The Dombo Archives - Useful Idiom

QYX - You all know the feeling: you're writing a paper and you spend hours on not finding the right word that captures exactly what you want to express. Again, DOMBO is here to help you with a new series of useful words and their meanings.

All words in this series have been taken from "Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words" (Grafton Books, 1989) and they have been selected if they were considered useful for inclusion in future papers concerning protein crystallography. In an effort to further inspire you to actually use these words, we give an example of a possible use of most words.

Historian's note: The entries on this page were published in Dombo, the "newsletter" of the joint protein crystallography laboratories at Uppsala's (that's in Sweden) two universities. If you are not a crystallographer (and this page is read a lot more often by people with real jobs than by crystallographers), some of the example sentences may strike you as a trifle outlandish or unintelligible. Don't worry: there is nothing wrong with your browser - it is the author who should be committed !

ABECEDARIAN: beginner ("the experiments were carried out by an a.")
ACALCULIA: inability to work with numbers ("further refinement will be attempted when we have overcome our a. problem")
ACHAETOUS: hairless ("we wish to report a novel, a. seeding technique")
ACHLOROPHYLLACEOUS: colourless ("the crystals were a.")
ACICULAR: needle-shaped ("the crystals were a.")
ACINIFORM: formed like a grape cluster ("the crystals aggregated to form a. clusters")
ADSCITITIOUS: supplementary, extra ("a list of structure factors is provided in the a. material to this paper")
ADUMBRATE: to outline ("in this paper we shall a. the theory behind this new achaetous seeding technique")
AGNOGENIC: of unknown cause ("the cause for this phenomenon is still a.")
AICHMOPHOBIA: fear of needles ("the crystals were acicular, which was rather unfortunate for the student who had to mount them since he suffers from a.")
ALBESCENT: becoming white; whitish ("upon exposure to air, the crystals become a.")
ALEATORY: relying on chance ("protein crystallisation is very much an a. venture")
ALGORISM: computation ("further a. to investigate this phenomenon are underway")
ALLOCHROOUS: multicoloured; changing colour ("the crystals showed a. behaviour over a period of three weeks")
ALOGISM: absurdity ("the a. in their work is quite obvious")
AMPHIGEAN: found throughout the world ("ubiquitin is indeed an a. protein")
ANACAMPTIC: reflecting; reflected ("the collective result of this a. behaviour is called a dataset")
ANAPODICTIC: undemonstrable ("since this theory is a. we omit its proof")
ANIDIAN: shapeless ("the crystals were a.")
ANNOTINOUS: a year old ("a. crystals were used")
ANTILOGOUS: contrary; inconsistent ("this group's findings are a. to ours")
APODICTIC: clearly and undeniably true ("clearly, our findings are a.")
APOSTERIORISTIC: inductive; pertaining to empirical knowledge ("a. evidence which supports our theory is abundant")
APPLANATE: flattened out ("the solvent was a.")
APPROPINQUATE: to approach ("the RMS delta of our bond distances a. zero after 65 cycles of PROLSQ")
APROSEXIA: inability to concentrate ("due to a., we had to use nanomolar solutions")
ARAPHOROSTIC: seamless ("the crystals were perfect a. twins")
ARCHAEOLATRY: worship of anything archaic ("because of our project leader's a., we had to use FRODO on a PS300")
ARISTARCHIAN: extremely critical ("pH was an a. factor in the crystallisation experiments")
ARROGATE: to claim unjustly ("the discovery of this phenomenon was a. by the group of X")
ASANKA: 10⁴⁵ ("R-factors on the order of a. are bad news") [NOTE: do not confuse with ASSANKA = 10⁶³!]
ASSEVERATE: to state positively or emphatically ("we would like to a. that ...")
ASSUETUDE: custom or habit ("it is a good a. in our lab to ...")
ASTEREOGNOSIS: having lost the ability to recognise the shapes of objects by touch ("due to severe a. we had to use a microscope for mounting our crystals")
ATRICHIA: baldness ("due to a., X had to use whiskers for seeding")
AUTOPTIC: pertaining to evidence based on observation ("we have collected an a. body of evidence to support our theory")
AXIOLOGY: a branch of philosophy dealing with values ("R-a. is another word for studying R-values")
AZYGOUS: odd, unpaired ("radicals are characterised by an a. electron")
BACILLARY: rod-shaped; pertaining to bacilli ("the crystals of this b. protein were b.")
