"apparatus for recording by tracing the beating of the heart," 1867, from cardio- + -graph "something written."
Although the work does not treat of the recent means of diagnosis—the thermometer, laryngoscope, cardiograph, etc.,—still it is complete as far as it goes. [book review in Medical Investigator, May 1867, p.94]
1530s, "nominate to a church office," from Medieval Latin postulatus, past participle of postulare "to ask, demand; claim; require," probably formed from past participle of Latin poscere "ask urgently, demand," from *posk-to-, Italic inchoative of PIE root *prek- "to ask questions." The meaning in logic, "lay down as something which has to be assumed although it cannot be proved" dates from 1640s, from a sense in Medieval Latin.
alkaloid obtained from the leaves of the coca plant, 1874, from Modern Latin cocaine (1856), coined by Albert Niemann of Gottingen University from coca (from Quechua cuca) + chemical suffix -ine (2). A medical coinage, the drug was used 1870s as a local anaesthetic for eye surgery, etc. "It is interesting to note that although cocaine is pronounced as a disyllabic word it is trisyllabic in its formation" [Flood]. Cocainism "addiction to cocaine" is recorded by 1885.
"science of the characteristics, history, and customs of the races of mankind," 1832, from ethno- + -logy, perhaps modeled on French or German. Related: Ethnologist; ethnological.
Ethnology is a very modern science, even later than Geology, and as yet hardly known in America, although much cultivated latterly in Germany and France, being considered an indispensable auxiliary to history and geography. ["Atlantic Journal and Friend of Knowledge," Philadelphia, summer 1832]
"to chew, chew roughly," 1520s, unexplained phonetic variant of chew (v.). OED notes that the variant form chow was "very common in 16-17th c." Bartlett's "Dictionary of Americanisms" [1859] says chaw, "Although found in good authors, ... is retained, in this country as in England, only by the illiterate." Related: Chawed; chawing. The noun meaning "that which is chewed" (especially a quid of tobacco) first recorded 1709.
of or pertaining to Marcus Tullius Tiro, Cicero's scribe and namesake, 1828, especially in reference to the Tironian Notes (Latin notæ Tironianæ), a system of shorthand said to have been invented by him (see ampersand).
Although involving long training and considerable strain on the memory, this system seems to have practically answered all the purposes of modern stenography. It was still in familiar use as late as the ninth century. [Century Dictionary]
"woman considered stylish at the turn of the 20th century," 1894, named for U.S. artist and illustrator Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944), whose main model was his wife, Irene Langhorne (1873-1956). The Gibson cocktail (gin, vermouth, and a pearl onion) is attested by 1914, in some stories ascribed to him but the origin of the term is unknown.
"She looks like a Gibson girl" is not an uncommon saying; and to look like a Gibson girl, is not without its merits. Although our artist has expressed in his drawings disapproval of women usurping the spheres of men, his girls suggest intellectuality. He has none of the doll-like inanely pretty faces which artists used to give women in olden days. His girls look as if they would have opinions of their own and would act with discrimination in the affairs of life. They are tall and graceful and although not in the least like fashion plates, their clothes are becoming and fit perfectly. [National Magazine, May 1898]
"be wanting or deficient" (intransitive), late 12c., perhaps from Middle Dutch laken "to be wanting," from lak (n.) "deficiency, fault," or an unrecorded native cognate word (see lack (n.)). Transitive sense "be in want of" is from early 13c. Related: Lacked; lacking.
To lack is primarily and generally to be without, that which is lacked being generally some one thing, and a thing which is desirable, although generally not necessary or very important. [Century Dictionary]
