Category: L
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Lethargy
A condition of indifference or drowsiness. A state in which someone is not mentally alert, has slow movements and is almost inactive. Lack of energy; drowsiness. State of sluggishness, apathy, unresponsiveness; found in certain diseases (e.g., sleeping sickness). A feeling of dullness, sluggishness, weariness, and fatigue. A degree of inactivity and unresponsiveness approaching or verging…
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Larvicidal
Larvae killing (especially of parasites).
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Lameness
A state of being incapable of normal locomotion. The inability to walk normally because of pain, stiffness or damage in a leg or foot. Limping, abnormal gait, or hobbling resulting from partial loss of function in a leg. The symptom may be due to maldevelopment, injury, or disease.
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Lactogogue
A substance which stimulates the flow of milk.
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Lunch
From the mid fourteenth to the late sixteenth century, the repast we now call lunch was known not as luncheon but as nuncheon. The word nuncheon developed from noon schenche, the word schenche having derived from an Old English word meaning drink. A noon schenche, therefore, was literally a drink taken at noon, though naturally…
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Lukewarm
Water can exist at many different temperatures, but only three of those temperatures have specific names: freezing, boiling, and lukewarm. Further, while freezing and boiling are determined by the molecular structure of the water itself (becoming a solid at 0° Celsius and a vapour at 100° Celsius), lukewarm is uniquely determined by the body temperature…
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Loquat
The pear-shaped fruit known as the loquat takes its name from the Cantonese luh kwat, meaning rush orange, so named because it grows best in marshy soil among rushes. One of the Cantonese words represented in loquat also appears in kumquat, a small citron fruit whose name means gold orange. Kumquat appeared in English at…
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Long pig
The culinary term long pig arose as an English translation of a Maori name for human flesh prepared for the dinner table. It is unclear whether the Maoris thought humans resembled pigs because of their delicious flavour or because of their beastly behaviour. The eighteenth-century satirist Jonathan Swift, however, asserted in A Modest Proposal that…
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Lobster
Until the eighteenth century when Swedish scientist Carolus Linnaeus established the modern system of classifying animals, philosophers and scientists used a zoological system devised in the fourth century B.C. by Aristotle, who began by dividing animals into those with red blood and those with not-red blood. This rough and ready approach to classification explains why…
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Loblolly
In the sixteenth century, life on board a ship beetling across the Atlantic Ocean was rather dreary: extracurricular activities were limited to rum, sodomy, and the lash, and illness was prevalent due to poor food, close quarters, and tossing waves. Sick sailors were often fed loblolly, a thick gruel whose peculiar name might seem reminiscent…