L vocabulary

Encountered online. Thank you, Online Writers, L turns out to be a marvelous letter to begin words. Worlds open up with letter L. We go large, small, to foreign places and distant times. Fun words too, not boring words and whoever was using these words to make whatever point they were making sure are smart. Here goes:

la vie à l’envers: life upside down

lacuna: a blank gap or missing part; coffer: an ornamental sunken panel in a ceiling or dome ; In histology, a lacuna is a small space containing an osteocyte in bone or chondrocyte in cartilage.; Lacuna (Woodstock) is a fictional character, a mutant and the occasional ally of the superhero group X-Statix.; In law, a non liquet is a situation where there is no applicable law. Non liquet translates into English from Latin as "it is not clear. ...
; A lexical gap or lacuna is an absence of a word in a particular language. Several types of lexical gaps are possible, such as untranslatability, missing inflections, or nonsense words; In music, a lacuna is an intentional, extended passage in a musical work during which no notes are played. …; A small opening; a small pit or depression; a small blank space; a gap or vacancy; a hiatus; An absent part, especially in a book or other piece ...

lagniappe: a small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase (such as a 13th donut when buying a dozen), or more broadly, "something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure."

Lagrangian: The Lagrangian, L, of a dynamical system is a function that summarizes the dynamics of the system. It is named after Joseph Louis Lagrange. The concept of a Lagrangian was originally introduced in a reformulation of classical mechanics known as Lagrangian mechanics; a function describing the equations of motion for a system; A mathematical technique used to find values of variables that minimize or maximize an objective function while satisfying equality constraints.

lairage: U.K. place for keeping livestock temporarily: a place where livestock are kept temporarily, e.g. at docks or a market

Langdell Hall: the largest building on the campus of Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is home to the school's library, the largest academic law library in the world, and is named for pioneering law school dean Christopher Columbus Langdell. It is built in a modified neoclassical style.

lanyard: a rope or cord often worn around the neck or wrist to carry something. Usually it is used where there is a risk of losing the object or to ensure it is visible at all times. Aboard a ship, it may refer to a piece of rigging used to secure objects. Alternatively it is a length of cord or wire with a hook at the end used to fire an artillery piece, or to arm the fuze mechanism on an air-dropped bomb by pulling out a cotter pin[disambiguation needed] (thereby starting the arming delay) when it leaves the aircraft.

Laphamization: Giving a dramatic eyewitness report of an event that hasn't happened yet. Laphamizers get busted either when the event goes down differently than reported or the article goes to print before the event happens.
Named after notorious journalistic fabulist -- or talented psychic -- Louis Lapham.
Barbara Stewart's description of that seal hunt was graphic and bloody. Too bad the seal hunt was cancelled. That Laphamization ended her career.

Laplacian: The divergence of the gradient of a scalar function is called the Laplacian. In rectangular coordinates: a formula;  The Laplacian finds application in the Schrodinger equation in quantum mechanics. In electrostatics, it is a part of LaPlace's equation and Poisson's equation for relating electric potential to charge density

larceny: The wrongful and fraudulent taking and carrying away by one person of the mere personal goods of another from any place, with a felonious intent to convert them to the taker's use and make them his property without the consent of the owner.

lassitude: a state of physical or mental weariness; lack of energy."she was overcome by lassitude and retired to bed"; listlessness, weariness, languor, sluggishness, tiredness, fatigue, torpor, lifelessness, apathy More"prolonged periods of lassitude"

latifundium: A great landed estate, especially of the ancient Romans.

laudable pus: Laudable pus is a term used by 19th century doctors to describe the pus that formed in a wound after surgery or amputation, thought to be a beneficial sign of healing. In actuality, of course, it was a sign of massive bacterial infection, which often proved fatal.

lawfare: Lawfare is waged via the use of domestic or international law with the intention of damaging an opponent. Examples include winning a public relations victory, financially crippling an opponent, or tying up the opponent's time so that they cannot pursue other ventures such as run for public office.; Lawfare can also denote the use of the law as a weapon of war, or more specifically, the abuse of the law and legal systems for strategic political or military ends.; Lawfare is one of several alternative war-making concepts outlined in the 1999 Chinese book Unrestricted Warfare, which is principally concerned with the new variety of offensive actions available to an international actor that cannot confront another power militarily.

le mot juste: "the right wording/phrasing" often used by snotty intellectuals like Frasier Crane from the TV show Frasier; Coined by 19th-century novelist Gustave Flaubert, who often spent weeks looking for the right word to use.; Flaubert spent his life agonizing over "le mot juste." Now Madame Bovary is available in 20 different crappy english translations, so now it doesn't really make a damn bit of difference.

