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W: 43 pages
It seems to me that the "W's" have great sounds, onomatopoeic, such as wispish, wingding and whoops.
W (Tungsten)
wainwright
Waterloo
weber
Weltanschauung
Weltschmerz
West
westerly (vespertine, crepescular)
wettability
whoops
windover
window
wingding
wispish
Wisteria
witch of agnesi
witenagamote
Woden
woodnymph
wow
wyvern
Favorite word: wyvern.
Other miscellaneous “W” words:
wahini
wainscot
wale
wallaby
water nymph
water ouzel
wattle (poem by Yeats)
webster
weimaraner
welkin
Welsh Corgi
werewolf
wert
wether
wheelwright
whet
Whig (Whiggamore)
weiner (short for weinerwurst)
Weiter schnitzel
wigan
Windsor chair
winkle (a twinkle)
wizen
wold
worsted
W: the symbol for tungsten.
The name for Tungsten is "Wolfram”… therefore the “W.”
Wolfram or volfram is used in Scandinavia and Europe instead of the word tungsten. It derives for wolf rahm, meaning ‘wolf saliva’ (lupin spuma), the term created in 1546 by Georg Agricola due to the large amounts of tin consumed in making this element, i.e. ‘wolfing down’ large quantities of tin I would imagine.
And who was this Georg Agricola? A Roman Catholic German, born in 1494, considered to be the ‘father of metallurgy.’ He also was a physician and a scholar. He was a teacher of Greek and classical studies, a philologist, who then became a doctor, studied philosophy and, ironically, loved words. He was a philologist and writer who also published many works on metallurgy.
tungsten: [Swedish tung heavy sten stone] There is something very appealing to me about words that derive from Scandinavia. Very strong, guttural, implacable.
One of my favorite books is the fascinating, erudite Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Childhood, by Oliver Sacks. It is filled with his passion for chemistry and the life of scientific inquiry. It bursts with creative energy and inquisitiveness. He was an elegant writer and physician; his passing has been a great loss to the literary world and my world. My favorite book by him is the poignant Oaxaca Journal, not only an interesting, eclectic trip with the New York Fern Society to see the ferns of Oaxaca but, as usual, a meditation on life; a philosophical inquiry.
wainwright [ME wain wagon] a maker of wagons
Waterloo: a decisive defeat
This term comes from Napoleon's decisive defeat in 1815 at Waterloo, Belgium. Some facts about Waterloo and Napoleon:
1. Napoleon had a magnetic personality and was very intelligent.
2. The battle was fought on a Sunday.
3. Waterloo is located in Belgium, not France.
4. Napoleon was the Emperor (not the president) of France at the time. He abdicated after the loss at Waterloo and died six years later.
5. He lost both to the English and the Prussians.
6. More importantly, Waterloo is the site of one of my favorite, eclectic music stores in Austin, Texas. Iconic and cool.
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