One-Letter Words, a Dictionary (3 page)
Read One-Letter Words, a Dictionary Online
Authors: Craig Conley
Tags: #Social Science, #Popular Culture, #Reference, #General
41.
n.
A blood type.
Genes for types A and B are dominant, and will always be expressed. Type O is recessive. A child who inherits one A and one O gene will be type A.
Similarly, a child who inherits one B and one O gene will be type B. If both an A and a B gene are passed on, a child will be type AB. Only a child who inherits one O gene from each parent will be type O.
—Mayo Clinic
42.
n.
A person with type A blood.
If you are Type A…and the meat you keep eating is
not metabolizing, your bloodstream is now flooded with thick, sticky agglutinated blood, loaded with saturated animal fat, just looking for a nice spot to deposit itself.
It doesn’t take a genius IQ to see why A’s…should not eat meat, and if they do, they die younger.
—Steven M. Weissberg, MD,
InnerSelf Magazine
43.
n.
A level:
an ancient Egyptian level shaped like the letter A: “The crossbar has a line marking its center. A string is attached to the top of the A, and a weight keeps it taut. When the string hangs down right by the crossbar marking, the crossbar is level.”—Dr. John Burkardt
44.
n.
(biology)
Adenine,
one of the four nitrogenous bases found in DNA nucleotides.
45.
n.
(electronics)
A battery:
“A supply.”
46.
n.
(logic)
The notation of a universal affirmative statement,
such as “all humans are mammals.” In categorical logic, the square of opposition describes the relationship between the universal affirmative
A,
the universal negative
E,
the particular affirmative
I,
and the particular negative
O.
47.
n.
(mathematics)
A matrix.
The use of a single letter A to represent a matrix was crucial to the development of matrix algebra.
—Marie A. Vitulli, “A Brief History of Linear Algebra and Matrix Theory”
48.
n.
(astronomy)
A class of white stars.
When an astronomer speaks of a class A star, he refers to white stars like Sirius and Vega, in whose spectra we see a very strong series of dark lines caused by hydrogen in the atmosphere.
—Dennis Richard Danielson,
The Book of the Cosmos
49.
n.
A horizon:
the dark-colored layer of topsoil, made up of humus and mineral particles, where seeds germinate.
FOREIGN MEANINGS
50.
n.
(Spanish)
Point,
as in
a por a y be por be,
“point by point.”
FACTS AND FIGURES
51.
Vowel symbols were invented 5,000 years ago by the Sumerians
(an ancient people of Mesopotamia). Their cuneiform writing was made up of pictures that represented syllables, but they had special characters for the vowels
A, E, I,
and
U.
But
A
traces its origins back to ancient Egypt, where it was symbolized by a picture of an eagle. Yet
A
started out as a consonant! Egyptian hieroglyphics did not have vowels—the eagle simply represented the
A
sound.
52.
One-letter words like “A” require a context in order to communicate meaning.
We must remember that for something to be information, there is a requirement: If the set of parts is quite short, it lacks complexity to be sure that it constitutes information. For example, if we had a one-letter word, then there could easily be a very good chance that the word may have arisen from a random choice of letters. In such an instance, we could not make a good case for proving that the small word is actually information that came from an intelligent source—because there is not enough complexity. Secondly, the length of the string of letters must be of sufficient length to perform the
function of communication. For example, the letter “A” is a word, but without being part of a phrase or sentence, we have no assurance that it actually functions to communicate anything.
—R. Totten,
A Mathematical Proof of Intelligent Design in Nature
B IN PRINT AND PROVERB
1. (phrase)
Not to know B from a bull’s foot
means to be illiterate.
In 1916, Atlanta mayor James G. Woodward, a union printer at the
Atlanta Journal,
lampooned the pretentiousness of the city’s grand opera patrons, declaring that Atlantans “don’t know B from bull’s foot about grand opera, although they go and make a lot of fuss about it.”
—Cliff Kuhn,
Contesting the
New South Order: The 1914–1915 Strike at Atlanta’s
Fulton Mills
2. (in film)
The title of a ten-minute Spanish short
film written and directed by Daniel Vázquez Salles.
3. (in literature)
Said of someone’s face:
“Fair as a text B in a copy-book.”
—William Shakespeare,
Love’s Labor’s Lost,
V.ii. 42
4. (in literature)
“B is the back on the back, the hump.”
—Victor Hugo, quoted in
ABZ
by Mel Gooding
5. (in literature)
“B is parkgate.”
—James Joyce,
Ulysses
6.
n.
A written representation of the letter.
The villainous girlfriend turned all the way around to show off her [snowsuit] outfit from every angle.
Sunny looked up from her cooking and noticed that the letter B was sewn onto the back of it, along with the eye insignia.
—Lemony Snicket,
The Slippery
Slope (
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 10
)
7.
n.
A device, such as a printer’s type, for reproducing the letter.
8.
n.
A book.
Speaking of the B-word—in my relaxed, between-job languor I actually read one.
—Christine Borne, “Nextgen Librarian”
SECONDS, ANYONE?
9.
n.
The second in a series.
10.
n.
The second letter of the alphabet.
Reference to the biographies…of all women singers whose name began with B.
—Georges Perec,
Life: A User’s Manual
11.
n.
A grade in school indicating “better than average.”
12.
n.
One graded with a B.
[U]ndue reliance upon grades or law school pedigree may be misguided—in the words of the familiar law school maxim, “The A students make professors, the B students make judges, and the C students make money.”