BARMECIDE: deceptive, false ("it is easy to draw b. conclusions from a single observation")
BEAUTILLITARIANISM: practical art; the conception of beauty ("protein crystallisation is b.")
BIBLIOTAPH: one who hides books ("which b. has taken my copy of Blundell & Johnson ?")
BIDUOUS: lasting two days ("unfortunately, the crystals turned out to be b.")
BIPAROUS: bearing twins ("the mother liquor was b.")
BOANTHROPY: type of insanity in which a man thinks he's an ox ("maybe b. can explain this post-doc's fascination with cows")
BODACIOUSLY: completely ("the structure has been refined b. to 1.5 Å resolution")
BOMBOUS: rounded ("the crystals were b. at the edges")
BORBORYGM: the noise made by gas in the bowels ("the role of this protein in the process of b. remains a mystery")
BRACHYLOGY: brevity; condensation omitting all non-essentials ("an abstract should be written with b.")
BRIMBORION: something useless or nonsensical ("this seminar was a boring b.")
BROBDINGNAGIAN: gigantic, enormous ("the girl had b. crystals")
BRUIT: to tell publicly ("one usually doesn't b. about negative results")
BYSSUS: an elegant mummy-wrapping fabric ("we used b. fibres for seeding")
CATAGELOPHOBIA: fear of being ridiculed ("c. prevented us from publishing our findings for which X has now received the Nobel Prize")
CHALYBEOUS: steel-blue ("we obtained beautiful c. crystals")
CHEIMAPHILIC: fond of cold ("the c. student was always working in the coldroom")
CHILIAD: one thousand [years] ("the slow-cool from four c. Kelvin seemed to consume a c. of CPU time")
CHOLANGIOCHOLECYSTOCHOLEDOCHECTOMY: cutting out of the hepatic duct, common bile duct, and gall bladder ("should the compound prove active in humans as well, then many c. could be prevented every year")
CHRYSOPHILIST: gold-lover ("the only heavy-atom derivatives we could obtain with this c. protein were with Au-compounds")
CINGULAR: ring-shaped ("oddly enough, we obtained only a single, c. crystal when we ultra-centrifuged the solution")
CLISHPEN: to break something by dropping it ("try not to c. your glassware")
COARCT/COMPESCE: to restrain ("you should c. your geometry a trifle more")
COMMENTITIOUS: imaginary ("phases are merely the c. result of a Fourier transformation")
COMPLECT: to connect together ("first try to c. your bones until you have something that looks like a protein")
CONNATE: having the same origin ("the two c. crystals couldn't have been more different in their diffracting behaviour")
CONQUASSATE: to shake violently ("NEVER c. the mother liquor")
CONSARCINATION: the act of patching ("after some c. the program even worked for Janet's PDB files")
CORADICATE: derived from the same root ("/bin and /man are c. directories")
COWAN: a non-Mason who claims membership in order to penetrate Masonry's dark secrets ("do you think that Sandra C. just came to Uppsala in order to penetrate crystallography's dark secrets ?")
CREODONT: a primitive, carnivorous, small-brained mammal ("the definition of a c. seems to have been devised with this Dutch post-doc in mind")
CWM: a steep hollow in a mountain ("when you are refining your structure, you must always be aware of the danger of falling into a local energy c.")
DACNOMANIAC: person with a mania for killing ("which d. killed -9 my XPLOR job ?")
DASYPYGAL: having hairy buttocks ("being d. crystallographers, we used our own hairs for seeding")
DAEDAL: ingenious, highly skilled, intricate and varied ("MOLEMAN is a d. little program")
DEFENESTRATE: throw out of a window ("you don't d. a computer just because the window manager d. you")
DEFOEDATION: pollution ("first, purify your protein to get rid of any d.")
DELENDA: things to be deleted ("the first draft of a manuscript usually turns out to be a collection of d.")
DELIQUESCE: to dissolve by absorbing moisture from the air ("unfortunately, the crystals d. after three days")
DELITISCENT: hidden ("if you type 'ls -al' you can see your d. files")
DELPHIC: ambiguous ("the results of their analysis are a trifle d.")
DEPHLEGMATE: to distil ("always d. your organic solvents before using them")
DEPREDICATE: to publish ("somehow he always managed to d. in the best journals")
DERODIDYMUS: two-headed monster ("to most people, a twinned crystal is like a d.")
