(Latin: sickle)

falciform, falcate, falcular

Sickle-shaped.

falx (s), falces (pl)

1. A sickle-shaped structure or tissue. 2. Either the falx cerebri or the falx crebelli.

falx cerebelli

A fold of dura mater lying in the midsagittal plane, separating the two crebellar hemispheres.

falx cerebri

A midline fold of dura mater situated superiorly in the midsagittal plane that separates the two cerebral hemispheres.

farc-, fars- +

(Latin: to plug up or to cram, to stuff; by extension, practical joke, sham; fiasco)

acute myocardial infarction

That which occurs during the period when circulation to a region of the heart is obstructed and necrosis is occurring.

anemic infarct, pale infarct, white infarct

An area of tissue in an organ or a part in which blood pigment is lacking or decoloration has occurred.

bland infarct

An infarct in which infection is absent.

calcareous infarct

An infarct in connective tissue in which calcareous salts (containing lime, chalky) have been deposited.

cardiac infarction, myocardial infarction

An infarction in the cardiac (heart) muscle, usually resulting from a formation of a thrombus in the coronary arterial system.

Because the majority of deaths occur in the first hours following infarction, it is essential that treatment should not be delayed.

cerebral infarction

An infarction in the brain due to failure of a normal blood supply to the area.

cicatrized infarct

An infarct that has been replaced or encapsulalted by fibrous tissue.

extension of infarction

An increase in the size of a myocardial infarction, occurring after the initial infarction and usually accompanied by a return of acute symptoms; such as, angina unrelieved by appropriate medicines.

farce

1. A ridiculous situation in which everything goes wrong or becomes a sham (not genuine and used for deception). 2. A comedy characterized by broad satire and improbable situations. 3. A light dramatic work in which highly improbable plot situations, exaggerated characters, and often slapstick elements are used for humorous effect; including, the branch of literature constituting such works and the broad or spirited humor characteristic of such works. 4. To pad (a speech, for example) with jokes or witticisms. 5. To stuff, as for roasting; for example, with a mixture of ground raw chicken and mushrooms with pistachios and truffles and onions and parsley and lots of butter and bound with eggs.

The strange background of the word farce

In the Middle Ages, the trade guilds of France (labor unions of that time) presented the first crude one-act plays. By the time of Joan of Arc, these interludes of farces were "stuffed" or "crammed" in between the acts of the main performance. The French word farce is derived from farcier, going back to the Latin farcire which meant "to stuff".

—Based on information from Word Origins and Their romantic Stories by Wilfred Funk, Litt. D.; Grosset & Dunlap; New York; 1950; pages 294-295.

When the word farce was first used in English, it referred to "cookery", not comedy. In the fourteenth century the French word farce entered English as farse with its meaning, "forcemeat, stuffing" unchanged from the French interpretation.

The French had derived the noun from the assumed Vulgar Latin word farsa, which had been formed from the past participle of the classical Latin verb facire, meaning "to stuff". This use of farce, spelled this way in English since the eighteenth century, is still evident in some cookbooks today.

The use of farce as comedic derives from another sense of the word in early French. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, especially in France and Spain, Latin liturgical texts; such as, the chanted parts of the Mass, were frequently interpolated with explanatory or hortatory phrases (giving strong encouragement), often in the vernacular language where it was being presented.

Seeing a similarity between the culinary stuffing and the interlarding of liturgical texts, the French also called such an interpolation a farce (in this sense the word is usually spelled farse in English).

Such "farsing" became abusive, however, and it was officially abolished 1570 when Pope Pius V issued his Roman Missal to displace the multiplicity of missals then in use.

During the fifteenth-century France, this sense of farce was further extended to "impromptu buffoonery interpolated by actors into the texts of religious plays". Such farces included elements of clowning, acrobatics, reversal of social roles, and indecency.

The farce developed into a dramatic category and spread quickly, in time developing into the commedia dell'arte in Italy.

In England, the farce became popular in the sixteenth century as a short dramatic work whose sole purpose was to provoke laughter. It continued to flourish as a broadly satirical comedy with absurdly laughable plots.

Although it was successful in nineteenth-century music halls and vaudeville theaters, the farce attracted even larger audiences when it became a favorite motion-picture genre with slapstick routines, mad chases, and pie-throwing scenes.

