vermiculation
/vɚˌmɪkjuˈleɪʃ(ə)n/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
13
Letters
5
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A pattern of irregular wavy lines resembling worms or their casts or tracks, found on the plumage of birds, used to decorate artworks and buildings, etc.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Peristalsis (“wave-like contraction of the digestive tract, resembling the movement of a worm”).
Countable; Dated; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "But yet the queſtion would be, whether Flyes are not immediately generated of putrefaction, and not thoſe of worms. For experience witneſſeth that there are a certain kinde of Flies which are begotten in the back of the Elm, Turpentine-tree, Wormwood, and ſo perchance in other herbs and plants, without any preceding vermiculation, or being turned into little worms firſt."
- "The violent and voyeuristic imagery of the transi tombs, particularly in the horrific detailing of vermiculation, had a ghoulish counterpart in the 'grim coupling', the 'shaking of the sheets' of the danse macabre[…]."
- "The sermon rehearses [John] Donne's phobic obsession with putrefaction, vermiculation, dissolution, and dispersal."
- "74 ter A.—Scops gymnopodus. Gr. […] [F]eathers of the crown varied with blackish mesial streaks; the cross vermiculations being also rather coarser than on the back, all with concealed tawny buff bases, but very few with any indications of a subterminal buff bar, so that the general appearance of the head is very uniform; […]"
- "As a matter of fact its narrow ornate façade presented not a single quiet space that the eyes might rest on after a tiring attempt to follow and codify the arabesques, foliations, and intricate vermiculations of what some disrespectfully dubbed as "near-aissance.""
- "The new building at the château of Joigny (begun 1569) has some interesting bits of classical composition very sober for the time. […] The outer gatehouse […] added by [Gaspard II de] Coligny to his château of Tanlay (1570) is an excellently proportioned building with effective use of rustication to give strength to the basement, the blocks being treated with patterns of anchors, waves, and ropes in lieu of vermiculation and in allusion to the owner's office of admiral."
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin vermiculātiōnem, from vermiculor (“to be worm-eaten, to be wormy”) + -tiō (suffix forming nouns relating to actions or the results of actions) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *-tis (suffix forming abstract or action nouns from verb roots)). The Latin verb is from vermis (“worm”) (from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis (“worm”), possibly from *wer- (“to turn”)).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /vɚˌmɪkjuˈleɪʃ(ə)n/
- British English: /vəmɪkjʊˈleɪʃ(ə)n/