DESECATE: to cut off ("we used a three-sigma criterion to d. our reflections")
DESPARPLE: to scatter ("the crystal didn't seem to want to d. the X-rays to any noticeable extent")
DESUETUDE: disuse ("FRODO is in a state of d. in our lab")
DEWDROPPER: one who sleeps by day and plays by night ("most of the computer enthusiasts in our lab are d.")
DIANOETIC: pertaining to logical reasoning ("their theory sounds very d., but it's a load of crap")
DIASKEUASIS: editorial revision ("some journals manage to screw up your papers in the process of d.")
DICACITY: oral playfulness ("it was hard to tell whether d. or capacity had lead to her professorship")
DIFFUGIENT: scattering ("this crystal isn't very d.")
DIGONEUTIC: reproducing twice a year ("speaking of slow photocopiers, ours seems to be d.")
DILDO: a West Indian cactus with pink flower ("the protein was isolated from five thousand d.")
DIMIDIATE: to halve ("try to d. your R-factor")
DIPTYCH: anything folded in two ("the protein is an almost perfect d.")
DITOKOUS: producing twins ("the mother liquor turned out to be d.")
DOLICHOPROSOPIC: having a disproportionately long face ("as the unit cell constants show, the crystals are rather d.")
DYSANIA: having a hard time waking up in the morning ("the new post-doc suffered from severe d.")
EAN: to give birth ("the mother liquor e. a shower of needles")
ECDEMIC: of foreign origin ("we have lots of e. academics in our lab")
ECHOPRAXIA: habit of mimicking people ("e. leads to me-too science")
ECLAIRCISSEMENT: clarification ("we haven't received any e. regarding the budget cuts yet")
ECOPHOBIA: fear of home ("some people spend so much time in the lab you begin to wonder whether they suffer from e.")
EDULCORATE: to purify ("maybe the protein should have been further e.")
EESOME: pleasing to the eye ("my new crystals are enormously e.")
EGEST: to excrete ("this protein is e. by healthy cells")
EGLOMERATE: to unwind ("at room temperature the protein e. rapidly")
EGOTHEISM: self-deification ("the professor suffered from e. but, unfortunately for him, all his students were atheists")
EIDETIC: pertaining to the ability of visualising anything previously seen ("when it comes to protein folds, Brändén is the most e. person I know")
EISTEDDFOD: annual assembly of Welsh poets and musicians ("no, professor Jones isn't here; he's off to the e. conference in Cwmbrmwrddll")
ELLIPSIS: deletion of words from a sentence ("PhD-student first draft manuscript always suffer e.")
EMBULALIA: insertion of nonsense into speech ("e. is an old trick to check if your audience is still paying attention")
EMPRESSEMENT: extreme politeness ("whatever happened to that good old Swedish e. ?")
ENATATION: escape by swimming ("e. is when your crystal floats out of your capillary while you're not watching")
ENCHIRIDION: manual ("who took my "O"-e. ?")
ENDOGAMOUS: pertaining to marriage within one's group ("we have at least ten e. scientists in our lab")
ENERGUMEN: fanatic ("that e. worked on his averaging until 5 a.m.")
ENIGMATOLOGY: science of solving enigmas ("before using Unix, first take a course in e.")
ENSYNOPTICITY: ability of taking a general view of something ("if you can twist the zoom dial in "O", you have e.")
ENTHEOMANIA: abnormal state in which one thinks one is inspired ("whenever I feel e. coming up, I go home and get some sleep")
EOPROLIGERY: ability to reproduce early ("e. is when you manage to consistently get one crystal form if you set up your drops before 6 a.m.")
EPEXEGETIC: pertaining to further explanation ("you have to be a bit more e. when you write about the structure-function relations")
EPHEMEROMORPH: low form of life which defies animal or vegetable classification ("the student got depressed when his supervisor called him an e.")
EPICARICACY: taking pleasure in others' misfortune ("many scientists suffer from severe e.")
EPIDEICTIC: impressive; for display purposes ("our ESVs are mainly e.")
EPILEGOMENON: added remark ("that snob calls a note-added-in-proof an e.")
