Category: D
-
Demijohn
Although demijohn is a good name for a washroom containing no bathtub or sink, it actually refers to a wine bottle or vinegar jug whose body is fitted with a wicker-work casing. Demijohn, in fact, has nothing to do with the name John, but instead is an English corruption of the French dame-jeanne, a name…
-
Delicious
In the sixteenth century, a diarist writing about an especially enjoyable meal might have jotted down that it was delishous, a spelling that (to my mind) looks more delicious than delicious. The now-standard spelling, however, is etymologically more correct, since delicious derives from the Latin delicere, meaning to entice. The word delight derives from the…
-
Deipnosophist
A person who excels at dinner-table conversation is a deipnosophist. The word, which appeared in English in the mid seventeenth century, was taken from the title of a third-century Greek work by Athenaeus that describes the erudite discussions that take place among a group of men as they partake of a banquet. Athenaeus created the…
-
Dark meat
The terms dark meat and white meat came about during the 1870s in the United States as euphemisms for respectively the breast and legs of a cooked chicken. Rather than say such naughty words-which might cause the gentleman at the table to start thinking about the breasts and legs of the gentlewomen, which might cause…
-
Dariole
Like custard, the word dariole was, back in the early fifteenth century, the name o fa savoury pastry filled with meat; also like custard, the word dariole eventually shifted its sense and came to mean a sweet dessert made from milk, eggs, and sugar. Unlike custard, however, dariole shifted its sense once more as it…
-
Drosophila
The name of a type of fruit fly that is commonly used in genetics experiments; due to its short life cycle (14 days) and simple genome (four chromosome pairs). Because of this, a large base of knowledge about Drosophila genetics has been accumulated by the world’s scientific community. A genus of very small flies, commonly…
-
Down promoter mutations
Those mutations that decrease the frequency of initiation of transcription. Down promoter mutations lead to the production of less mRNA than is the case in the nonmutated state.
-
Double helix
The natural coiled conformation of two complementary, antiparallel DNA chains. This structure was first put forward by Watson and Crick in 1953.
-
Donor junction
The junction between the left 5′ end of an exon and the right 3′ end of an intron.
-
Don
Abbreviation for the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol, which is produced by Fusarium flingi DON. Also known as “vomitoxin,” because it can cause some animals to vomit if they consume it.