Posts tagged ‘Century Dictionary’

Word of the day: ossarium

(o-sā’ri-um), n,; pl. ossaria (-iä). [LL.: see ossuary.] An urn or other receptacle for the bones or ashes of the dead; an ossuary.

Source: Century Dictionary Online.

“Keep your eye on that spot,” William said to me. “There could be a passage leading to the Aedificium.”

“Under the cemetry?”

“And why not? In fact, now that I think about it, there must be an ossarium somewhere; they can’t possibly have buried all their monks for centuries in that patch of ground.”

Source: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.



placitum (plas’i-tum), n.; pl. placita (-ta). [ML. see placit, plea.] In the Middle Ages, a public assembly of all degrees of men, where the sovereign presided, usually summoned to consult upon great affairs of state; hence, a resolution taken by such an assembly; also, a penalty or fine, or a plea or suit.

Source: The Century Dictionary Online.

Nor, for that matter, could I call Salvatore’s speech a language, because in every human language there are rules and every term signifies ad placitum a thing, according to a law that does not change

Source: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.