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prettygoodwordTheme week: words ending in -vulsion. Yes, there are enough to fill out an entire week, so let's get started:
avulsion (uh-VUHL-shuhn) - n., (Med.) a forcible tearing away or separation of a bodily structure or part, either as the result of injury or as an intentional surgical procedure; (Hydrol.) abandonment of an old river channel for another one, esp. when (Law) this results in a change of ownership of land because it was a boundary stream; (Hydrol.) the sudden movement of soil by water action, such as flooding, esp. when (Law) it moves from one person's land to another's.
Tear rather than cut in that first sense, so an amputation is avulsive only if the part is torn off (ouch!). Adopted in the 1600s in the legal and medical senses (hydrology looks to have adapted the legal sense) from Latin āvulsiō, from āvellere to pluck away, from a-, away + vellere, to pull/pluck. That last element will appear many times this week, as it's the basis of our theme.
---L.
avulsion (uh-VUHL-shuhn) - n., (Med.) a forcible tearing away or separation of a bodily structure or part, either as the result of injury or as an intentional surgical procedure; (Hydrol.) abandonment of an old river channel for another one, esp. when (Law) this results in a change of ownership of land because it was a boundary stream; (Hydrol.) the sudden movement of soil by water action, such as flooding, esp. when (Law) it moves from one person's land to another's.
Tear rather than cut in that first sense, so an amputation is avulsive only if the part is torn off (ouch!). Adopted in the 1600s in the legal and medical senses (hydrology looks to have adapted the legal sense) from Latin āvulsiō, from āvellere to pluck away, from a-, away + vellere, to pull/pluck. That last element will appear many times this week, as it's the basis of our theme.
---L.
