[Sca-cooks] Fwd: A.Word.A.Day--albedo

[Sandra Kisner]

Since the list seems quiet...

Has anybody heard this use of the word before?   I've only ever heard "pith."

Sandra

>Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:03:06 -0400
>From: Wordsmith <wsmith at wordsmith.org>
>To: linguaphile at wordsmith.org
>Subject: A.Word.A.Day--albedo
>
>Some of the most interesting, unusual words describe everyday things. Who
>would have thought that the fleshy, spongy, white thing inside an orange
>had a word for itself... and that it would share it with astronomers? Or
>that it would have the same ancestor as the words for an egg part, a photo
>book, or the smearing of a canvas?
>
>What all these words have in common is whiteness or albus, Latin for white.
>Albumen is egg white, an album is a book with white pages, and when we daub
>a sheet of paper, we de-albus it. Ah, the joy of words! Let's look at a few
>other words for odds and ends this week.
>
>albedo (al-BEE-doh) noun
>
>    1. The fraction of light reflected from a body or surface.
>       For example, earth's albedo is around 0.39.
>
>    2. The white, spongy inner lining of a citrus fruit rind.
>
>[From Latin albedo (whiteness), Latin albus (white).]
>
>-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
>
>   "The more powerful magnetic fields generated by the Sun during maximum
>    activity are known to block many of the particles, which would
>    theoretically lead to less cloud cover and less reflection, or a lower
>    albedo."
>    James Glanz; Scientists Find Way to Gauge Earth's Glow; The New York 
> Times;
>    Apr 21, 2001.
>
>   "We don't need to tell you that oranges are full of vitamin C. But did you
>    know that the white membrane under the skin, called the albedo, contains
>    almost as much C as the flesh of the fruit itself?
>    Myra Kornfeld; Giving Thanks; Vegetarian Times (Stamford, Connecticut);
>    Nov 2000.