19-letter words containing s, i, f, a

italian east africa — a former Italian territory in E Africa, formed in 1936 by the merging of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland with newly conquered Ethiopia: taken by the British Imperial forces 1941.
jacques montgolfier — Jacques Étienne [zhahk ey-tyen] /ʒɑk eɪˈtyɛn/ (Show IPA), 1745–99, and his brother Joseph Michel [zhaw-zef mee-shel] /ʒɔˈzɛf miˈʃɛl/ (Show IPA) 1740–1810, French aeronauts: inventors of the first practical balloon 1783.
joseph of arimathea — a wealthy disciple who provided a tomb for Jesus' body: Matt. 27:57-60
juan de fuca strait — strait between Vancouver Island and NW Wash.: c. 100 mi (161 km) long
ladies-of-the-night — plural of lady-of-the-night.
languages of choice — C and Lisp. Nearly every hacker knows one of these, and most good ones are fluent in both. Smalltalk and Prolog are also popular in small but influential communities. There is also a rapidly dwindling category of older hackers with Fortran, or even assembler, as their language of choice. They often prefer to be known as Real Programmers, and other hackers consider them a bit odd (see "The Story of Mel"). Assembler is generally no longer considered interesting or appropriate for anything but HLL implementation, glue, and a few time-critical and hardware-specific uses in systems programs. Fortran occupies a shrinking niche in scientific programming. Most hackers tend to frown on languages like Pascal and Ada, which don't give them the near-total freedom considered necessary for hacking (see bondage-and-discipline language), and to regard everything even remotely connected with COBOL or other traditional card walloper languages as a total and unmitigated loss.
lay one's finger on — to indicate, identify, or locate accurately
library of congress — one of the major library collections in the world, located in Washington, D.C., and functioning in some ways as the national library of the U.S. although not officially designated as such: established by Congress in 1800 for service to its members, but now also serving government agencies, other libraries, and the public.
line-of-battle ship — ship of the line.
logical shift right — logical shift
loss-of-containment — Loss-of-containment happens when a fluid which is usually contained somewhere escapes from that place.
love at first sight — instant romantic attraction to sb
lyon office of arms — Heralds' Office.
mail transfer agent — Message Transfer Agent
make a pig's ear of — to ruin disastrously
make the best of it — cope
malicious falsehood — a lie told by someone who knows the lie is false or knows it will do harm to the person it is concerning
manned space flight — space travel in vehicles with a human crew
means of production — resources: equipment, workers
mid-autumn festival — a Chinese festival that is held to celebrate the end of the summer harvest, when the crops have been gathered.
miracle of st. mark — a painting (1548) by Tintoretto.
missing fundamental — a tone, not present in the sound received by the ear, whose pitch is that of the difference between the two tones that are sounded
most favored nation — a nation to which privileges of trade are extended under a government policy of giving the same privileges to all nations that are given to any one of them, sometimes depending on whether certain conditions, as of reciprocity, are met
most-favored-nation — of or relating to the status, treatment, terms, etc., that are embodied in or conferred by a most-favored-nation clause.
nasty piece of work — malicious person
neats vs. scruffies — (artificial intelligence, jargon) The label used to refer to one of the continuing holy wars in artificial intelligence research. This conflict tangles together two separate issues. One is the relationship between human reasoning and AI; "neats" tend to try to build systems that "reason" in some way identifiably similar to the way humans report themselves as doing, while "scruffies" profess not to care whether an algorithm resembles human reasoning in the least as long as it works. More importantly, neats tend to believe that logic is king, while scruffies favour looser, more ad-hoc methods driven by empirical knowledge. To a neat, scruffy methods appear promiscuous, successful only by accident and not productive of insights about how intelligence actually works; to a scruffy, neat methods appear to be hung up on formalism and irrelevant to the hard-to-capture "common sense" of living intelligences.
non-transferability — to convey or remove from one place, person, etc., to another: He transferred the package from one hand to the other.
nordrhein-westfalen — German name of North Rhine-Westphalia.
norfolk island pine — a coniferous evergreen tree, Araucaria heterophylla (or A. excelsa), having whorled branches and needlelike foliage, widely cultivated as a houseplant.
on cue/as if on cue — If you say that something happened on cue or as if on cue, you mean that it happened just when it was expected to happen, or just at the right time.
on first name terms — If two people are on first-name terms, they know each other well enough to call each other by their first names, rather than having to use a more formal title.
pancreatic fibrosis — cystic fibrosis.
parainfluenza virus — any of a group of viruses that cause respiratory infections with influenza-like symptoms, esp in children
paraphase amplifier — an amplifier that produces a push-pull output from a single input.
parting of the ways — When there is a parting of the ways, two or more people or groups of people stop working together or travelling together.
performance figures — the statistics that indicate how well or badly a company or organization has performed
peroxysulfuric acid — persulfuric acid (def 1).
persian gulf states — group of Arab sheikdoms along the Persian Gulf: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, & United Arab Emirates
phacoemulsification — the removal of a cataract by first liquefying the affected lens with ultrasonic vibrations and then extracting it by suction.
phakoemulsification — the removal of a cataract by first liquefying the affected lens with ultrasonic vibrations and then extracting it by suction.
pillars of hercules — the two promontories at the E end of the Strait of Gibraltar: the Rock of Gibraltar on the European side and the Jebel Musa on the African side; according to legend, formed by Hercules
pirates of penzance — an operetta (1879) by Sir William S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan.
pistol-handle knife — a table knife, especially of the 18th century, having a slightly curved handle resembling the grip of a flintlock pistol.
plastic deformation — In plastic deformation a material changes shape when a stress is applied to it and does not go back to its original state when the stress is removed.
play footsie (with) — to touch feet or rub knees (with) in a caressing way, as under the table
post-and-rail fence — a fence constructed of upright wooden posts with horizontal timber slotted through it
potassium bisulfate — a colorless, crystalline, water-soluble solid, KHSO 4 , used chiefly in the conversion of tartrates to bitartrates.
presumption of fact — a presumption based on experience or knowledge of the relationship between a known fact and a fact inferred from it.
private first class — a soldier ranking above a private and below a corporal or specialist fourth class in the U.S. Army, and above a private and below a lance corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps.
professional advice — advice given by someone trained in a particular and relevant profession or job

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