Friday, January 04, 2008

Narthex

A narthex is the lobby of an early church. Thanks for your interesting invented meanings for narthex. They were very well crafted, if completely false. Richard's took the cake - and the poll votes - for being so technically complicated that it was a sure winner. Well done, Richard - and welcome to the game.

5 comments:

Thinks! said...

Narthex is the home decorator's dream friend. Just one quick spray around a room then close the door and leave for 10 minutes. When you return all the walls have been stripped, carpet dissolved and paintwork taken back to bare wood. Only leave furniture in the room if you don't want to see it again!


Re spiflicate; We used to say such things as, "If Fred doesn't bring my marbles back tomorrow, I'll spiflicate him!"

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silver_flight said...

It's the name for any house with at least one full-length mirror prominently displayed in every room.

Anonymous said...

The term comes from medieval astronomy. A planet has a Nadir (lowest) and Apex (highest) point in the sky. But to explain retrograde motion, astronomers added the epicycle--which had a Narthex: the point where the epicycle's circle intersected the crystalline sphere's circle.

We should be grateful to Kepler & Copernicus for saving generations of students from this torture.

Merriam said...

Narthex is a brand of underwear.

Sandra Dodd said...

Narthex is the cloth they use to make slings for picking up large sea mammals. It's strong, and the water runs through it.