Something else I didn’t know: gibbous

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Météo France tells me it’s a waxing gibbous moon.

I know two of those words, though the phrase in toto puts me in mind of Echo and the Bunnymen.

Gibbous?

c. 1400, “bulging, convex,” from Late Latin gibbus “hunchbacked,” from Latin gibbus"a hump, a hunch," as an adjective, “bulging,” from Proto-Italic *gifri- “hump,” *gifro- “hump-backed,” of uncertain origin. De Vaan suggests a PIE **geibh-*, with possible cognates in Lithuanian geibus"gawky, plump," geibstu, geibti “become weak;” Norwegian dialect keiv “slanted, wrong,” keiva “left hand,” perhaps united by a general sense of “bodily defect.” Of the moon from early 15c.; also used from 15c. of hunchbacks.

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Ah yes the gibbus of notre dame. :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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Yes - gibbous when you can see more than half the moon’s disk, crescent when you can see less.

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Gibbous a break!

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Just trying to keep up with Chris Mann and John :wink:

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Does it also bring to mind the rain down in Africa?

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Only when waxing, when waning it’s decrescent oh!! so cool I’ve just seen these emojis
:new_moon::waxing_crescent_moon::first_quarter_moon::waxing_gibbous_moon::full_moon::waning_gibbous_moon::last_quarter_moon::waning_crescent_moon:
Edited to add it’s a transparent word, la lune est gibbeuse croissante or décroissante in French.

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I’ve never heard it described as such and even NASA thinks “waning crescent” is correct.

Although the phrase “decrescent moon” exists I think its use is somewhat archaic if not actually obsolete.

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Only when Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti. :smiley:

(probably the most unsingable lyric in all pop music)

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Semolina pilchards climbing up the Eifel tower?

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A close second!

Not as unsingable, but I am quite fond of Hawkwind’s lyrics for “Quark, Strangeness and Charm”:

But all that does not anti-matter now
We’ve found ourselves a black hole in space
And we’re talking about Quark, Strangeness and Charm

Copernicus had those Renaissance ladies
Crazy about his telescope
And Galileo had a name that made his
Reputation higher than his hopes

Did none of those astronomers discover
While they were staring out into the dark
That what a lady looks for in her lover
is Charm, Strangeness and Quark.

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How about …

Roly poly fish heads
Are never seen drinking cappuccinos
In Italian restaurants
With oriental women.

Yeah …

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