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chyron

[ kahy-ron ]

noun

a text-based graphic overlay displayed at the bottom of a television screen or film frame, as closed captioning or the crawl of a newscast.

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More about chyron

Chyron is an altered spelling of earlier Chiron, the name of an electronic graphics platform developed by Systems Resource Corporation, later known as Chyron Corporation. In Greek mythology, Chiron is the name of a wise and beneficent centaur and teacher of Achilles, Asclepius, and others. Chyron entered English in the second half of the 20th century.

how is chyron used?

A good chyron demonstrates sound judgment, clarity, and wit. But the best chyrons are those that accompany segments that demonstrate the same things.

Emily Tamkin, "CNN public editor: No, it hasn't," Columbia Journalism Review, November 14, 2019

On television, scientists, journalists and chyrons keep warning us that the most important, civic-minded thing to do in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic is to stay away from other people.

Elahe Izadi , "Our TVs are full of characters spreading germs and now we can never unsee it," Washington Post, March 24, 2020

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Word of the day

perigee

[ per-i-jee ]

noun

Astronomy.

the point in the orbit of a heavenly body, especially the moon, or of an artificial satellite at which it is nearest to the earth.

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More about perigee

Perigee, “the point in the orbit of a heavenly body, especially the moon or an artificial satellite, at which it is nearest to the earth,” comes via French périgée from the New Latin noun perigēum, perigaeum, from the Greek adjective perígeios, a term in Stoic philosophy meaning “surrounding the earth,” and as an astronomical term, “near the earth (e.g., the moon).” The noun plus adjective phrase perígeion semeîon (“sign, signal”) means “the perigee”; the phrase is also shortened to perígeion, a noun use of the neuter adjective. The Greek preposition and prefix perí, peri– means “around, surrounding”; the combining form  –geios is a derivative of the noun “earth.” Perigee entered English at the end of the 16th century.

how is perigee used?

The phenomenon, in which a full moon appears at its closest point in its orbit around the Earth, known as perigee, is colloquially called a “supermoon.”

, "Images of a Supermoon Spectacle," New York Times, November 15, 2016

The moon’s distance varies within its orbit. At its apogee, it is 252,088 miles (405,696 km) from Earth. At its perigee, it is a closer 225,623 miles (363,104 kilometers).

David Grossman, "The Moon: An Explainer," Popular Mechanics, July 25, 2019

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Word of the day

Jabberwocky

[ jab-er-wok-ee ]

noun,

an example of writing or speech consisting of or containing meaningless words.

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More about Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky, “speech consisting of or containing meaningless words,” is a derivative of the name Jabberwock, a monster generally depicted as a dragon in a nonsense poem in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass (1871). Concerning the etymology of Jabberwocky, Carroll himself wrote in a letter to students at Girls’ Latin School in Boston, Massachusetts (now Boston Latin Academy), “The Anglo-Saxon word wocer or wocor signifies ‘offspring or fruit.’ Taking jabber in its ordinary acceptation of ‘excited and voluble discussion,’ this would give the meaning of ‘the result of much excited and voluble discussion.’”

how is Jabberwocky used?

his face melts into a mask of sadness and despair, then sparkles with wit as he tells in a stream of jabberwocky the loopy story of a fop named Pongo Twistleton …

Rex Reed, "John Lithgow's 'Stories by Heart' Breathes New Life Into the One-Man Show," Observer, January 16, 2018

Of course all the White House’s latest jabberwocky about “benchmarks” and “milestones” and “timetables'”…  is nothing more than an election-year P.R. strategy …

Frank Rich, "Dying to Save the G.O.P. Congress," New York Times, October 29, 2006

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