A new word that I will probably never use. All examples used the plural form "the fantods," so maybe I'll have a shot at recognizing it should I see it again.actinon \ACK-teh-'nahn\ - a gaseous radioactive isotope of radon that has a half-life of about four seconds
A new word from today's Dictionary Devil puzzle whose details are likely to elude me should I ever encounter them again. Curiosity about why this definition should be found in the medical dictionary at the Merriam Webster site drove me to the Wikipedia entry on radon which indicates (in the Isotopes section) a half-life about 1% higher than indicated in these two online dictionary entries. But I've spent too much time down this rabbit hole to try to determine who is most accurate, and "about four seconds" is really more than I have needed to know at any point in (about) the past half-century. (And, of course, none of this explains why it was in the medical dictionary at www.m-w.com.)
girasole \JIR-uh-'sohl, -'sole, -'sawl\ - 1. jerusalem artichoke 2. usually girasol : an opal of varying color that gives out fiery reflections in bright light
And the very same Dictionary Devil puzzle, using the second definition of this word, did not follow its "usual" spelling.
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