Lebensraum: (German for "habitat" or literally "living space") was one of the major political ideas of Adolf Hitler, and an important component of Nazi ideology. It served as the motivation for the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany. In Hitler's book Mein Kampf, he detailed his belief that the German people needed Lebensraum ("living space", i.e. land and raw materials), and that it should be found in the East. It was the stated policy of the Nazis to kill, deport, or enslave the Polish, Russian and other Slavic populations, whom they considered inferior, and to repopulate the land with Germanic peoples.

legato: connecting the notes; in music; "play this legato, please"; (literally meaning "tied together") indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly. …; A slur curve above or below a passage of notes indicating that they should be played smoothly, in a connected manner; the opposite of Iegato is marcato (in a marked, punchy style) or even staccato.

leitmotif:  a melodic phrase that accompanies the reappearance of a person or situation (as in Wagner's operas).a recurring musical theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. ...

lemon tree song: Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower so sweet.

Lemsip: a brand of cold and flu remedies in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.  by Reckitt Benckiser. The original and best-known product is a lemon-flavoured hot drink (hence the lem in Lemsip) containing 650 mg of paracetamol (an analgesic), 10 mg phenylephrine hydrochloride (a decongestant) to help to relieve headache, fever, blocked nose, body aches and pains and a sore throat. The entire Lemsip Max range contains the maximum level of active ingredients allowed for general sales listing in the UK.

Lèse-majesté: (French: lèse-majesté; Law French, from the Latin laesa maiestas, "injured majesty"; in English, also lese-majesty, lese majesty or leze majesty) is the crime of violating majesty, an offense against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state.

lickspittle: a person who behaves obsequiously to those in power.

ligneous:Consisting of or having the texture or appearance of wood; woody.

lipogram: (from Ancient Greek: λειπογράμματος, leipográmmatos, "leaving out a letter") is a kind of constrained writing or word game consisting of writing paragraphs or longer works in which a particular letter or group of letters is avoided—usually a common vowel, and frequently E, the most common letter in the English language. Larousse defines a lipogram as a "literary work in which one compels oneself strictly to exclude one or several letters of the alphabet". Extended Ancient Greek texts avoiding the letter sigma are the earliest examples of lipograms. A pangrammatic lipogram is a text that uses every letter of the alphabet except one.

litotes: figure of speech in which a statement is made by indicating the negative of its opposite, e.g., "not many" meaning "a few." A form of irony, litotes is meant to emphasize by understating. Its opposite is hyperbole.

locution: A word or phrase, esp. with regard to style or idiom.

log rolling: Log rolling in our time. Spy magazine. Mutually admiring reviews in book jackets. One neighbor helping another, akin to barn raising.

longueurs: Plural form of longueur. A tedious passage in a work of literature or performing art: "longueurs and passages of meretricious vulgarity"

lorem ipsum: In publishing and graphic design, lorem ipsum[p] is placeholder text (filler text) commonly used to demonstrate the graphic elements of.

lorica segmentata: roman armor.

Lothario: Don Quixote a man named Anselmo coerces Lothario, his faithful friend, to test the virtue of his wife, Camila. Though Lothario sincerely attempts dissuading Anselmo from testing his wife's fidelity, the friend insists, and Lothario eventually falls in love with Camila.; A character in the play The Fair Penitent Nicholas Rowe. Lothario seduces and betrays Calista. Through the Rowe play, the eponym a lothario, came to mean a handsome, seductive ladies' man. It was often prefixed with "gay", from Rowe's line, "haughty gallant gay Lothario". A "gay lothario" was an amoral seducer.; a character in Video game 'The Sims 2'He is in love with many women, hence the name 'Lothario'.; A character in Shakespeare's lesser-known play Cymbeline, this time as a character called Iachimo. However, in Shakespeare's version, although Iachimo attempts to seduce a woman on a bet with her husband, the bride does not succumb, nor does Iachimo/Lothario fall in love with his mark. Instead, Iachimo gains her confidence and persuades her to let him store a locker in her room. He hides himself in the locker. After she is asleep, he commits the description of her boudoir to memory, steals her bracelet, and takes this evidence to her husband as false proof that he has won the bet. Because Imogene is an English Princess, and Posthumous her Italian groom, this Moliere-inspiring ruse results in European conflict, with Roman troops storming British shores and London, to comical and sad effect. Therefore, Shakespeare's version of Lothario could be said to reveal the other side of this personality type: opposite to the character's hopeless romanticism, rooted in sex, lies his character for deception, betrayal and malice.

