The English nouns, perseverance, information, are uncountable nouns (or "mass nouns), at least in their primary meanings.

With such terms, it is not proper to say that there is one perseverance, nor that there are many perseverances or many informations.

Additional words that exist that are derived from the Greek element tribo-: nanotribology, [no dictionary seems to be available that has a definition for this term.] The following definitions came from various sources on the internet.

First, on Thursday, January 21, 1999, there was the following information from Dr. Jacqueline Krim, Professor of Physics at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina:

“Thank you for your inquiry. Yes, I coined the term nanotribology in a paper I wrote in 1991, entitled, ‘Nanotribology of a Kr [krypton] monolayer: A Quartz Crystal Microbalance Study of Atomic-Scale Friction’, J. Krim, D. Solina and R. Chiarello, PRL, 66, (1991) p. 181-184.”

“I would define nanotribology as the sub-field of tribology involving contact geometries which are well-characterized at atomic length or time scales. These tend to be on the order of nanometers and nanoseconds.”

“JK”

Secondly, on Friday, January 22, 1999, I received another clarifying definition that I had requested from a contact I found on the internet.

I asked for a simple, easy to understand definition of “nanotribology” and this is what he sent to me:

“Tribology is the science and technology of two surfaces in relative motion which encompasses friction, wear, and lubrication. Nanotribology allows the study of friction and wear processes on nanoscale.”

Now you know what nanotribology means, don’t you? If you want to know more about nanotribology, here are excerpts of other definitions; but be WARNED that if they are too confusing or of no interest to you, you may scroll down to the area where other tribo- words are presented. Don’t give up before you see the rest of the list, please.

Micro/nanotribology as a field is concerned with experimental and theoretical investigations of processes ranging from atomic and molecular scales to the microscale, occurring during adhesion, friction, wear, and thin-film lubrication at sliding surfaces.

This involves determination of the chemical, physical and mechanical properties of the surfaces undergoing relative motion at length scales of the order of nanometers. Interaction between rubbing surfaces occurs at asperities [roughness of surfaces] at which the local pressure and temperatures can be very high.

These conditions can lead to formation of tribochemical films with the unusual properties necessary for efficient wear protection. The nanomechanical properties of these films are being investigated by interfacial force microscopy (IFM) which is capable of determining the elastic constants and anelastic behavior of the films in boundary layer lubrication.

Proposed nanotribology experiments for the Triboscope include studying the effect of different contact areas, scan directions and crystallographic orientations on both lubricated and unlubricated surfaces.

Tribology is the study of friction, lubrication and wear. Nanotribology is roughly defined as the study of these same phenomena down to the nN and nanometer force and length scales.

I hope I haven’t lost you in the sea of obfuscation (confusion, obscurity, or bewilderment) because there are other interesting words to learn. Here are additional examples that are derived from tribo-:

• triboelectric, an electrical charge produced by friction between two objects; such as, rubbing silk on a glass surface.
• triboelectricity, in physics, electrical charges produced by friction between two surfaces; static electricity.

Frictional electricity … was supposedly known to the ancient Greeks, particularly Thales of Miletus, who observed about 600 B.C. that when amber was rubbed, it would attract small bits of matter. The term “frictional electricity” gave way to “triboelectricity,” although since “tribo” means “to rub,” the newer term does little to change the concept.

—A.D. Moore (as seen in The American Heritage Dictionary of Science
by Robert K. Barnhart; Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston; 1986).


• tribofluorescence, triboflurescent; to give off light as a result of friction.
• tribologist, a specialist in the science of tribology.
• tribology, tribological, the science of the mechanisms of friction, lubrication, and wear of interacting surfaces that are in relative motion.
• triboluminescence, the quality of emitting light under friction or violent mechanical pressure.
• triboluminescent, exhibiting triboluminescence.
• tribophosphorescence, tribophosphorescent; to produce light by friction.
• tribothermoluminescence, thermoluminescence [luminescence resulting from exposure to high temperature] produced in a material as a result of friction.
• tribometer, an instrument for estimating sliding friction.
• tribophysics, the physical properties or phenomena associated with friction.
• tribophosphoroscope, an instrument for examining triboluminescence.
• tribulation, originally from Greek; then through Latin, “to press; affliction”; distress, great trial, or affliction.

