I know that for my part, I'll probably be preordering a copy of GS, because I want to get a copy for the local library as well.  And taking along a couple Codex books.

Hope they fold flat for the panto  






_{yes, I know there isn't one}

See the edit I made after snatching the first reply.

I did.   *quiet but rolling jolly amusement at steps necessary to bring this off*

When you formulate your getaway plans, be aware they shut down 3 to 4 lanes of the Beltway and I-395 after 10pm for construction.

Great replies everyone, pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

So the "human radar" idea is pretty much out, unless he goes swimming I guess.

Not at all.    It's just that you shouldn't try to use steady (unchanging) field or static charge phenomena to accomplish it.

If he can make or detect electromagnetic waves  then any number of sensing-type things can be done at very low powers.      Including, literally, radar.  

 Or, if your character  can simultaneously make a strong static magnetic field and an electromagnetic wave of the proper frequency, you can have your character do NMR/MRIs.  

"Yes there is a water-based creature behind that door"
"that lump is a showing a lot of calcium and phosphorus"

If you're really looking for "he also burns himself" type realism, you could play with the relative timing of how your character does these things.    

For example, most "detection" events in electromagnetic wave scanning or sensing systems happen at time intervals way, way, way too short for human neurons to fire.    So your character may have some sort of independent "organ" that can be programmed to think or pre-think all this EM wave stuff, only without using human-type neurons.      He downloads the scan plan into the organ,  the organ does its thing, then he uploads the results into his brain.

 

Well, yes^, but I was hoping for a more specific answer.   Of the two usage examples dictionary.com gives   Browning wasn't published yet and Dryden was a bit past it    (though might have been republished).  

I'm wondering if that spike might not reflect acquisitions of works  by the libraries used for the scanning material sources (specifically the Library of Congress re-opening after the war of 1812).    They simply wouldn't have the means to acquire older books yet, and newer books barely use the word.

Moving on to your word, scroll over to the right side of the graph:

I am appalled at how many of those words I actually use.

Why?    I thought the request was primarily for "cool" words, not primarily "ones we've likely never heard of?"

cwm
dearth
lumen
lacuna
zeppa

I also have a secret passion for fortification names, sometimes useful for fantasy:  barbican, bartizan, caponier, counterscarp, courtine, demilune, enceinte, fausse braye,  glacis, mamelon, motte, ravelin, redoubt, tenaille

(Yes, I know, fantasy in which cannon or their analogues work).

Flotsam is the floating remains of a ship or stuff that was on it. Jetsam is floating stuff that was deliberately tossed from a ship (think "jettison").

This is my understanding also.  Jetsam was tossed.