ERGASIOPHOBIA: fear of or aversion to work ("there's no place for e. in our lab")
ERGOPHILE: someone who loves work ("there's no place for e. in their lab")
ESQUAMATE: having no scales ("if you just concatenate two reflection files you'll get an e. dataset")
ESQUISSE: preliminary sketch or model ("the next slide shows an e. of the structure")
ETESIAN: annual; every Summer ("we propose to make this Workshop an e. event")
ET UX(OR): "and wife" ("the rubisco review of X. et ux. was well received")
EUMORPHOUS: well-shaped ("we obtained big e. crystals")
EUODIC: aromatic ("have you tried any e. ligands ?")
EVULGATE: to publish ("e. or perish")
EXCEREBROSE: acerebral, having no brains ("why do I always get the e. students ?")
EXIGUOUS: scanty, little, small, meagre ("twenty-odd years of e. results eventually led to his Nobel Prize")
EXIMIOUS: excellent ("that's an e. piece of work")
EXOPTABLE: extremely desirable ("the most e. addition to "O" would be a Spink-option")
EXORDIUM: introduction of a treatise ("most people only read the e. of a PhD-thesis (and then only to see if they are acknowledged or referenced ...)")
EXOTERIC: adapted for the layman ("to put it in e. terms: your theory is a load of bull")
EXPONIBLE: needing further explanation ("that's an e. remark, young man")
EYESERVICE: work done only when the boss is watching ("the lazy student had perfected the art of e.")
FACIENT: multiplier ("you should use a f. of 100 in es_mappage")
FANFARONADE: braggadocio ("their preliminary results were announced with the same f. as cold fusion")
FARD: to minimise a fault ("lsq_explicit fards")
FARRAGINOUS: mixed; heterogeneous ("they tried to obtain f. dimers")
FARTLEBERRIES: CENSORED (a.k.a. cling-ons, dilberries and dingleberries) ("you can't use those hairs for seeding if they contain f. !")
FATISCENT: having cracks ("alas, I just got more f. crystals")
FEAK: a lock of hair ("give me a f. and I'll streak")
FENKS: leftover whale blubber used as manure ("ten mg of protein was painstakingly isolated from 3,000 kg f.")
FERRUMINATE: to unite ("most force fields employ f. atoms; hydrogen atoms are for NMR spectroscopists")
FLABELLATION: cooling ("when does the R-Axis get a f. facility ?")
FLAVESCENT: yellowish ("his crystals have the same f. colour as his underwear")
FLEXANIMOUS: mentally flexible ("the retired crystallographer was still surprisingly f.")
FLOCCIFY: to consider worthless ("Maria f. the micro-crystals")
FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION: the categorising of something as worthless trivia ("he was insulted by his colleague's f. of his results")
FRIGORIFIC: producing cold ("I keep my crystals in the f. room")
GNOMONICS: the science of dial construction ("before using "O", take a course in g.")
GOOGOL: ten to the power 100 ("Molecular Dynamics on the millisecond time-scale still takes a g. hours of CPU-time")
GUNNEL: a small, slimy elongate marine blenny found on both sides of the Atlantic ("the protein was isolated from 60 kilos of g.")
GUTTATIM: drop by drop ("she examined her tray g.")
GYNOTIKOLOBOMASSOPHILE: one who likes to nibble on a woman's earlobe ("since the professor was a g., none of the women in his lab ever said that they were all ear")
HABNAB: at random; hit or miss ("his h. mutations haven't been very successful")
HADEHARIA: constant use of the word "hell" ("is sanguohadeharia the constant use of the expression "bloody hell" then ?")
HALOID: saltlike ("we obtained small h. crystals")
HARENGIFORM: herring-shaped ("why are my sill-y crystals h. ?")
HERMENEUTICS: the study of interpretation ("O is a program for electronodensitohermeneutics")
HETEROCLITE: irregular, unorthodox, abnormal ("the h. crystallisation conditions gave rise to h. crystals")
HOLOCRYPTIC: incapable of being deciphered without a key ("Unix Fortran compilers tend to give h. error messages")
HWYL: an emotional outburst of eloquence ("the Welsh professor claimed that he had re-invented the h.")
HYPERBOREAN: northern; any Arctic peoples ("no, h. doesn't mean that they're extremely boring")
HYPERMNESIA: unusually sharp memory ("Erling cut his finger while replacing some of the Indigo's h.")
IATROGENIC: illness caused by doctors ("if you got the virus from Dr. Sz. it means your flu is i.")
IATROMISIA: dislike of doctors ("even a glut of affable post-docs couldn't cure her i.")