—Ellen Weisbord,
Managing
People in Today’s Law Firm: The Human Resources
Approach to Surviving Change
13.
adj.
Secondary, inferior.
MUSIC AND MUSICIANS
14. (phrase)
The Three B’s:
Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.
[Sir Thomas] Beecham generally tried his best to avoid the three B’s: Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.
In fact he was known to feign sickness before performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
—Steven Staryk,
Fiddling with Life: The Unusual
Journey of Steven Staryk
15.
n.
The seventh note in a C-major musical scale.
16.
n.
A written or printed representation of a musical note B.
17.
n.
A string, key, or pipe tuned to the note B.
18.
n.
The second section in a piece of music.
SHAPES AND SIZES
19.
n.
A large size of shot.
20.
n.
Something having the shape of a B.
The important thing is that there must be no restriction in the throat and that the lips must remain in the “B” shape as the air is expelled.
—Larry Hudson,
Bandworld Magazine
The squat shirt-sleeved Jew whose tight belt cut his round belly into the letter B turned to the lime-streaked wop—squinted, saw that communication had failed.
—Henry Roth,
Call It Sleep
21.
n.
A shoe width size
(wider than A, narrower than C).
Most men’s shoes are in a D width and women’s in a B width.
—Joe Ellis,
Running Injury-Free: How to Prevent,
Treat, and Recover from Dozens of Painful Problems
22.
n.
A brassiere cup size.
I didn’t belong around no hungry babies because
I’d squeezed inside a B-cup bra so there was three inches of cleavage spilling over.
—Yxta Maya Murray,
What It Takes to Get to Vegas
MISCELLANEOUS
23.
n.
Any spoken sound represented by the letter.
The sound vibration of the consonant B means
“straight, sacred path.”
—Joseph E. Rael,
Tracks of Dancing Light: A Native American Approach to
Understanding Your Name
Her eyes were puffy. Her words were full of the sound of the letter b. She watched Clarence while holding tissues to her nose.
—Tracy Kidder,
Among
Schoolchildren
24.
n.
(slang)
A word used to address a friend.
Yo, chill b.—The Rap Dictionary
25.
n.
A Roman numeral for 300.
26.
n.
Something arbitrarily designated B
(e.g., a person, place, or other thing).
B said that A is the spy.
—Raymond Smullyan,
The
Lady or the Tiger?
27.
adj.
A mediocre movie, usually low-budget.
I learned the delirious pleasure of watching old “B” movies in the dead of night.
—Eddie Muller,
Dark
City: The Lost World of Film Noir
The film was among the first musical productions shot in CinemaScope and director Harry Horner, a
B-movie helmer who rose to create his only A-level production here, wonderfully fills the extra-wide screen during the kinetic dance interludes.
—Phil Hall, in a
Film Threat
review of the 1954 musical comedy
New Faces
SCIENTIFIC MATTERS
28.
n.
A class of vitamins
including B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6 (pyridoxine), and B12 (cyanocobalamin).
Vitamin B12 works with folic acid to build the genetic material of cells and produce blood cells in bone marrow. It is also involved in the activities of some of the body’s enzymes (substances that promote chemical reactions in the body) and helps maintain a healthy nervous system…. The best sources of vitamin B12 are organ meats. Fish (especially sardines, herring, and oysters), lean meats, poultry, cheese, and eggs are also good sources. The only known plant sources are yeast, alfalfa, and two
Japanese seaweeds—wakame and kombu.
—American Medical Association
29.
n.
A blood type.
Genes for types A and B are dominant, and will always be expressed. Type O is recessive. A child who inherits one A and one O gene will be type A. Similarly, a child who inherits one B and one O gene will be type B. If both an A and a B gene are passed on, a child will be type AB. Only a child who inherits one O gene from each parent will be type O.
—Mayo Clinic
30.
n.
A person with type B blood.
31.
n.
(electronics)
Susceptance.
32.
n.
(electronics)
A battery,
as in “B supply.”
33.
n.
(chemistry)
The symbol for the element boron in the periodic table.
34.
n.
An event in the present caused by something in the past.
[A] feeling of timelessness, the feeling that what we know as time is only the result of a naïve faith in causality—the notion that A in the past
caused
B in the present, which will
cause
C in the future.
—Tom Wolfe,
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
35.
n.
A high-level perception of cosmic unity, beyond causality.
[A]ctually, A, B, and C are all part of a pattern that can be truly understood only by opening the doors of perception and experiencing it…in this moment…this supreme moment…this
kairos.—Tom Wolfe,
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
36.
n.
(astronomy)
A class of blue-white stars.
For blue-white stars like Rigel we use the letter B.
—Dennis Richard Danielson,
The Book of the Cosmos
37.
n.
B horizon:
the layer of subsoil accumulating deposits from mineralized water in the soil above.
FOREIGN MEANINGS
38.
n.
(French)
Être marqué au b
means to be one-eyed or hump-backed. Set in the Middle Ages,
The
Hunchback of Notre Dame
tells the story of Quasimodo, a grotesquely deformed bell ringer at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The French might have said of Quasimodo:
Il est marqué au b.
“He is hump-backed.”
39.
n.
(Hebrew)
The letter
B
is called
beth,
which means “a house.”
FACTS AND FIGURES
40.
In the Middle Ages, a
B
was branded on a blasphemer’s forehead.