Diptote

[Gr. diptotos.] (Gram.) In the Greek and Latin, a noun consisting of two cases only. Dip'tych, Dip'tychum, ( dip'tik ,) n. [Gr. diptychos , doubled.] A catalogue of saints; a register of ecclesiastical benefactors, dignitaries, . "The commemoration of saints was made out of the diptych a of the church."-Stilling fleet. (Rom. Antiq.) A tablet containing two leaves, which could be folded together. It was commonly made of wood, and coated over with wax. Di'pus, n . See JERBOA. Dipyre', n . [Gr. dipyros , from dis , and pyr , fire.] ( Min .) A silicate of alumina, lime, and soda composed of 53-8 per cent. of silica, 26-2 alumina, 9-5 lime, and 10-5 soda. It occurs in grayish, or reddish-white, translucent or transparent, fascicular ma es, and in slender four-sided prisms, which are indistinctly formed, and rounded at the ends like grains of wheat. The name has reference to the double effect produced upon the mineral by fire, which first renders it phosphorescent, and then fuses it. Diradia'tion, n. [Fr., from Lat. diradiatio .] The Di'ræ. ( Myth .) The Furies - Sis i phone, Alecto, and Me gæra. They were the daughters of Acheron and Nox, and persecuted the souls of the guilty. They were called Diræ in heaven, Harpies on earth, and Furies in hell. Dir'ca, n. (Gr., a fountain: the shrub grows in wet places. ( Bot . ) A genus of plants, order Thymelacece. The Leather-wood ( D. palustres ), native of the U. States, is a shrub 5 feet in height. Its flowers appear in April and May, much earlier than the leaves. They are sn:all, yellow, funnel-shaped; about 3 together, i uing from the same bud. Leaves entire, on short petioles, pale underneath. Stamens much longer than the sepals, alternately a long and a short one. Berry oval, small, red. Every part of this shrub is very tough. The twigs furnish "rods for the fool's back." The bark is used for ropes, baskets, . emi ion and diffusion of rays of light. Dirce, (dur'se.) (Myth.) The second wife of Lycus, king of Thebes, who from jealousy imprisoned Antiope, whom Lycus had divorced in order to marry herself; but Jupiter set Antiope at liberty, when she soon gave birth to two sons, Amphion and Zethus. These latter having grown up, put Lycus to death, and attached D. to the tail of a wild horse, which dragged her over the rocks, on which she was dashed to pieces. The gods. pitying her misfor tunes, changed her into a spring, which bears her name and flows near Thebes. Dire, a . [Lat. deirus ; perhaps allied to Gr. dei do , to fear.] Fearful; awful; terrible; ill-omened: dreadful; dismal; gloomy; destructive; evil in a great degree; as, a dire calamity.