“The Roman tribulum was a sledge consisting of a wooden block studded with sharp pieces of flint or iron teeth. It was used to bring force and pressure against wheat in grinding out grain.

The machine suggested the way trouble grinds people down and oppresses them, tribulations becoming another word for troubles and afflictions. The word is first recorded in English in 1330.”.

The Romans ground out their corn [make that grain-J.R.] with a heavy roller, mentioned in Vergil’s Georgics among agricultural instruments: the tribulum, diminutive noun, from tritere, trit —, to rub, from Greek tribein, to rub. Being ground under and pressed out made an excellent metaphor to express the trials and tribulations of the early Christians.

It may be specified for a particular species; such as, earthworm biomass or for a general category; such as, herbivore biomass.

Estimates also exist for the entire global plant biomass and measurements of biomass can be used to study interactions between organisms, the stability of those interactions, and variations in population numbers.

Whenever dry biomass is measured, the material is dried to remove all water before weighing.

This is supposed to be the ONLY time Johnny Carson sang in public!

This show was at Kiel Opera House in St Louis, in June, 1965, when Johnny Carson hosted the "Tonight Show".

"The Rat Pack" was playing in Las Vegas, but visited Carson for this entertaining performance by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Johnny Carson

Click on this link: Birth of the Blues for your enjoyment.

The old horse has bitten the dust and will have to be buried in the field.

An attitude or belief that the adverse conditions and negative characteristics of a group, often of minorities, are the group's own fault.

Here is an old proverb: While bryophytic plants are typically encountered as substrata of earthly or mineral matter in concreted state, discrete substrata elements occasionally display a roughly spherical configuration which, in the presence of suitable gravitational and other effects, lends itself to a combined translatory and rotational motion. One notices in such cases an absence of the otherwise typical accretion of bryophyta.

The proverb means: “A rolling stone gathers no moss.”

What was a young man saying to a young woman in the following sesquipedalian?

They shine more rutilent than ligulin—those labial components that surround thy pericranial orifice, wherein denticulations niveous abound!

Commingle them with my equivalents! Let like with like nectareously converge! From the predestined confluence some sempiternal rapture must emerge!

As Willard Espy put it, “After all, he was only asking her for a kiss. Jargon may be useful to hide one’s real thinking, or lack of it, but it can be downright self-defeating if you are trying to persuade someone to do something. A young man learned that when he addressed these words to the maiden he loved, only to be shown the door.”

Both of the foregoing were compiled by Willard R. Espy.

The letters MS refer to two things: One is a debilitating and surprisingly widespread affliction that renders the sufferer barely able to perform the simplest task; the other is a disease. In other words, MS stands for the name of a well-known software company or for the disease Multiple Sclerosis.

An adult and a young elephant are walking across the Masai Mara, a National Reserve in Kenya, Africa; just as it is getting dark.

Click on this link: Erin McKean was able to launch Wordnik, thanks to her TED Talk.

Eumenides meant "the kindly ones". We now use the word "euphemism" to describe words which do not say the unpleasant idea intended.

From Greek euphemismos, "use of a favorable word in place of an inauspicious one"; from euphemizein "to speak with fair words", from eu-, "good" + pheme, "speaking", from phanai, "to speak".

In ancient Greece, the superstitious avoidance of words of ill-omen during religious ceremonies, or substitutions; such as, Eumenides, "the Gracious Ones" with reference to the Furies.

In English, a rhetorical term at first; broader sense of "choosing a less distasteful word or phrase than the one meant" was first established or documented in 1793.

"The technology giant introduced Google Wallet, a mobile application that will allow consumers to pay at a store by waving their cellphones at a retailer's terminal instead of using a credit card [or cash]."

"The app, for the Android operating system also will enable users to redeem special coupons and earn loyalty points."

Couple will pay $2.3 million to have the family pet cloned as seen in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 6, 1998.

“A couple who are convinced they have the perfect dog with the perfect bark and the perfect howl are giving $2.3 million to Texas A&M University to clone their beloved animal, Missy.

“Besides making a litter of Missy pups, the Texas A&M scientists hope to learn more about canine reproduction and improve contraception and sterilization methods. The project could also lead to the replication of exceptional animals, such as guide dogs or rescue dogs.”

