Yeeting Detritovores

The Word Collector — part 18

This is the latest in a series about new words and phrases, specimens collected during expeditions into the deepest, darkest literary wilderness, for clarification, curation and categorisation.

The risk of sharing words that are new to me, is that it exposes my ignorance, but that boat sailed a while ago.

yeeting — I really must make more of an effort to keep up with the modern world, as this one has completely passed me by. The word was used in a “Guardian” article about the bizarre new trend for audience members to throw random items at performers. I would be ok with this when my folk group gets its occasional bookings from hard-of-hearing groups, providing the items are wrapped in high-denomination banknotes, but sadly so far nothing has been thrown at all!

So to get to the definition, yeet is a slang word that functions broadly with the meaning “to throw,” but is especially used to emphasise forcefulness and a lack of concern for the thing being thrown. (You don’t yeet something if you’re worried that it might break.) Yeet is also used as an interjection, most often to express excitement or enthusiasm. In the following article there is the example of a full wheel of Brie cheese at the musician Pink. Work that one out!

resomation — every so often a word is suddenly in the news, and in the UK this one appeared in multiple media sources this week, and apparently is a new form of disposing of the deceased as an alternative to burial or cremation. It is a form of water cremation and is also known by its scientific name alkaline hydrolysis, hydrocremation, biocremation, or the brand names Resomation or aqua cremation.

Rather flippantly it has been referred to as a “boil in the bag” option. I won’t go into the details of what is involved as I find them rather gruesome and will settle for being blasted into space when my number is up. If you really want to know more, there are further details on the links below -

cabotage — this word appeared in a Guardian article about the problems some UK bands are having touring Europe, who are facing additional costs and travel difficulties due to the Brexit saga. Cabotage is the transport of goods or passengers between two places in the same country. It originally applied to shipping along coastal routes, port to port, but now applies to aviation, railways, and road transport as well.

Kubernetes — this word cropped up in a Medium article. Kubernetes, commonly stylised as K8s) is an open-source container orchestration system for automating software deployment, scaling, and management. Originally designed by Google, the project is now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation.

detritovore — from a Facebook friend I came across this word, which means an animal which feeds on dead organic material, especially plant detritus.

The following specimens are from the weighty tome “Vietnam — An Epic History of a Tragic War” by Max Hastings, which I came across free in a book exchange and am currently wading through. I do love a bargain, though with my reading speed, it may be on the go for a while –

piaster — the piastre or piaster is any of a number of units of currency. The term originates from the Italian for “thin metal plate”. The name was applied to Spanish and Hispanic American pieces of eight, or pesos, by Venetian traders in the Levant in the 16th century.

tamarind — I had heard of this word before but wasn’t sure so looked it up — a tamarind is a leguminous tree bearing edible fruit that is probably indigenous to tropical Africa. The genus Tamarindus is monotypic, meaning that it contains only this species. So one of a kind.

bonze — a Japanese or Chinese Buddhist religious teacher.

catspaw — a person who is exploited by another; a tool.

suzerainty — includes the rights and obligations of a person, state or other polity which controls the foreign policy and relations of a tributary state, but allows the tributary state internal autonomy. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, vassal state or tributary state, the dominant party is called a suzerain. While the rights and obligations of a vassal are called vassalage, and the rights and obligations of a suzerain are called suzerainty.

hecatomb — (in ancient Greece or Rome) a great public sacrifice, originally of a hundred oxen; an extensive loss of life for a particular cause.

Vinogel — a dehydrated wine product, reduced to 1/3 of its volume and gelled to maintain alcohol titration. It was utilised by the French Far East Expeditionary Corps, most notably at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.

I hope you enjoyed this latest collection and do share any favourite new specimens of your own in the comments.

As always, thank you for reading.

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