Thing To Do Today: imbricate something.

...it made the stars, the night, seem to wait, as if the story, narrative history, lay imbricated in the nature of things; and the cosmos was for the story, not the story for the cosmos.

I'm reading The Magus by John Fowles (no idea what it's all about, yet, sorry) and came across that passage last night. It's impressive, but as I didn't know what imbricated meant it was completely baffling.

So I looked it up.

To imbricate something means to arrange its pieces so that the edges overlap like roof tiles:


photo by wtclark

A game of patience will often involve imbricating the playing cards; a bread and butter pudding can be artfully imbricated; so is the index-edge of an address book; or a very tidy bra drawer; or open books ready to be signed by an author.

Usually, though, the word is used to describe things from the natural world like scales or petals:


mespilus germanica: imbricated petals. Photo by Nadiatalent

It's satisfying to have discovered a new word. 

Sadly, however, it hasn't helped me in the slightest with understanding that line of The Magus.

Ah well.

Thing To Do Today: imbricate something. This word comes from the Latin word imbrex, which means roof tile, from imber, a shower of rain.