Read One-Letter Words, a Dictionary Online
Authors: Craig Conley
Tags: #Social Science, #Popular Culture, #Reference, #General
One-Letter Words, a Dictionary (15 page)
R IN PRINT AND PROVERB
1. (in literature)
“Nurse: Doth not rosemary and
Romeo begin both with a letter? Romeo: Ay, nurse, what of that? Both with an R. Nurse: Ah, mocker, that’s the dog’s name.”
—William Shakespeare,
Romeo and Juliet,
II.iv.206–209. In Shakespeare’s time, R was called
littera canina,
“the dog’s letter,” because it sounded like a dog’s growl.
2. (in literature)
As a high level of thought, reached via the near-genius ability to repeat every letter of the alphabet from A to Z accurately in order:
“R is then—what is R? A shutter, like the leathern eyelid of a lizard, flickered over the intensity of his gaze and obscured the letter R. In that flash of darkness he heard people saying—he was a failure—that R was beyond him. He would never reach R. On to R, once more. R—.”
—Virginia Woolf,
To the Lighthouse
3. (in literature)
“‘Always fear the sun when there’s an “r” in the month,’ said Argyle. ‘Always fear it “r” or no “r,” I say. I’m frightened of it.’”
—D. H. Lawrence,
Aaron’s Rod
4. (in literature)
“The letter R was the last to go, it twisted in the flame, it curled outwards for a moment, becoming larger than ever. Then it crumpled too; the flame destroyed it. It was not ashes even, it was feathery dust.”
—Daphne Du Maurier,
Rebecca
5. (in literature)
“Sugar runs her gloved hands along the knots and curls [of a cast-iron fence]. It’s only after a minute that she realises the dominant motif in the iron design is the letter ‘R,’ repeated hundreds and hundreds of times, hidden among the curlicues. ‘Eureka,’ she whispers. Adjusting her bonnet, she peers through the eye of the largest ‘R’
she can find.”
—Michel Faber,
The Crimson Petal and the White
6. (in literature)
“R is the porter resting on his staff.”
—Victor Hugo, quoted in
ABZ
by Mel Gooding
7.
v.
(informal)
Are,
as in “Oysters R in season” (because the oyster season occurs in months containing the letter R).
8.
n.
A written representation of the letter.
An imitation-marble plaque…, now broken,…reads:
CONSULTING R
.
—Georges Perec,
Life: A User’s Manual
9.
n.
A device, such as a printer’s type, for reproducing the letter.
SCIENTIFIC MATTERS
10.
n.
Correlation coefficient.
11.
n.
Gas constant,
as in the Ideal Gas Law equation
PV
=
nRT.
12.
n.
An alkane molecule group.
Alkyl groups are often represented by the letter R, just as halogens are often represented by the letter X.
—Frank Pellegrini,
Organic Chemistry I
13.
n.
(biology)
Arginine,
an amino acid.
14.
n.
(ecology)
The Malthusian parameter,
or the population growth rate per unit time in the Malthusian population growth model.
15.
n.
(logic)
A symbol used to represent an arbitrary proposition.
P, q, and r were used as propositional letters by
Bertrand Russell in 1903 in
The Principles of Mathematics.—Jeff Miller, “Earliest Uses of Various Mathematical Symbols”
16.
n.
(mathematics)
A matrix with special properties.
R is a square upper triangular invertible matrix with positive entries on its diagonal.
—Marie A. Vitulli, “A Brief History of Linear Algebra and Matrix Theory”
17.
n.
(astronomy)
A “scale factor,” which measures the distance between a chosen pair of galaxies and which increases as the universe expands.
When R doubles, the distance between every pair of galaxies doubles, and so on. Pushing the observed behaviour of the real Universe—its expansion—back to the point where everything was touching everything else, R starts out from zero, equivalent to the birth of the universe in an infinitely dense state.
—John R. Gribbin,
In Search of the Big Bang:
The Life and Death of the Universe
18.
n.
(organic chemistry)
The chain of carbon atoms
(“carbon skeleton”) in an organic molecule.
The letter R represents the carbon skeleton of the molecule.
