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Monday 25 February 2019

Spot the Frippet: something obovoid.

Something ovoid is shaped like an egg, so what does something obovoid look like?

Well, it's shaped like an egg, too, but with the gloriously pernickety difference that while something ovoid is egg-shaped with the broader end at the base, something obovoid is something egg-shaped with the narrow end at the base.

File:Rocky Mountain flowers - an illustrated guide for plant-lovers and plant-users (1920) (14598276899).jpg
This illustration is supposed to have an obovoid leaf in it. I suppose it's the one fourth from the left at the bottom.

This, below, is the obovoid fruiting body of the studded sea balloon, a sort of brown algae:

Illustrations of Soranthera ulvoidea

Now, I accept that you're unlikely to come across any brown algae on your day's commute to work or school, but a look at a fruit stall or a garden for obovoid objects might be interesting.

species of plant

(Interesting, too that according to botanists the base of a grape is where it is attached to the stalk, ie at the top.)


This obovoid fruit is Citrus maxima

If all else fails, there are only four shapes of people, and three of them are ovoid, obovoid, and egg-timer.

The other is toast-shaped, or flat.

Which is the commonest where you are?

Spot the Frippet: something obovoid. Ob- means upside down or back to front; the ovoid bit comes from the Latin ōvum, egg.



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