detritus

****************************************************************
Harvest a bounty of language information with a free
14-day trial to Merriam-WebsterUnabridged.com!
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/unabridged_sub.pl?refr=U_wod
****************************************************************

The Word of the Day for November 7 is:

detritus   \dih-TRYE-tus\   noun
     1 : loose material (as rock fragments or organic particles) that results 
directly from disintegration
     2 a : a product of disintegration, destruction, or wearing away : debris  
*b : miscellaneous remnants : odds and ends

Example sentence:
     "The blog originated ... as a catch basin for mental detritus, for the 
kind of stuff not good enough for print, but too good to waste on casual 
conversation." (Joel Achenbach, _The Washington Post_, August 21, 2005)

Did you know?
     In the late 18th century, Scottish geologist James Hutton borrowed the 
Latin word "detritus" (meaning "rubbing away") for the process of wearing away 
or wearing down rock. His use of the word, however, was short-lived: one of the 
last appearances of this usage is in an 1802 book on his geologic theory. In 
that book, "detritus" was also used to describe the loose material that results 
from disintegration. It is that use, unlike Hutton's original, which has 
withstood the test of time and is firmly established in geology. Not 
surprisingly, "detritus," with its erudite sound and figurative possibility, 
was also taken up by non-geologists, from other scientists to nonscientists.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.