—Gerard J. Tortora,
Principles of Anatomy and Physiology
19.
n.
R horizon:
the layer of bedrock beneath the other soil layers.
MISCELLANEOUS
20.
n.
Any spoken sound represented by the letter.
“Ye’ll observe,” said Laird, academically, and rolling his r’s…
—C.S. Forester,
Captain Horatio Hornblower
The sound vibration of the consonant R means
“radiance, radiating light, abundance.”
—Joseph E. Rael,
Tracks of Dancing Light: A Native American
Approach to Understanding Your Name
21.
n.
The eighteenth letter of the alphabet.
There was a big black mark on [the smokestack] that was a big R when you got close to it.
—John Kennedy Toole,
The Neon Bible
A list of flavors, in appropriately colored chalks, was posted behind the counter. The R in Rainbow, I remember, was written in peach.
—William H. Gass,
The Tunnel
22.
n.
A subject in school,
as in “the Three R’s” (reading, writing, and arithmetic).
Johnston’s early schooling grounded him well in the three R’s and gave him a lifelong respect for learning.
—Charles P. Roland,
Albert Sidney Johnston:
Soldier of Three Republics
23.
n.
A medieval Roman numeral for 80.
24.
n.
Something arbitrarily designated R
(e.g., a person, place, or other thing).
Again R. chews wordlessly on his pipe, serene and satisfied.
—Luke Rhinehart,
The Dice Man[B]oth correlating epochs (temporal periods) were marked on the map with the same arbitrarily chosen symbol such as the letter R.
—Anatoly T. Fomenko,
History: Fiction or Science?
25.
n.
The eighteenth in a series.
26.
n.
Something having the shape of an R.
27.
n.
The eighteenth section in a piece of music.
28.
n.
R color:
“the addition of an R sound to a vowel.”—Dr. John Burkardt
AT THE MOVIES
29.
adj.
A motion picture rating prohibiting admittance of anyone under seventeen years old not accompanied by a parent or guardian.
(See
G, X.
)
[T]he R-rated brotherly chat for which he’d detoured through Seattle was in danger of being preempted by Everett’s conflicting role in an eventually to be X-rated performance with the Sad Abdomen Lady!
—David James Duncan,
The Brothers K
FACTS AND FIGURES
30.
In England, an R was formerly used as a mark for rogues.
S IN PRINT AND PROVERB
1. (phrase)
The Collar of S’s, composed of a series of golden S’s joined together, is a decoration restricted to the Lord Mayor of London.
2. (in literature)
S
is a 1988 novel by John Updike.
3. (in literature)
Virginia Woolf wrote that S “is the serpent in the poet’s Eden.”
—quoted in
The Alphabet Abecedarium
by Richard Firmage
4. (in literature)
“And it doesn’t really matter, anyway, because we’ll soon fatten him up again.
All we’ll have to do is give him a triple dosage of my wonderful Supervitamin Chocolate. Supervitamin Chocolate contains huge amounts of vitamin A and vitamin B. It also contains vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin F, vitamin G, vitamin I, vitamin J, vitamin K, vitamin L, vitamin M, vitamin N, vitamin O, vitamin
P, vitamin Q, vitamin R, vitamin T, vitamin U, vitamin V, vitamin W, vitamin X, vitamin Y, and, believe it or not, vitamin Z! The only two vitamins it doesn’t have in it are vitamin S, because it makes you sick, and vitamin H, because it makes you grow horns on the top of your head, like a bull. But it does have a very small amount of the rarest and most magical vitamin of them all—vitamin Wonka.”
—Roald Dahl,
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
5. (in literature)
As an adjective that everybody knows and goes without saying:
“He is, as I see it and in my opinion, Amiable, Benevolent, Courteous, Dignified, Enamored, Firm, Gallant, Honorable, Illustrious, Loyal, Manly, Noble, Openhearted,
Pleasing, Quick-witted, Rich, the Ss that everybody knows, and then Truthful, Valiant, X isn’t included because it’s a harsh letter, Y is the same I, and Z
is Zealous in protecting your honor.”
—Miguel de Cervantes,
Don Quixote
6. (in literature)
“S is a serpent.”
