gave him my best Forrest Gump staredown. "Idempotent, Lieutenant Dan?"

"If we make the votes idemopotent then we can make a single nomination matter only once. No ballot stuffing," said Charlie Newton Einstein Feynman Hawking the 23rd. Then he sent me the Wiki link. I'm going to have to get serious about studying my Latin declination tables, because stupid is as stupid does. Impotent, idempotent, omnipotent. Or something like that.

Portcullis: A New Vocabulary Word for Me

Photo credit: Kevin Lawver

I read this in Newsweek today about British Prime Minister Tony Blair: "Gone are the bright eyes and the portcullis smile." Portcullis smile?

I know two or three words. I could spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious when I was 7. I learned antidisestablishmentarianism later that year. I studied Latin for eight years. But I'd never heard the word portcullis used. The word breakdown was easy enough...but using it in a sentence was another. Now I'll use it three times today and it'll be added to my bag-o-tricks. *portcullis smile ensues*

Portcullis: Etymology: Middle English port colice, from Anglo-French porte coliz, literally, sliding door: a grating of iron hung over the gateway of a fortified place and lowered between grooves to prevent passage

Do you look up new words when you see them? I used to make this standard practice. I've slipped a bit. I need to get back in the habit. You never know when someone might ask you what they call that little indentation at the base of the neck.

Was Saddam Hussein Hanged or Hung?

Saddam Hussein was hanged.
Tommy Lee is hung.

Mussolini was hanged.
William was Hung.

Worley was hanged.
The stockings were hung.


Generally, people are hanged and objects are hung. Points to those who know the references to William and Worley. That means you and I both read People mag.