Word To Use Today: stillicide.

 Well, stillicide must mean either making a huge amount of noise on a quiet day, or else breaking up some liquor-making equipment, yes?

Well, actually no. Neither of those.

This may be New Year's Eve, and a day when we are supposed to think about the death of the old year and the dawn of a new one - and admittedly a -cide ending is very often to do with killing someone or something - but, hey, there's enough misery around as it is.

Stillicide is a legal right or duty (and how refreshing, if unfashionable, to have those two concepts mentioned in the same sentence) to do with rainwater running off a roof.

photo by skitterphoto

I love this word. I gives me faith that I live among kind and civilised people, and that, on the whole, things will be all right.

rainy day in Nottingham. Photo by Alan Murray-Rust

Word To Use Today: stillicide. This word comes from the Latin stillicidium, from stilla, a drop, plus cadere, to fall.