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14-letter words containing s, e, r, m, o, n

  • scratch monkey — (humour)   As in "Before testing or reconfiguring, always mount a scratch monkey", a proverb used to advise caution when dealing with irreplaceable data or devices. Used to refer to any scratch volume hooked to a computer during any risky operation as a replacement for some precious resource or data that might otherwise get trashed. This term preserves the memory of Mabel, the Swimming Wonder Monkey, star of a biological research program at the University of Toronto. Mabel was not (so the legend goes) your ordinary monkey; the university had spent years teaching her how to swim, breathing through a regulator, in order to study the effects of different gas mixtures on her physiology. Mabel suffered an untimely demise one day when a DEC engineer troubleshooting a crash on the program's VAX inadvertently interfered with some custom hardware that was wired to Mabel. It is reported that, after calming down an understandably irate customer sufficiently to ascertain the facts of the matter, a DEC troubleshooter called up the field circus manager responsible and asked him sweetly, "Can you swim?" Not all the consequences to humans were so amusing; the sysop of the machine in question was nearly thrown in jail at the behest of certain clueless droids at the local "humane" society. The moral is clear: When in doubt, always mount a scratch monkey. A corespondent adds: The details you give are somewhat consistent with the version I recall from the Digital "War Stories" notesfile, but the name "Mabel" and the swimming bit were not mentioned, IIRC. Also, there's a very detailed account that claims that three monkies died in the incident, not just one. I believe Eric Postpischil wrote the original story at DEC, so his coming back with a different version leads me to wonder whether there ever was a real Scratch Monkey incident.
  • screening room — a room where films are screened for a private audience
  • second chamber — the parliament of the Netherlands, consisting of an upper chamber (First Chamber) and a lower chamber (Second Chamber)
  • secondary beam — a beam of particles of one kind selected from the group of particles produced when a beam of particles from an accelerator (primary beam) strikes a target.
  • self-adornment — something that adds attractiveness; ornament; accessory: the adornments and furnishings of a room.
  • self-formation — the act or process of forming or the state of being formed: the formation of ice.
  • self-important — having or showing an exaggerated opinion of one's own importance; pompously conceited or haughty.
  • self-promotion — advancement in rank or position.
  • semi-nocturnal — active at night (opposed to diurnal): nocturnal animals.
  • semilunar bone — lunate (def 2).
  • semimembranous — consisting of, of the nature of, or resembling membrane.
  • semiminor axis — Geometry. one half the minor axis of an ellipse.
  • semipolar bond — type of chemical bond
  • semistarvation — the state of being nearly starved.
  • sense of humor — finding things funny
  • sergeant major — U.S. Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps. a noncommissioned officer serving as chief administrative assistant in a unit headquarters.
  • serious-minded — characterized by seriousness of intention, purpose, thought, etc.; earnest.
  • serum globulin — the blood serum component consisting of proteins with a larger molecular weight than serum albumin
  • servomechanism — an electronic control system in which a hydraulic, pneumatic, or other type of controlling mechanism is actuated and controlled by a low-energy signal.
  • shemoneh esreh — the Amidah, consisting of 19 blessings, recited on days other than the Sabbath and holy days.
  • shortened form — an abbreviated form of a multisyllable word; clipped form.
  • sidereal month — Also called calendar month. any of the twelve parts, as January or February, into which the calendar year is divided.
  • simone martini — Simone [see-maw-ne] /siˈmɔ nɛ/ (Show IPA), 1283–1344, Italian painter.
  • simple protein — a protein that yields only amino acids and no other major products when hydrolyzed (contrasted with conjugated protein).
  • simpson desert — an uninhabited arid region in central Australia, mainly in the Northern Territory. Area: about 145 000 sq km (56 000 sq miles)
  • simpson's rule — a method for approximating the value of a definite integral by approximating, with parabolic arcs, the area under the curve defined by the integrand.
  • single bedroom — a bedroom that is intended to accommodate a single bed and occupancy of one person
  • slide trombone — a musical wind instrument consisting of a cylindrical metal tube expanding into a bell and bent twice in a U shape, usually equipped with a slide (slide trombone)
  • snow-in-summer — a mat-forming garden plant, Cerastium tomentosum, of the pink family, native to Italy, having white flowers and numerous narrow, white, woolly leaves in large patches, growing in sand.
  • sodium nitrate — a crystalline, water-soluble compound, NaNO 3 , that occurs naturally as soda niter: used in fertilizers, explosives, and glass, and as a color fixative in processed meats.
  • sodium nitrite — Chemistry. a yellowish or white crystalline compound, NaNO 2 , soluble in water, slightly soluble in alcohol and ether: used in the manufacture of dyes and as a color fixative.
  • soft margarine — a soft, spreadable margarine that is made with more liquid oils and less hydrogenated oils than hard, block margarine
  • somali current — a current of the Indian Ocean, flowing northward along the coast of Somalia in summer and southwestward the rest of the year.
  • son et lumiere — sound-and-light show.
  • sonderkommando — a group of prisoners assigned to collect belongings and dispose of the bodies of other prisoners who had died or been killed.
  • south american — a continent in the S part of the Western Hemisphere. About 6,900,000 sq. mi. (17,871,000 sq. km).
  • southern yemen — a former name of Yemen (def 1).
  • spermatogenous — producing spermatozoa.
  • spermatogonium — one of the undifferentiated germ cells giving rise to spermatocytes.
  • spermiogenesis — the development of a spermatozoon from a spermatid.
  • sportfisherman — a motorboat fitted out for sportfishing.
  • st. marylebone — former metropolitan borough of London: since 1965, part of Westminster
  • standard model — a mathematical description of the elementary particles of matter and the fundamental forces by which they interact and behave; a model combining electromagnetic and weak forces.
  • standard money — money made of a metal that has utility and value apart from its use as a unit of monetary exchange.
  • start-up money — money that is spent on setting up a new business or other project
  • stocking frame — a type of knitting machine
  • sub-government — the political direction and control exercised over the actions of the members, citizens, or inhabitants of communities, societies, and states; direction of the affairs of a state, community, etc.; political administration: Government is necessary to the existence of civilized society.
  • sugared almond — Sugared almonds are nuts which have been covered with a hard sweet coating.
  • summer session — An early system on MIT's Whirlwind.
  • superimportant — extremely important
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