barometz means A purported zoophyte, half-animal and half-plant, said to grow in the form of a sheep. It carries an Arena rating of 1409, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, barometz ranks #88 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #182 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #369 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #640 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words.
barometz is pronounced /ˈbæɹəmɛts/.
Why “barometz” is a great word
A legendary zoophyte said to resemble a sheep, or the golden chicken fern (Cibotium barometz) whose woolly rhizome gave rise to the myth. Probably from Russian баране́ц (baranéc, 'a species of club moss'), from бара́н (barán, 'ram') + -ец (-ec, diminutive suffix). Unlike 'zoophyte,' a cold taxonomic term for corals and sponges, or 'mandrake,' with its shrieking, humanoid magic, the barometz is a specific pastoral phantom, a creature of Tartarian steppes where myth and botany tangle. It is the curled, felted rhizome mistaken for a sleeping lamb in a sun-dappled glade; the medieval engraving of a gentle beast cropping the grass around its own navel; and the botanical grotesque where the fleece is root and the blood is sap—a quiet testament to the old hunger for the world to be more porous than it is.
Etymology
Possibly a corruption of Russian баране́ц (baranéc, “species of club moss (genus Lycopodium)”, from бара́н (barán, “ram (male sheep)”) + -ец (-ec, diminutive suffix)).
noun
- A purported zoophyte, half-animal and half-plant, said to grow in the form of a sheep.
- A golden chicken fern or woolly fern (Cibotium barometz), the rhizomes of which are covered in furry brown hair; the legend (sense 1) is supposed to have arisen because, when inverted, the rhizomes with stalks growing out of them resemble lambs.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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