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macadamize

[ muh-kad-uh-mahyz ] [ məˈkæd əˌmaɪz ] Show IPA Phonetic Respelling

verb (used with object)

to pave by laying and compacting successive layers of broken stone, often with asphalt or hot tar.

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More about macadamize

Macadamize “to pave by compacting successive layers of broken stone” is a verb based on the noun macadam, the word for a road paved in this way. Macadam is the namesake of John Loudon McAdam, the inventor of this technique, and the surname McAdam “son of Adam” is a compound of the Scottish patronymic element Mc- (also Mac-) and the Hebrew-origin name Adam. Mc- is anglicized from Scottish Gaelic mac “son,” while Adam comes from Hebrew ādhām “man,” which may be related to any or all of the Hebrew words ādhom “red,” adhāmāh “earth,” or dam “blood”; for a similar pattern, compare Latin hūmānus “human” and humus “earth.” Macadamize was first recorded in English circa 1820.

how is macadamize used?

I noticed little matters, as usual. The road was filled in between the rails with cracked stones, such as are used for macadamizing streets. They keep the dust down, I suppose, for I could not think of any other use for them.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, “My Hunt After the Captain,” The Atlantic, December 1862

Broadway Alley is …. 265 feet long, 13 feet wide and one of the last unpaved streets on the macadamized island of Manhattan. As such, it is one of those forgotten parts of the city with a power to recall to New Yorkers that sometimes it really is the Earth beneath their feet.

Alan Feuer, “On a Manhattan Byway, Feeling Dirt Beneath Feet,” The New York Times, November 27, 2005
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vajra

[ vuhj-ruh ] [ ˈvʌdʒ rə ] Show IPA Phonetic Respelling

noun

the thunderbolt of Indra, the Hindu god of rain and thunder.

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More about vajra

Vajra “the thunderbolt of Indra” is a borrowing from Sanskrit vájra- “thunderbolt.” The literal sense of vájra is anything hard or indestructible, which is why the term also means “diamond.” Vájra comes from a root roughly meaning “strong, lively” that also appears in the Latin-origin terms vegetation, vigilant, and vigor. Because Sanskrit v often corresponds to w in English, this same root is visible in English waft, wait, wake, watch, and perhaps even wicked and witch. Vajra was first recorded in English in the 1780s.

how is vajra used?

Lotus is a beautiful flower that grows out of the muck. For us, the lotus translates into the human soul and then there’s the vajra, which means a thunderbolt, which in tantra is described as latent potential within every soul to attain emancipation.

S. B. Vijaya Mary, “Indian metal band Midhaven is back with a Shiva-inspired concept album,” The Hindu, August 10, 2021

Indra is a mighty giant, tawny of hair and beard and tawny of aspect …. He rides in a golden chariot drawn by two tawny horses, or many horses, even as many as eleven hundred, and he bears as his chief weapon the vajra, or thunderbolt, sometimes also a bow with arrows, a hook, or a net.

Lionel D. Barnett, Hindu Gods and Heroes, 1922
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Word of the day

diphthongize

[ dif-thawng-ahyz, dip- ] [ ˈdɪf θɔŋˌaɪz, ˈdɪp- ] Show IPA Phonetic Respelling

verb (used with object)

to change into or pronounce as one unsegmentable, gliding speech sound, as the oi sound of toy and boil.

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More about diphthongize

Diphthongize “to change into one gliding speech sound” is a verb based on diphthong, a sound that comprises two vowels merged into one. A sound containing one vowel is a monophthong, containing two is a diphthong, and containing three is a triphthong. Diphthong is equivalent to Ancient Greek di- “two” and phthóngos “voice, sound.” The prefix di-, from dís “twice, double,” is a distant relative of English two as well as Latin duo “two” and bis (earlier duis) “twice,” as in dual and bi-, respectively. Phthóngos may come from a long-lost language that was spoken in Greece long before the Greek language swept in; the consonant cluster phth- is rare (yet not impossible) according to the sound laws of the Indo-European language family. Diphthongize was first recorded in English in the late 1860s.

how is diphthongize used?

[T]he English have no final short stressed vowels, such as are found in bouquet, beau; hence their tendency to lengthen as well as diphthongize these sounds, while the French will stress the final syllable of recent loans, such as jury, reporter.

Otto Jespersen, Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin, 1922

Southern speech also has a tendency to “diphthongize” sounds .… Southern speech has tons of diphthongs, even some triphthongs (that’s a three-part vowel), way more than other dialects in North America, which is part of the reason why Southerners have a reputation for “drawling” or speaking slowly. It’s not actually slower, Southern vowels just have more stuff crammed into them.

Dan Nosowitz, "Why Justin Timberlake Sings ‘May’ Instead of ‘Me,’" Atlas Obscura, November 10, 2016
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