Word To Use Today: quadrat.

 They say you are never more than ten feet from a rat - but that's not true, because there are many places rats don't go. You're safe from rats in Antarctica, for a start, and also, usually, driving along major roads. 

Hang-gliders tend to be rat-free, too.

But the word quadrat, echoing quadbike as it does, raises all kinds of terrible possibilities. Rats are intelligent, so is it only a matter of time before they invent some kind of vehicle which will enable them to travel everywhere and take over the whole world? Will we look out and see small rat-cars weaving smartly through the lanes of the motorways?

Well, no, quite frankly.

Phew.

It is quite possible, in fact, to find a genuine live rat on a quadrat, but it won't be driving it anywhere because a quadrat is a square of ground, usually with sides a metre in length, used for biological study.

Is this a relief or a slight disappointment?

Personally, I'm wondering about writing a story about techno-rats.

Word To Use Today: quadrat. This word has been around since the 1300s, when it meant square. The word is a variation of the word quadrant, which cones from the Latin word quadrāns, which means a quarter.