A casual Twitter exchange with @TLockyer and @exploreclassics (on Latin not having a single word for “volcano”) reminded me that Latin does seem to have a rather large number of words for earthquake … ecce (cutting and pasting from English-to-Latin Word Search Results for earthquake at Perseus; go there for links to L&S):

• chasmatias – an earthquake which leaves chasms
• concussio – an earthquake
• epiclintae – earthquakes that move with a horizontal motion
• mycematiasan – earthquake accompanied by a rumbling noise
• mycetiasan – earthquake attended with a rumbling noise
• ostes – a kind of earthquake
• palmatias – a slight earthquake
• rhectae – a kind of earthquake

Ostes seems to be the best-attested, but just in case you are confronted with someone trying to impress you with that Eskimo-words-for-snow thing, now you can respond …

Laura Gibbs has been giving Google+ a workout over the past couple of weeks and her latest efforts include compiling a list of Latin abbreviations for all those things you type with your thumbs … I think folks without Google+ can check this out as well:

• Laura Gibbs – Google+.

Amidst all the US debt debating which is taking up much of the news cycle, we hear of attempts to limit and/or  drastically decrease the funding to the NEH, which would likely affect Classicists in the US at some point … see the post at the APA blog:

•  Action Alert from the National Humanities Alliance

Adrian Murdoch continues the series:

#30 Decius: Emperors of Rome

… and if you’re wondering about the death of Decius after watching that: The Death of Decius