May

3

Word Of The Week: May 3rd, 2008

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

May 3, 2008 |

This week’s word of the week is: rictus. In botany this term refers to the opening of the corolla (the collection of petals) in a flower, but more generally refers to the mouth–specifically the opening itself. It’s derived from a Latin term meaning “open mouth” or “jaws”, and, if you think it’s rude to tell someone to “shut up”, you could always say to them, “close your rictus”.


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. Commander Mommy on May 3, 2008 9:48 am

    Ha! I don’t know that I’m going to be able to incorporate ‘rictus’ into my vocabulary (it sounds strange - and, yes, vaguely dirty - to me) but I’ll keep it in m ind next time I’m playing Literati!

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