Word - 48

METRONOME \MET-ruh-nohm\ noun

: an instrument designed to mark exact time by a regularly repeated tick

Example sentence:
After practicing the drums with a metronome, Lars had a better feel for tempo and kept time better.

Did you know?

The patent for the metronome was entered in 1816: "John Malzl [sic], of Poland-street, Middlesex, Machinist; for an instrument ... which he denominates a Metronome, or musical time-keeper." The courts, however, later proved that the aforementioned Johann Maelzel copied a pendulum design of Dietrich Winkel, making Winkel the actual inventor. Nonetheless, Maelzel was the more successful marketer of the metronome and even has a notation named after him. The "M.M." in notations like "M.M. = 60" stands for "Maelzel's metronome" and indicates a tempo of 60 beats per minute or a beat per tick of the metronome as it ticks 60 times, in the case of our example. The name of the invention itself is based on the Greek words "metron," meaning "measure," and "nomos," meaning "law."

Word - 47

SPAVINED \SPAV-ind\ adjective

1 : affected with spavin
*2 : old and decrepit : over-the-hill

Example sentence:
There is no point in expecting the spavined Arts Council to do more than sponsor the same stale events and shopworn fund-raisers.

Did you know?

"His horse [is] ... troubled with the lampas, infected with the fashions, full of windgalls, sped with spavins... ." Petruchio's poor, decrepit horse in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is beset by just about every known equine malady, including a kind of swelling in the mouth (lampas), skin lesions (fashions), tumors on his fetlocks (windgalls), and bony enlargements on his hocks (spavins). The spavins alone can be enough to render a horse lame and useless. In the 17th century, "spavined" horses brought to mind other things that are obsolete, out-of-date, or long past their prime, and we began using the adjective figuratively. "Spavined" still serves a purpose, despite its age. It originated in Middle English as "spaveyned" and can be traced to the Middle French word for "spavin," which was "espavain."