Vocabulary! New word of the Day - Vibrissa
Aug. 6th, 2011 08:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aldersprigI took this vocabulary test, and was, being me, a bit miffed at the words I didn't know. But I wrote them down, so I have a new word-a-day for the next month!
Today's word is vibrissae:
Plural of vibrissa
1: any of the stiff hairs that are located especially about the nostrils or on other parts of the face in many mammals and that often serve as tactile organs
2: any of the stiff hairs growing within the nostrils that serve to impede the inhalation of foreign substance
http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/vibrissa
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/vibrissae offers in addition:
[From Late Latin vibrissae, nostril hairs, from vibrre, to vibrate; see vibrate.
I haven't visited the Cali Catpeople in a while..., so...
Bay liked the claws; always a small woman, she had learned early to fight dirty, and liked the added advantage of a hidden weapon. She liked the teeth, although they took some getting used to, to talk around, to eat with. But the vibrissae, as their handlers insisted on calling them... those took more than a little adjustment. They felt as if the whole world was pulling on her face with every move.
Today's word is vibrissae:
Plural of vibrissa
1: any of the stiff hairs that are located especially about the nostrils or on other parts of the face in many mammals and that often serve as tactile organs
2: any of the stiff hairs growing within the nostrils that serve to impede the inhalation of foreign substance
http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/vibrissa
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/vibrissae offers in addition:
[From Late Latin vibrissae, nostril hairs, from vibrre, to vibrate; see vibrate.
I haven't visited the Cali Catpeople in a while..., so...
Bay liked the claws; always a small woman, she had learned early to fight dirty, and liked the added advantage of a hidden weapon. She liked the teeth, although they took some getting used to, to talk around, to eat with. But the vibrissae, as their handlers insisted on calling them... those took more than a little adjustment. They felt as if the whole world was pulling on her face with every move.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 01:36 am (UTC)(My kitter Draker has no forehead whiskers; our elderkitty always chewed them off.)
no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 02:46 am (UTC)Aww, poor Draker.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 02:50 am (UTC)In one version of the setting, Cali had a thriving business in moddies... slaves modified into anthros.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 03:25 am (UTC)The two main limits are that while handwavium seems to pick up on the desires or the people around when it is applied, it also tends to have a mind of its own that results in quirks (said spaceship car might only be willing to fly with sci-fi soundtrack CDs playing) and secondly that it seems to know when you're trying to make a weapon with it in which case what you're making will get nerfed (handwavium doesn't do deadly, embarrassing sure, deadly weapons no).
Why all this? Well, while the setting is called Fenspace because quite a few science fiction and fantasy fans decide to move to space, the bad guys decide moving out somewhere well away from the authorities sounds like a good idea as well. Which includes people involved with human trafficking who somewhere along the line get hold of a Catgirl Conversion machine, which through application of handwavium will make whoever is put in it get turned into a catgirl with both physical and psychological effects. (And did I mention handwavium biomods are a onetime thing?)
no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 05:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 09:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-07 02:09 pm (UTC)