—Based on information from Webster's Word Histories; Merriam-Webster Inc., Publishers; Springfield, Massachusetts; 1989; pages 169-170.

farcemeat, forcemeat (farce stuffing +meat)

A mixture of finely chopped and seasoned foods, usually containing egg white, meat or fish, etc.; used as a stuffing or served alone.

farcement

Stuffing; forcemeat.

farci, farcie

1. Stuffed; especially, with "forcemeat"; such as, "oysters farci". 2. Stuffed with finely ground meat; for example, "mushrooms farci".

farcical, farcicality

1. Broadly, or extravagantly, humorous, ludicrous; resembling a farce. 2. Ridiculously clumsy; absurd.

farcically

In a farcical manner, or in a manner suited to farce; hence, ludicrously.

farcicalness

1. Pertaining to or of the nature of farce. 2. Resembling a farce; ludicrous; absurd.

farcinate

To cram, to fill, to stuff: a place with something, or the stomach with food.

farcing

1. Stuffing which is composed of mixed ingredients. 2. To improve with stuffing, as meat for roasting.>BR? 3. To pad (a speech, for example) with jokes or witticisms.

farctate

1. Stuffed; filled solid; as, a farctate leaf, stem, or pericarp; as opposed to tubular or hollow. 2. In botany, stuffed; crammed, or full; without vacuities; in opposition to tubular or hollow; as a farctate leaf, stem, or pericarp.

farcy, farcin, farcimen

1. A disease of horses and mules, sometimes of oxen, of the nature of a scabies or mange. 2. A contagious disease of horses and mules, associated with painful ulcerating enlargements; especially, upon the head and limbs.

It is of the same nature as glanders, and is often fatal.

hemorrhagic infarct, red infarct

An infarct that is swollen and red as a result of hemorrhage (bleeding).

infarce

To stuff; to swell; such as, the body is infarced with watery blisters.

infarct

1. A localized area of necrosis in a tissue resulting from anoxia (absence or near absence of oxygen). 2. An area of tissue in an organ or part that undergoes necrosis (death of living cells or tissues) following cessation of the blood supply to the applicable tissue.

This may result from occlusion (closing, or obstruction) or stenosis (abnormal narrowing of a bodily canal or passageway) of the supplying artery or, more rarely, from occlusion of the vein that drains the tissue.

Infarct was a term that originally referred to what was believed to be a consolidation of "humors" in a bodily part. The term is now recognized as a degenerative or necrotic lesion that is a result of an acute deficiency of blood supply.

Infarct is said to be the lesion while infarction is the process that produces the lesion.

—Compiled from information located at Medical Meanings, a Glossary of Word Origins by William S Haubrich, M.D.; American College of Physicians; Philadelphia; 2003; page 118.

infarctectomy

Surgical removal of an infarct or a localized area of ischemic (inadequate blood) necrosis (dead tissue) produced by anoxia (lack of oxygen) following occlusion (closure) of the arterial supply or the venous drainage of the tissue, organ, or part.

infarction

1. Localized necrosis resulting from obstruction (plugging up) of the blood supply. 2. The formation of an infarct, an area of tissue death due to a local lack of oxygen.

For example, in a myocardial infarction there is a death of myocardial (heart muscle) tissue due to sudden (acute) deprivation of circulating blood. This is usually caused by arteriosclerosis with narrowing of the coronary arteries, the culminating event being a thrombosis ( blood clot).

Besides designating the process of forming the infarct, infarction is synonymous with the infarct itself.

The word infarction comes from the Latin infarcire meaning "to plug up, to stuff" or "to cram". It refers to the clogging, or plugging, of the artery.

infected infarcted, septic infarcted

Infarcted tissue that has been invaded by pathogenic organisms.

multi-infarct dementia

Dementia that is brought on by a series of strokes.

pulmonary infarction

An infarction in the lung usually resulting from pulmonary embolism.

pulmonary infarction

Localized necrosis of lung tissue, due to obstruction of the arterial blood supply.

silent myocardial infarction

An actual infarction of the myocardium, but with none of the signs or symptoms of this condition.

silent myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction occurring without pain or other symptoms; often detected only by electrographic or postmortem examination.

galeo-, galea-, galeat-, galei-, galer- +

(Latin: helmet, helmet shaped, to cover with a helmet; cap; used primarily in zoology and botany with phases of sense development that seem to have been: weasel, weasel's skin or hide, leather, and then a helmet made of leather; by extension, it also means "cat, cats" in some words)

galea

1. A headache that hurts your whole head. 2. The upper lip or helmet-shaped part of a labiate flower. 3. A kind of bandage for the head. 4. In anatomy, any of several helmet-shaped structures.

galeanthropy

The delusion by a person that he/she is a cat.

galeated

1. Having a helmet-like part, as a crest, a flower, etc.; helmet-shaped. 2. Wearing a helmet; protected by a helmet; covered, as with a helmet.

galeiform

Helmet-shaped; resembling a galea.

galeomania

An abnormal desire to have many cats around.

In order to maintain a well-balanced perspective, people who have a dog to worship them should also have a cat to ignore them.

—Anonymous

galeophilia

A fondness for cats.

galeophobia

An intense fear of cats (polecats, skunks, weasels); also of sharks. These come from two different Greek sources with the same spelling.

galeopithecus

A flying lemur.