Vocabulary

sock puppet (hand puppet made from a stocking or sock)

legal representative; legal guardian

celestial stems (10 signs of the Chinese calendar)

the five elements (in Japanese philosophy: earth, water, fire, wind and void)

bad mannered; naughty; misbehaving

(another's) child

Darwin's finches

Darwin's rhea (Rhea pennata); lesser rhea

socialist realism

critical realism

naive realism

(debate over) the problem of universals

scholasticism

neo-scholasticism

Thomism (theology of Thomas Aquinas or his followers)

knee-high socks

integrated set of schools that offers education from one stage to the next without taking entrance exams en route

rest mass

rest energy

classical mechanics

curve-leaf yucca (Yucca recurvifolia)

Yucca smalliana (species of yucca)

for millennia and millennia; for years and years; forever and ever

ring; band; rim

bracelet (usu. dating from the Kofun period)

activation (of software, a device, etc.)

bracelet (made of stringed jewels or bells and worn at the elbow)

stone-like socle (used as the base for a Buddhist statue)

dwelling place of a deity (usu. in reference to a large rock)

fulcrum peg (fitted into the cavity in an oar as part of a traditional oarlock)

fulcrum peg (fitted into the cavity in an oar as part of a traditional oarlock)

apropos of nothing; to change the subject

to bend (a piece of wood, etc.); to bow

archer's bracer; archer's armguard

archer's bracer; archer's armguard

raised tatami-floored seating area (common in traditional restaurants)

in those days

rice ball coated with sweetened red beans, soybean flour or sesame

oh my, oh my!

last month