Madeleine's Journal of Words

Albedo-(noun) The white inner-rind of a citrus fruit.
 Entered English in the 1850s, comes from the Latin word for "whiteness"

I frequently ask myself what one would call the white stringy stuff around my orange, lemon, or clementine. And now I finally know! It's called albedo.


Aureole-(noun) A radiance surrounding the head or the whole figure in the representation of a sacred personage.
I like this term so much more than calling it a 'halo'. An aureole sounds mystic and divine.
" …her hair was all creped into a filmy golden aureole round her face."
-- Harriet Beecher Stowe, Pink and White Tyranny: A Society Novel, 1871

Susurrus- (noun) A whistling or rustling sound.
I like this word a lot because if you whisper it, I think it sounds like the sound it is describing. *susurrus* sounds like a rustle. 
"Still, the breeze is soothing, as is the susurrus of the branches."
-- Michael Finkel, "Tree Surfing and Other Lofty Pleasures", The Atlantic, March 1998