crypto
n.— «“Crypto” is usually not life-threatening. But in 1993, an estimated 403,000 residents of the greater Milwaukee, Wis., area became ill when an ineffective filtration process led to the inadequate removal of cryptosporidium in one of two municipal water treatment plants, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.» —“Pool parasite punched out” by Andrea Reeves Northwest Press (Ohio) Aug. 31, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
A retronym is a word coined to distinguish something new from an older, more generic version, such as electric guitar or clock radio. A couple of new retronyms are fine water, or “unprocessed water that reflects a region’s terroir” and water...