saccade: M-W's Word of the Day

****************************************************************
Help clear up the back-to-school daze with the award-winning
Eleventh Edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?c11.htm&1
****************************************************************

The Word of the Day for August 15 is:

saccade \sak-KAHD\ noun
: a small rapid jerky movement of the eye especially as it jumps from fixation on one point to another (as in reading)

Example sentence:
In reading, the eyes scan the text in a series of saccades and form what can be thought of as still photographs processed by the brain.

Did you know?
"Saccade" is a French word meaning "twitch" or "jerk." It galloped into English in the early 18th century as a term used in horseback riding for a quick check using the reins. (Today, this meaning is too specialized for entry in _Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary_, but it is stabled in _Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged_.) In 1879, French ophthalmologist Emile Javal observed that a reader's eyes make a series of short jumps, which he referred to in French as saccades. It wasn't until 1938, however, when experimental psychologist Robert Woodworth wrote about the pioneering Javal and his saccades, that the ocular use of the word was seen in an English publication.

You Are Subscribed As: [@--EMAIL--@]
To unsubscribe, change your e-mail address or to subscribe to the html
version of Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day, featuring audio
pronunciations, please visit:

http://www.startsampling.com/sm/wod/changeofaddress.iphtml

(c) 2006 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated

Merriam-Webster, Inc.
47 Federal Street
P.O. Box 281
Springfield, MA 01102