Sub judice

Today’s word of the day (expression of the day?) is sub judice, an adverb indicating something is under judicial deliberation or before a judge or court of law. One might write, “When a case is pending or is ongoing, those connected with the case must refrain from talking about it to anyone because it is sub judice.”

A similar term is coram judice, before a judge having legal jurisdiction of the matter.

And there’s me judice, which means, “I being the judge” or “in my opinion.” An example use: “You have a fine chance (me judice) at this moment to put the popular feeling toward England into verse which shall ring from one end of the country to the other.”

Alectryomancy

Today’s word of the day is alectryomancy, an ancient practice of foretelling events by means of a rooster. The letters of the alphabet were traced on the ground in squares within a circle, and a grain of corn was placed on each; a rooster was then permitted to pick up the grains, and the letters under them, being formed into words in the order of their selection by the rooster, were supposed to foretell the event. Sometimes written alectoromancy.

Captious

Today’s word of the day is captious, which is used to describe a nitpicker or a person apt to notice and make much of unimportant faults or defects, who is disposed to find fault or raise objections, who is prone to cavil, or who is difficult to please.

Vug

Today’s word of the day is vug (or vough), a small cavity in a rock or mineral vein, often with a lining of different composition from that of the surrounding rock. It’s a miners’ name for that which geologists more generally call a geode. A synonym is druse.

Lambent

Today’s word of the day is lambent, meaning “flickering lightly over or on a surface,” “effortlessly light or brilliant” or “having a gentle glow; luminous.”