Definitions
thin curly wood shavings used for packing or stuffing
Word origin
From Latin excelsior, comparative of excelsus (“high”). The name of the stuffing material was originally a trademark. As an exclamation, originating in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Excelsior (1841), based on the New York state motto. Popularized in the comic book fandom by Marvel Comics editor Stan Lee, who chose the term to sign off his columns as it was an obscure term and would confound competing publishers who imitated his style.
Used in a sentence
“At this crisis, reverberating among the pines, rang out more distinctly the voice of the excelsior man , urging me to come on. "Oh! I'm all right down here," I answered, gasping for breath.”
“All we know for certain is that our tree, now approaching a hundred years old, was excelsior – loftier than any other ash in the vicinity.”
“It was clear from the first three paragraphs that the language employed by Mr Tolkien was excelsior. He was brilliant.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Packing wood shavings”9 letters
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