Glycolipid

gly•co•lip•id (noun)
an organic molecule that consists of a chain of sugars attached to a lipid; it is an important part of cell membranes and functions as cell identifiers.
Origin: Greek (glyco = pertaining to sugars from the greek /glykys/ = sweet, lipid = pertaining to nonpolar organic molecules from the greek /lypos/ = fat -- even though most lipids are fats, there are several molecules classified as lipids that are not fats)

~~~~~~~~~~

BUNNIES! I was so sure that the Disapproving Bunny was going to be on your list of most beloved cunicular creatures, but alas it was not. Although I must say, I LOVE PETER RABBIT =D I remember reading the books and watching the television show when I was young =P

Anyways, today's vonerdword is glycolipid because, if I am not mistaken, it is a portmanteau, meaning it is a word formed by two other words that exist in the same language. Glucose, a six-carbon containing sugar, is the root word of the first part, and lipid is the root word for the second, and both words are used extremely often in organic and biochemistry.

Portmanteaus exist in all languages; for example, in French, the word /portefeuille/ meaning "wallet" is derived from the words /apporter/ meaning "to bring (something)" and /feuille/ meaning "leaf/paper" so that a wallet is literally the object that allows you to bring your money papers with you.

Asian languages LOVE portmanteaus, and here is a list of my top five favourites (from Asian Languages)! (in no particular order whatsoever)

PS - HOORAY FOR THEME WEEK POSTS =D

 Exit
The word phrase for Exit (noun, as in: the building's exit is this way) is a portmanteau of the words "leave" and "mouth" therefore making the exit "the mouth (of the building) through which one leaves"

 Lobser
Just like how in English, animals are sometimes confusingly named for other animals (example: Sea Lions, Tiger Prawns, etc), Mandarin does the same. Chinese languages especially love using mythology. The word for Lobster in Mandarin and Cantonese is a portmanteau of the words "Dragon" and "Prawn/Shrimp" thus a lobster is a dragon-like prawn/shrimp.

 Butter
In Hokkien (a dialect from the province of Futian on the south east coast of China), the word for Milk is a portmanteau consisting of the words "Cow" and "Oil" making butter literally "cow's oil."

 Air Conditioning
In Cantonese, because air conditioning is a rather modern device, there did not exist a word for it, and thus when it was brought over to asia, it was translated into each of the languages differently. There are several different translations for Air Conditioning into Cantonese, but my favourite one is "Air Conditioning." This may not seem funny at first, until you realize that the word phrase for this in Cantonese consists of the word for "Air" (as in: the air people breathe) followed by the word for "Conditioner" (as in the hair product you use in the shower to soften your hair) thus literally making Air Conditioning "that which conditions/shampoos the air"

Telephone/Cell Phone
These two words kinda of count together because even though they're different, they're so similar that I feel they can count as one.
     As with Air Conditioning, Telephones are not a very old invention, and thus entered the asian vocabulary relatively recently (as opposed to most of the several-thousand-year old characters) and thus the word for telephone is a portmanteau of already existing characters. In Hokkien, the noun phrase/word for Telephone consists of the words "electricity/electric" with "word/speech/language." Thus, a telephone is "words/speech/language that is electronic," which is quite an accurate observation.
     For cell phones, in English, cell phone itself is already almost portmanteau-like, because it is made up of the words "cell" (as in: a bacterium is a single cell) and "phone," making it "phone that is cell-like/cell-sized (i.e. portable)" In Hokkien, Cell phone is translated by the words "hand" and "electricity/electric" (the same word used for telephone), thus making it the "electronic hand." I assume, since telephones were invented and translated before cell phones, that this mix came from trying to combine "telephone" with "hand" to denote a telephone that you hand hold in your hand (presumably anywhere; thus the word "hand" denotes the cell phone's portability and mobility, just as the word "cell" in english serves the same purpose) but only being able to use two characters for a word (rarely in any languages do portmanteaus consist of three or more words) and thus the "speech" part was dropped in favor of the electronic attribute of the cell phone, leading to the portmanteau as it is used today.

~~~~~~~~~~

OH MAH GOSH I'M GONNA EXPLODE XP

Yea, it's that time of term again: the first wave of midterms >_< I have one tomorrow (fungi), three next week (OChem, Multivariable Calc, and Fungi Lab), as well as one the week after (Cell Bio) =/ It's driving me insane! (just a little bit)

My brain hurts quite a bit, but I guess it's a good feeling; I certainly welcome it from the lack of mental activity during the summer, that's for sure! And it means that I'm actually learning stuff =D So in a way, brain ache is a good thing.

Last week in French, we wrote a quiz on the Present tense, Imperative tense, and pronouns, as well as an in-class paragraph. We got both of the assignments back yesterday, AND I GOT 85% ON BOTH OF THEM! I DO NOT SUCK AS MUCH AT FRENCH THAN I THOUGH I DID! HAPPINESS! At least this means that *potentially* French won't suck and I won't fail at life and my average won't be lower than last year and I may have a shot at getting into the Honours program that I want to =D! I'm being optimistic (for now...) We'll have to see how things go after midterms, though. That could TOTALLY change everything.

Anyways, I hope you are well and school is going well for you! I'm glad you're learning and growing into an even more amazing person than you already are =)

Chat soon,
~Tim~