IDIOLALIA: mental state characterised by use of invented language ("I can't help but suspect that theoreticians suffer from i.")
IDONEOUS: apt; suitable ("no crystals were i. for mounting")
ILLATION: inference, conclusion ("it may be shocking, but it's not an illicit i.")
ILLUMINATI: people who claim exceptional spiritual or intellectual insight ("did you know that there are no fewer than sixteen i. in all of Finland ?")
IMBIBITION: absorption ("what's the i. coefficient at 450 nm ?")
INCONDITE: crude, unfinished ("this slide shows the i. model before refinement")
INCUNABULA: the early stages of anything ("you don't worry too much about the R-factors in the i. of your refinement")
INFAUST: unlucky ("one i. movement of the hand and the crystal was gone")
INFUNDIBULAR: funnel-shaped ("the substrate binds in an i. crevice on the protein surface")
INNASCIBLE: without a beginning ("the first draft of the paper was i.")
INNUBILOUS: cloudless; clear ("after some stirring we obtained an i. solution")
INTERSILIENT: suddenly emerging in the midst of something ("when you see i. holes in your tyrosine rings you know you're getting close")
JACINTHE: (n.) a brilliant reddish-yellow ("they called their clever sunburnt Japanese student j.")
JARGOGLE: to mess up ("if you j. your structure, press control-C")
JERQUE: to search for smuggled goods ("when travelling alone, that post-doc invariably gets j. by Swedish customs officials")
KOPOPHOBIA: fear of physical or mental exhaustion ("everybody in their lab seems to suffer from k.")
KYLIE: the Australian boomerang ("only Jason Donovan would nickname his k. "Minogue" ...")
LALOCHEZIA: talking dirty ("her room is a haven for people who suffer from l.")
LAPLING: someone who enjoys resting in women's laps ("the little Samish lapling enjoyed resting in female Laps' laps")
LATEBRICOLE: living in holes ("I've located 69 l. crystal waters so far")
LIRIPOOP: trick ("we use a little l. for mounting that type of crystal")
LONGICAUDAL: having a long tail ("at the C-terminus the protein is l.")
LUCULENT: clear, transparent, shining ("when will we ever get l. crystals ...")
LUTULENT: muddy, turbid, thick ("well, not while your drops look so l. !")
MAMMOCK: a shapeless piece ("you dare call that m. a crystal ?")
MATAEOTECHNY: an unprofitable science ("nope, academic protein crystallography is definitely a m.")
MEABLE: easily penetrated ("the cavity appears to be rather m.")
MERKIN: false pubic hair ("in the original publication they used m. for seeding")
METAGNOSTIC: unknowable ("why do phases have to be m. ?")
MISOSCOPIST: hater of beauty ("the m. microscopist was unimpressed by his crystals")
MOIETY: a half (!) ("it's a bit of an overstatement to call the carboxylate group a m. !")
MORPHOUS: having a definite form ("I keep getting m. precipitates")
MULTIVERSANT: infinitely variable ("if dihedrals weren't m., we could solve the protein-folding problem")
NEXUS: connection, link ("residues 78 to 85 form the n. between the two domains")
NOESIS: conceptual knowledge ("the PhD-candidate was found lacking in n.")
NOLL-ME-TANGERETARIAN: rigid, unbending ("use XPLOR to do fifty cycles of n. corpus refinement")
NULLIBIQUITOUS: non-existent ("you mean you wasted two days of beam time on a n. crystal ?")
NYCHTHEMERON: a 24-hour period ("the crystals grow to full size in a n.")
OBVALLATE: walled in ("your protein should be completely o. by the mask")
OMPHALOSKEPSIS: meditation while gazing at one's navel ("a trifle of o. before you start wasting days of CPU-time with XPLOR is usually a good idea")
OOID: egg-shaped ("he always gets o. crystals")
OPHISTOGRAPH: manuscript written on both sides ("Save the rain forest - write o. !")
OPUSCULE: an insignificant work ("what makes you think that Science will accept this o. ?")
ORNITHOPHILOUS: bird-loving ("the o. PhD-student spent too much time on his hobby")
ORTHOTETRAKAIDEKAHEDRON: truncated octahedron ("the ligands of the metal ion formed an o.")
OSSATURE: skeleton; framework ("you'll have to edit your o. a bit more, I'm afraid")
OTIOSE: sterile; useless ("if your equipment isn't o., the experiment is o.")
