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Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 02:02:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: wsmith@wordsmith.org
To: linguaphile@wordsmith.org
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--septum
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septum (SEP-tuhm) noun, plural septa (SEP-tuh)

   A dividing wall, in an animal or a plant. For example, the partition
   between the nostrils.

[Latin saeptum, partition, from neuter of saeptus, past participle of
saepire, to enclose, from saepes, fence.]

   "A 10-year-old Massachusetts girl wound up in hospital after trying to
   achieve the pierced nose look with a magnetic earring on her nostril...
   The magnets were so powerful that they had broken from the rings and
   become embedded on either side of the nasal septum, out of reach of
   available medical instruments."
   U.S. Girl Gets Painful Lesson in Attraction, Reuters, May 13, 1998.

This week's theme: words to describe odds and ends.

............................................................................
When it is dark enough, you can see the stars. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer
and philosopher (1803-1882)

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Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/septum.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/septum.ram