14 May 2016
onager
[on-uh-jer]
noun, plural onagri [on-uh-grahy], onagers.
1. a wild ass, Equus hemionus, of southwestern Asia.
2. an ancient and medieval military catapult for throwing stones.
Origin of onager
Middle English Latin Greek
1300-1350; Middle English < Late Latin: machine for throwing projectiles, Latin onager, onagrus wild ass < Greek ónagros (in both senses), alteration of ónos ágrios ass of the fields, wild ass (see acre )
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for onager
Historical Examples
The onager of Mesopotamia is a very beautiful animal, with its grey glossy coat, and its lively and rapid action.
History Of Egypt, Chalda, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 3 (of 12)
G. Maspero
This is supposed to be of the same pattern which is called an ” onager ” in the Latin books.
Stories of Invention
Edward E. Hale
We then loaded the onager with the acorns, and moved homeward.
The Swiss Family Robinson
Johann David Wyss
The skin that you have laid before me is the skin of an onager.
The Magic Skin
Honore de Balzac
Balista (Latin, onager), an engine for propelling stones, worked by means of strongly-twisted cords.
Annals of a Fortress
E. Viollet-le-Duc
The wild ass and onager roamed in small herds between the Balikh and the Tigris.
History Of Egypt, Chalda, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 3 (of 12)
G. Maspero
The onager, or wild ass, is not striped like the zebra, and is not near so elegant in figure.
Buffon’s Natural History. Volume V (of 10)
Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon
It has sometimes occurred to me that perhaps the skin was that of Job’s onager.
A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2
George Saintsbury
Anagram
so range
son gear
ran egos
Today’s quote
Don’t let your age control your life… let your life control your age.
– Anthony Douglas Williams
On this day
14 May 1796 – Edward Jenner gives the first smallpox vaccination.
14 May 1879 – the first group of indentured Indians labourers arrive in Fiji aboard the Leonidas.
14 May 1919 – death of Henry John Heinz, founder of Heinz Company, responsible for canned baked beans. Born 11 October 1844.
14 May 1929 – Wilfred Rhodes takes his 4,000th first-class wicket at Leyton, after bowling 9/39. He played 58 test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. He was the first Englishman to complete both 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test cricket. He went on to achieve the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in individual first-class seasons a record 16 times. He retired with first-class totals of 4,204 wickets and 39,969 runs. In Tests he retired with 127 wickets and 2,325 runs.
14 May 1939 – Lina Medina (born 27 September 1933 in Peru) becomes the world’s youngest confirmed mother at the age of five. She gave birth by a caesarean section, to a boy, weighing 2.7kg (6.0lb). He was named Gerardo after the doctor who delivered him. He was raised believing Lina was his sister and was told the truth at the age of 10. Gerardo died in 1979, aged 40, of a bone marrow disease. Following Gerardo’s birth, Lina was diagnosed with extreme ‘precocious puberty’, in which puberty occurs at an unusually early age. It was initially reported that she hit puberty by the age of three, however, a further medical report indicated she had commenced puberty by eight months old. Lina never revealed who the father was or the circumstances of her impregnation. Lina later married and had a second child in 1972, when she was 39. She presently lives in Lima, Peru.
14 May 1948 – the modern nation of Israel is established by proclamation of the Jewish Agency headed by David Ben-Gurion, following the United Nations adoption of Resolution 181 on 29 November 1947.