DAILY MISCELLANY

SCIENCE QUESTION

Is the world getting lighter or heavier? The Earth catches around 500 tonnes of dust and stones every day as it travels through space. In its 4 billion-year history, it has put on about 16 million million million tonnes. This accounts for less than 1 percent of the Earth’s total mass. But it has gained weight over the years.

WORD OF THE DAY

embiggen [em-big-un]

To make bigger

From a 1996 episode of The Simpsons, “Lisa the Iconoclast”, in which the word was supposedly aired 200 years ago by town founder Jebediah Springfield. The episode also coined the word “cromulent”.

Jebediah: [on film] A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man. Mrs Krabappel: Embiggens? I never heard that word before I moved to Springfield. Miss Hoover: I don't know why. It's a perfectly cromulent word.

Later in the same episode:

Homer: You su-diddely-uck, Flanders!… Hear ye, hear ye! Ye olde town crier proclaimed crappy by all! Chooseth Homer Simpson, and he shalt rock thy world! Chief Wiggum: Good God, he is fabulous. Skinner: Yes, he's embiggened that role with his cromulent performance.

It has subsequently been discovered that “embiggen” appeared in print in 1884, although almost nobody, including Simpsons writer Dan Greaney, was aware of this. Since the episode aired, the word has appeared in several scientific papers on string theory. Please tap below to suggest a word of the day