Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 28, 2012 is:

obliterate • \uh-BLIT-uh-rayt\  • verb
1 a : to remove from recognition or memory b : to remove from existence 2 : to make undecipherable by wiping out or covering over

Examples:
The epitaph on the centuries-old headstone had been obliterated by wind, rain, and age.

"With the forecast for the end of the month included, monthly-averaged temperatures for March across large parts of the Great Lakes and Northern Plains will thoroughly obliterate previous records, blasting through the temperature ceiling modern climate has until now defined." — From a post by Greg Postel on the Washington Post's "Capital Weather Gang" blog, March 27, 2012

Did you know?
Far from being removed from existence, "obliterate" is thriving in our language today with various senses that it has acquired over the years. True to its Latin source, "oblitteratus," it began in the mid-16th century as a word for removing something from memory. Soon after, English speakers began to use it for the specific act of blotting out or obscuring anything written. Eventually (by the late 18th century), its meaning was generalized to removing anything from existence. In the meantime, another sense had developed. In the late 17th century, physicians began using "obliterate" for the surgical act of filling or closing up a vessel, cavity, or passage with tissue. Its final stamp on the English lexicon was delivered in the mid-19th century: "to cancel a postage or revenue stamp."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 27, 2012 is:

patagium • \puh-TAY-jee-um\  • noun
1 : the fold of skin connecting the forelimbs and hind limbs of some tetrapods (as flying squirrels) 2 : the fold of skin in front of the main segments of a bird's wing

Examples:
The flying squirrel uses its two patagia to glide from tree to tree.

"One of the key identification marks is the dark leading edge of the wing, called the patagium. These marks on the under wing are only found on the red-tailed hawk." — From an article by Bill Fenimore, The Salt Lake Tribune, February 6, 2012

Did you know?
In Latin, "patagium" referred to a gold edging or border on a woman's tunic, but in English its uses have been primarily scientific. It entered the English language in the early 19th century and was used by entomologists to refer to a process on the back of the foremost segment of an insect. Zoologists borrowed it as a word for the fold of skin of "flying" mammals and reptiles. Then ornithologists took the word to higher heights by the century's end, applying it to the forward part of the wings of birds.