the.com/ossify
the slow surrender of soft potential to the comfort of bone
means To harden into bone, or figuratively to become rigid, set, and resistant to change.
from From Latin 'os' (bone) — the same root behind 'osseous' — fused with the verb-making '-ficare' (to make, from 'facere'). So to ossify is literally 'to make into bone.' English borrowed it in the 18th century, first for the biology of bones forming, then quickly stretched it to anything that stiffens past the point of yielding.
- literal root
- Latin os, meaning bone, turned into a verb
- skull trick
- Baby skulls stay unossified so heads squeeze through birth
- figurative use
- Describes minds and institutions hardening past change
- bone clock
- Wrist X-rays date kids by ossification progress
- never finished
- Some cartilage stays soft your entire life
for instance
froude's pendulum experiment — 1851 demonstration showing earth's rotation through pendulum displacement in paris panthéon
ankylosing spondylitis — progressive spinal fusion disease affecting ~0.1-1.4% of populations, causing vertebrae to ossify and fuse