I once saw a sign at a copy-service store that read, “Clone your own.” So where did the word “clone” come from? It’s etymological source is Greek, and means “twig”, “slip”, “sprout”, or “shoot” and apparently refers to the reproduction of the plant from which the twig comes [my guess]. Do you have a better explanation? If you do, please send it to me so I can share it with the list. I could not find any explanation in my etymological dictionaries nor in any other abridged or unabridged dictionary. Definitions are available for the word clone, but no explanations about the Greek source.

Another article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (September 6, 1998) caught my attention:

Robot leads tours at history museum in nation’s capital  The article talks about Minerva, who isn’t a typical tour guide. She’s four feet high and shaped like a tank.

“Minerva, named for the Roman goddess of wisdom, was developed by a team under Sebastian Thrun, 31, assistant professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon.”

According to the article, “She leads five tours that cover three to five items each. They deal largely with robots and how they are made.”

My question to you is, if we call a “male” robot an android (in the form, or shape, of a man); what should we call a robot that is in the form, or shape, of a woman? If you would like to easily find the answer, go to this gynoid page.

I probably should have been more precise with my discussion about “lose” and the [sic] example of “loose”. Whenever we mean that something has been lost, we should NEVER say, “I loose the hounds” or “I loosened the hounds” OR “The quarter back loosed his grip on the football” when LOST is meant!

The [sic] misuses are when people replace “lose” with “loose”. Again, I should have written, “... we NEVER ‘loose’ anything when ‘to lose’ is meant! They are two different verbs with different meanings and should not be confused. It’s certainly correct to say, “I let the dogs loose so they could run around (for example).” I maintain that it is unacceptable to say, “I loosed the dogs and I don’t know where they are” when “I lost the dogs .... ” is meant. Does this clarify the point?

I do appreciate the comments from readers. If nothing else, they make me aware that I must be more precise and probably should not have sent the letter out when I was so tired. It was after 2:30 a.m. (where I am) when I submitted the letter to the web and I wanted to get it out to see if it would go out properly (over the internet, that is).

For those who wrote, thank you. It means you’re paying attention and that’s better than being ignored. This reminds me of something I read recently about the “conspiracy of silence”. The phrase was coined by Sir Lewis Morris, a minor poet of the Victorian era. He wanted to be Poet Laureate in England but he never gained this honor. He claimed that critics were jealous of him and, as a result, damned his poetry when they bothered to mention it at all. He once complained at length to Oscar Wilde of this treatment, finally saying: “Oscar, there’s a conspiracy of silence against me. What shall I do?” Wilde replied simply: “Join it!”

Up until about 1800, there were no general classifications of clouds

Clouds were referred to poetically or as vague essences floating in the sky.

As an English manufacturing chemist and pharmacist, Luke Howard, like many who observed and studied the workings of the atmosphere at that time, was an amateur meteorologist.

Although he produced several landmark works including On the Modification of Clouds, The Climate of London, and Seven Lectures on Meteorology, the first textbook about weather, he was never trained as a scientist but from an early age, he had a fondness for nature and the weather, particularly the clouds.

His fascination with clouds started with the incredible skies of 1783 between May and August of that year. The Northern Hemisphere sky was filled with a "Great Fogg", a haze composed of dust and ash that caused brilliant sunrises and sunsets which resulted from the violent volcanic eruptions in Iceland (Eldeyjar) and Japan (Asama Yama).

In addition to the spectacle of the continuous volcanic ash in the sky, there was a fiery meteor which flashed across western European skies during the early evening of August 18, which was observed by the eleven year-old Luke Howard.

Before the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, most weather observers believed that clouds were too transient, too changeable, and too short-lived to be classified or even analyzed.

With few exceptions, no cloud types were named; they were just described by their color and form as each individual saw them: dark, white, gray, black, mare's tails, mackerel skies, wooly fleece, towers and castles, rocks and oxes-eyes.

Clouds were used in a few situations as weather forecasting proverbs, but mostly by their state of darkness or color:

"Red sky in morning, sailor take warning."

"Mackerel skies and mare's tails, make lofty ships carry low sails."

Temperatures are measured in degrees Celsius (°C), also called centigrade, and in kelvins (sometimes abbreviated K).

Kelvins are used by astronomers to describe very high temperatures; such as, those in the sun and other stars.

Medical references as related to the body or anatomy.