—Victor Hugo, quoted in
ABZ
by Mel Gooding
7.
n.
A written representation of the letter.
She grabbed Richard’s shoulder, pointed to the device on the wall, the snaky S with the stars surrounding it.
—Neil Gaiman,
Neverwhere
8.
n.
A device, such as a printer’s type, for reproducing the letter.
SCIENTIFIC MATTERS
9.
n.
An energy state of an atom,
as in “S State.”
The outward atom fills its deep s-state with two electrons and pyramidally bonds to its neighbors with p-orbitals.
—Andrew Zangwill,
Physics at
Surfaces
10.
n.
(thermodynamics)
Entropy, or energy unavailable for work.
11.
n.
(chemistry)
The symbol for the element sulfur in the periodic table.
STUDENT AFFAIRS
12.
n.
A grade in school rating a student’s work as satisfactory.
13.
n.
One graded or rated with an S.
14.
n.
A medieval Roman numeral for 70.
15.
n.
Something arbitrarily designated S
(e.g., a person, place, or other thing).
CONTRACTIONS ’S
16.
Belongs to.
whale’s belly.
17.
Is.
’S
not impossible.
—Neil Gaiman,
Neverwhere
18.
Does.
What
’s
he want this time?
19.
Us.
Let
’s
eat.
20.
Has.
He
’s
seen them already.
21.
God,
used as a mild oath. ’s
blood
22.
As.
so
’s
you can come.
MISCELLANEOUS
23.
n.
Any spoken sound represented by the letter.
The sound vibration of the consonant S means “one half of eternity.”
—Joseph E. Rael,
Tracks of Dancing Light: A Native American Approach to Understanding Your Name
She said
thee
for
see
not because she had a lisp but because she knew the hissing letter S is the part of a whisper most likely to be overheard.
—C. S. Lewis,
The Last Battle
24.
n.
The nineteenth letter of the alphabet.
On the prow of the boat is seated a woman lavishly clad and surrounded by sacks of gold…; in place of
her head is the letter S.
—Georges Perec,
Life:
A User’s Manual
“Do you see anything else?” Sylvia shook her head in bewilderment. “Only the letter S. All I see is an S. I don’t know what it means.”
—Antoinette May,
Haunted Houses of California: A Ghostly Guide to
Haunted Houses and Wandering Spirits
25.
n.
The nineteenth in a series.
26.
n.
The nineteenth section in a piece of music.
SHAPES AND SIZES
27.
n.
Something having the shape of an S.
She had this very distinctive shape, seemingly comprised of interlocking S’s and C’s that made her look like she would fit exactly against him if he were to embrace her.
—Jeremy Dyson,
Never Trust a Rabbit
Mara clapped his hands and the flames vanished. In their place, its swaying head held at almost twice the height of a man, its silver hood fanned, the mechobra drew into its S-shaped strike position.
—Roger Zelazny,
Lord of Light
“Hey, can any of you guys do this?” I asked, twisting my lips to form the letter “S.”
—Leslie Cohen,
Jewish Love Stories for Kids
28.
n.
S curve:
a double curve, as in a road, often difficult for drivers to negotiate.
Carol A. Braddock recalls a time when the road’s dangerous S-curve ate up at least one vehicle per week, with fast-moving drivers ending up wrecked in the woods.
—Jason B. Grosky,
Eagle-Tribune
, April 13, 2004
29.
n.
S bend:
see S trap.
30.
n.
S trap:
a section of plumbing pipe with an S-shape whose purpose is to trap sewer gases.
31.
n.
S hook:
a strip of metal bent into an S-shape.
32.
n.
S twist:
“the twist in yarn induced by a counterclockwise-spinning spindle, sometimes called a crossband twist.”—Dr. John Burkardt
33.
n.
S brake:
an S-shaped wheel-braking mechanism.
34.
n.
S wrench:
a wrench with an S-shaped twist.
35.
n.
S bridge:
a double-curved bridge used in early-nineteenth-century road construction to cross curving streams with uneven banks.
FOREIGN MEANINGS
36.
n.
(French)
Zigzag,
as in
faire des S,
“to go in zigzag fashion.”