OXYACANTHOUS: having sharp spines or thorns ("why are my crystals perpetually o. ?")
PALILALIA: helplessly repeating a phrase faster and faster ("thanks to his p. he never had to give a Friday Seminar")
PANGRAM: a sentence containing every letter of the alphabet ("Q.V. Schwartzkop Jr. bungled my fix")
PANNYCHOUS: lasting all night ("building a model in your density is a p. chore")
PANOPTIC: seeing everything in one view ("one figure should offer a p. view of the protein's secondary structure")
PARAPRAXIS: clumsiness ("they made him a professor because of his p. at the lab bench")
PECCATOPHOBIA: fear of sinning ("I'm sure that if you get to know Irmi a bit better, your p. will disappear")
PERENDINATE: to postpone until the next day, or indefinitely ("did you make those figures yet ?" - "hmm, no, but I promise that I'll p. it today !")
PERICHAREIA: excessive and violent rejoicing ("prizes, foreign visitors, anything is an excuse for p. in this department")
PERIEGESIS: description of an area ("the p. of the dimer interface needs some more work")
PERJINKITIES: niceties ("you should describe the p. of the active site in a bit more detail")
PERVULGATE: publish ("p. or perish")
PHILALETHIST: truth-lover ("a philalethist-philatelist is an expert on fake stamps")
PHOBOPHOBIA: fear of phobias or fear of fear itself ("I don't like people who pretend to suffer from p; does that make me a pseudophobophobiacophobe ?")
PHTHARTIC: deadly, destructive ("the Finnish custom of running naked through the snow after a sauna, is a potentially arctic p. habit")
PILLIWINKS: old instrument of torture for the thumbs and fingers ("the SGI dialbox is a modern version of the p.")
PLEXIFORM: complicated ("their paper is a bit too p. for me")
PLICATE: folded like a fan ("the protein is p.")
PLUMBEOUS: leaden; dull, heavy, stupid ("I used a p. compound for my p.-atom derivative")
PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICO-VOLCANOKONIOSIS: pneumoconiosis caused by the inhalation of silicate or quartz dust ("our studies might eventually lead to a cure for p.")
POCULIFORM: cup-shaped ("the protein has a peculiar p. active site")
PODOBROMHIDROSIS: smelly feet ("this structure offers new insight into the molecular basis of p.")
POLYCHRESTIC: useful for many reasons ("if anything, MoleMan is a p. program")
POLYMICRIAN: compact ("all Alphas have a built-in p. disc player")
PONOPHOBIA: fear of overworking ("I've heard of p. but this is ridiculous")
PRAVITY: physical deformity ("no amount of make-up can help you defy the Law of P.")
PREANTEPENULTIMATE: the fourth from last ("please hand me the p. bottle from that shelf")
PREPUCE: foreskin ("the protein was painstakingly isolated from 10,000 kilo of p.")
PROLEGOMENA: preliminary remarks; long introductions ("writing original p. to an article is quite difficult")
PROTEAN: infinitely variable ("there are indications that protein folds are not p.")
PSILOSOPHER: superficial philosopher ("... and someone who has limited knowledge of protein folds is a phi-psi-losopher")
PTARMIC: snot-promoting, sternutatory, errhine ("this protein causes the p. symptoms in allergic reactions")
PURPURACEOUS: purple, purpurescent ("the heavy-metal derivative had a deep p. colour")
PYGOPHILOUS: buttock-loving ("she's the living proof that fat is a p. substance")
PYRIFORM: pear-shaped ("p. women get pregnant more easily than apple-shaped ones, I read in the newspaper")
QUADRIGAMIST: someone who has married four times ("I say, is that fellow really a q. ?")
QUAESITUM: objective; true value ("the ultimate q. is to measure the q. of this quantity")
QUANTULUM: small quantity ("I always add a q. of BOG to my crystallisation solutions")
QUASIHEMIDEMISEMICENTURY: one 16th of a century ("a typical PhD takes a q.")
QUIDDITY: essence or nature of a thing ("once you've built your skeleton, you've uncovered the q. of your protein")
QUIRE: set of folded sheets fitting one within another; collection of 24 sheets of the same size ("the structure can best be described as a beta-q.")