louche: of questionable taste or morality; "a louche nightclub"; "a louche painting" ; The ouzo effect (also louche effect and spontaneous emulsification) is a phenomenon seen when water is added to ouzo and other (such as pastis and absinthe): a cloudy ('''') oil-in-water microemulsion forms. …; To become cloudy when mixed with water, due to the presence of anethole. This is known as the ouzo effect; of questionable taste or morality …; A wine troubled by the presence of suspended particles which cause it to be cloudy.

Ludovico technique: a fictional aversion therapy from the novel A Clockwork Orange administered by Dr. Brodsky with the approval of the UK Minister of the Interior.

lummox: A clumsy or stupid person.

lumpen: (in Marxist contexts) uninterested in revolutionary advancement."the lumpen public is enveloped in a culture of dependency"; boorish and stupid."growing ranks of lumpen, uninhibited, denim-clad youth"; the lumpenproletariat.; dispossessed and uprooted individuals cut off from the economic and social class with which they might normally be identified <lumpen proletariat> <lumpen intellectuals>; <a kind of music that has traditionally appealed to the lumpen segment of the musical audience>; German Lumpenproletariat degraded section of the proletariat, from Lump contemptible person (from Lumpen rags) + Proletariat
First Known Use: 1936

Lumpercal: pertaining to the Lupercalia. n. 1. A grotto on the Palatine Hill sacred to Lupercus , the Lycean Pan. Want to thank TFD for its existence?

luthier:  someone who makes or repairs stringed instruments. In the United States, the term is used interchangeably with a term for the specialty of each maker, such as violinmaker, guitar maker, lute maker, etc. The word luthier comes from the French word luth, which means "lute".; The craft of making string instruments, or lutherie, is commonly divided into two main categories: makers of stringed instruments that are plucked or strummed and makers of stringed instruments that are bowed.
Since bowed instruments require a bow, the second category includes a subtype known as a bow maker or archetier.; "I'm sure a gazillion people have already mentioned this, but 'a cello with guitar tuning and frets' already exists: it's called an arpeggione, and was meant to enable classical guitarists to play 'cello-like things by learning a few bowing techniques. Some luthiers make them nowadays, even some electric ones. But yes, I want one too. Especially a plastic one."

lycanthropy: the professed ability or power of a human being to transform into a wolf, or to gain wolf-like characteristics. The term comes from Greek λυκάνθρωπος lykànthropos "werewolf" (a compound of λύκος lykos "wolf" and άνθρωπος ànthrōpos "human").

lysenkoism:  used colloquially to describe the manipulation or distortion of the scientific process as a way to reach a predetermined conclusion as dictated by an ideological bias, often related to social or political objectives.; In 1948, genetics was officially declared "a bourgeois pseudoscience";   All geneticists were fired from their jobs (some were also arrested), and all genetic research was discontinued. Nikita Khrushchev, who claimed to be an expert in agricultural science, also valued Lysenko as a great scientist, and the taboo on genetics continued. The ban was only waived in the mid-1960s. Thus, Lysenkoism caused serious, long-term harm to Soviet knowledge of biology. It represented a serious failure of the early Soviet leadership to find real solutions to agricultural problems, throwing their support behind a charlatan at the expense of many human lives. Almost alone among Western scientists, John Desmond Bernal, Professor of Physics at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a Fellow of the Royal Society, made an aggressive public defense of Lysenko and some years later gave an obituary of ‘Stalin as a Scientist.’ However, despite Bernal's endorsement, other members of Britain's scientific community retreated from open support of the Soviet Union, and may have been one of the chief reasons for a retreat from Marxism in that country. The word 'Neo-Lysenkoism' has occasionally been invoked by biological determinists as a rhetorical term in the debates over race and intelligence and sociobiology to describe scientists minimizing the role of genes in shaping human behavior, such as Leon Kamin, Richard Lewontin, Stephen Jay Gould and Barry Mehler. Some also use it in regards to claims of global warming and man-made climate change.

Wow! Okay we're ready. Sign us up. We're ready for Jeopardy! "I have a "L" words for a million, Alex."