RECLIVATE: sigmoid, S-shaped ("if we plot X versus Y, we obtain a r. curve")
RECREMENT: waste product, impurity; something secreted from the body, then reabsorbed ("saliva is the best example of a r., for most people anyway")
REDARGUTION: refutation ("if there doesn't exist a r. of a receptary (unproved fact; postulate), that doesn't mean it's true")
REDDITION: translation, explanation ("could you render a r. of this paragraph ?")
REPAND: having a wavy or undulating outline ("look how nicely r. my mask has turned out")
RETICULUM: network ("thanks to Castor the whole bloody r. is down again")
RETRAD: backward ("dummy, you've traced the whole chain r. !")
RETRORSE: bent backward or downward ("two of the sheets were r.")
RETROUSSE: turned up ("two of the sheets were r.")
RHABDOPHOBIA: fear of being severely criticised ("r. kept him from publishing his amazing results")
RHOMBICOSIDODECAHEDRON: Archimedean solid with 62 faces ("the virus crystals consisted of beautiful r.")
RICTUS: very wide mouth ("the ligand enters the cavity through a r.")
RIPARIAL / RIPARIAN / RIPARIOUS / RIPICOLOUS: pertaining to or living near water ("arginines and lysines are usually r. residues")
RUBEDINOUS / RUFESCENT: reddish ("the r. North-American post-doc obtained r. crystals")
RUBIGINOUS: rust-coloured, rusty ("the r. professor grew r. crystals")
RUBINEOUS / RUBIOUS: ruby-red ("I have never been able to reproduce those beautiful r. crystals")
SATURNALIAN: unrestrained ("first, do some s. dynamics to get new NCS-operators")
SCANTLING: measurement, size ("what's the s. of your cavity ?")
SCOPOPHOBIA: fear of being seen ("my crystals tend to suffer from s.")
SCROBICULATE: with numerous shallow depressions ("your mask is a trifle too s.")
SCROTIFORM: pouch-shaped ("what a magnificent s. cavity you have there")
SEBACEOUS: pertaining to or composed of fat; fatty ("is this a s.-acid-binding protein ?")
SECULUM: a long time ("don't worry, a rotation function with XPLOR only takes a s.")
SEELY: blessed, happy, blissful, good, king, innocent, harmless, weak, feeble, poor, wretched, frail, simple, timid, foolish, silly ("you look absolutely s. today")
SEJUGATE: disconnect ("you'll have to s. some bones here")
SESQUIALTERAL: having a ratio of 1:1.5 ("we added s. amounts of protein and inhibitor")
SFUMATO: painted with hazy outlines ("have you tried the new s. option to contour your density ?")
SIDEREAL: pertaining to stars; astral, stellar ("why do most of our workstations have s. names ?")
SIDERODROMOPHOBIA: fear of train travel ("sorry, my s. is playing up - I have to fly")
SIGLA: abbreviations, symbols ("you forgot to include a list of s.")
SIGMATE: to add a sigma or S ("here in S., people tend to s. all plural verbs")
SIMOUS: concave ("the active site is a s. pocket")
SINISTRAL: left-handed; illegitimate ("but all your helices are s. !")
SISYPHEAN: unending ("writing a paper is a s. enterprise in this group")
SKIAGRAPHY: making X-rays ("the generator takes care of the s.")
SKYGODLIN: diagonally ("that line should have been drawn s.")
SMARAGDINE: emerald-green ("why do you use that awful s. colour for contouring ?")
SMELLFUNGUS: grumbler, faultfinder ("every department needs a s. to critically read all manuscripts before they are submitted")
SNAFFLE: slight restraint ("have you tried refining the structure with NCS s. ?")
SNOD: trimmed; smooth (what a cute s. mask you have on the screen there")
SOCKDOLAGER: something unusually large or imposing ("this protein is a veritable s.")
SODALITY: fellowship ("despite his s., he remained an affable chap")
SPELEOLOGIST / SPELUNKER: one who explores and studies caves ("with VOIDOO, anyone can be a protein s.")
SPERMOLOGER: seed gatherer ("if you want to isolate crambin, you'll have to become a s. first")
SPUTATIVE: apt to spit ("what's the difference between a putative scientist and a s. one ?")
SQUABASH: to crush by criticism ("his grossly exaggerated claims were s. immediately")
SQUIDGEREEN: a short, insignificant person ("I think 'vertically and intellectually disadvantaged' is the PC expression for a s.")
STEATOPYGIA: fatty-assedness ("no, that's s., not fatty-acidness !")
STERCORICOLOUS: living in dung ("do s. beetles send in a stercoriculum vitae when they apply for a job ?")
STULTILOQUENCE: silly talk, babble ("the speaker at the conference dinner had perfected the art of s.")
SUANT: smooth, even, regular ("try to make your molecular envelope s.")
SUAVILOQUENCE: bland or soothing, agreeable talk ("'cut the crap' is a disphemism for 'spare me your s.'")
SUBBOREAL: cold, but not freezing ("you should grow those crystals in s. conditions")
SUBINGRESSION: a hidden entrance ("the van der Waals surface revealed a s. to the ligand cavity")
SUBTEGULANEOUS: indoor ("I'm glad that molecular biology is a s. branch of science")
SUI GENERIS: unique; in a class by itself ("this protein's fold is truly s.g.")
SUPERANNUATED: made obsolete; disqualified because of old age ("FRODO is a s. program, thanks to O")
SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS: atoning for extreme and delicate beauty while highly educable ("the stunning student soon turned out to be s.")
SUPEREROGATORY: superfluous; non-essential ("this is going to Nature, so leave out all s. details")
SYMPHORIC: accident prone ("don't let that s. student handle any glassware !")
TABEFY: to waste away gradually ("old consumers don't die, they t.")
TAUTOOOUSIOUS: being absolutely the same ("if you use NCS-constraints you'll get t. molecules")
TEUTOPHOBIA: fear and dislike of Germans or German things ("just because I suffer from t. doesn't mean that Germans are nice")
TODDICK: very small quantity ("don't forget to add a t. of beta-mercaptoethanol")
TORQUATED: formed like a twisted chain ("that beta-strand looks rather t.")
TRAGOMASCHALIA: smelly armpits ("I really hope that your research will help to find a cure against t.")
TRANSMOGRIFY: to change into a strange or absurd form ("oh no, XPLOR has completely t. that loop !")
TRANSVASE: to pour out of one container into another ("could you t. that PEG-solution for me ?")
TREFOIL: a group of three closely related units ("the protein crystallises with a t. in the asymmetric unit")
TRICHOTILLOMANIA / TRICHOLOGIA / CARPHOLOGY: mania for pulling out one's hair ("t. isn't so bad when you need to do seeding experiments")
TRILLIBUB: a trifle ("I would add a t. more BOG if I were you")
TRIMENON: a three-month period ("the crystals grow during a t.")
TROCHILICS: the science of rotary motion ("before doing a rotation function, brush up your knowledge of t.")
TROGLODYTE: cave dweller ("he calls the ligand in his protein's cavity a t.")
TURDEFY: to turn into a turd ("at first the new post-doc seemed nice, but he soon t.")
UBIETY: placement ("go back to the display and re-do the u. of the C-alphas")
UNICITY: uniqueness ("are you sure about the u. of this fold ?")
UVID: moist or wet ("keep your crystal u. in the capillary")
VEGA: a fertile meadow ("once he had solved three structures on it, he called his graphics workstation 'v.'")
VIBRATIUNCULATION: a slight vibration ("even a v. can disrupt your crystallisation trials")
VICISSITUDINARY: pertaining to mutation ("has anyone studied the v. effects on this protein's activity ?")
VRAISEMBLANCE: appearing to be true ("the v. of the Molecular Replacement solution was deceptive")
WHISKERINO: a beard-growing contest ("if you need hairs for seeding, just organise a w. among your male colleagues")
WITZELSUCHT: emotional state characterised by futile attempts at humour ("w. must be a German word")
WOOM: beaver fur ("did she use her w. for seeding ?")
XANTHOCHROID: having blond hair and a light complexion ("Sweden, home of the x.")
XANTHOCYANOPSIA: form of colour blindness in which only yellows and blues are seen ("most Swedish sports commentators seem to suffer from x.")
XERES: sherry ("if she had been Spanish, we would call her x.")
YCLEPT: called, named ("we describe a new program y. OOPS")
ZENZIZENZIZENZIC: the eighth power of a number ("no, no. no; it varies with the cube, NOT with the z., of the distance")
ZUGZWANG: in chess, when any move weakens the position ("... but z. is also when you have fear of flying so that you are forced to travel by train")
ZZXJOANW: a Maori drum ("the FINAL word in this series is z. !!!")

That's all, folks !