Word Of The Week – Rambunctious

I Love Being rambunctious T-ShirtA couple of weeks ago I took my three oldest grandchildren to Orlando International Airport to give them a tour of the main terminal and all the shops, eateries and entertainment locations. I would say they were slightly rambunctious, though overall very well-behaved. We had a good time!

Rambunctious

[ram-buhngk-shuh s]

adjective

1.difficult to control or handle; wildly boisterous: a rambunctious child.

2.turbulently active and noisy: a social gathering that became rambunctious and out of hand.

Origin of rambunctious

1820-30, Americanism; origin uncertain

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Word Of The Week – Clandestine

Ashley Madison LogoWith the release last week of the Ashley Madison hacked database, making clandestine the Word Of The Week seemed like a natural choice.

 

clandestine

[klan-des-tin]

adjective

1.characterized by, done in, or executed with secrecy or concealment, especially for purposes of subversion or deception; private or surreptitious:

Their clandestine meetings went undiscovered for two years.

Origin of clandestine

Latin

1560-1570 Latin clandestīnus, equivalent to *clande, *clamde, variant of clam secretly (with -de adv. particle) + -stīnus, probably after intestīnusinternal;

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Pronoun Chart

Do you ever get confused about proper pronoun usage? Are you unsure about which pronoun form to use when a possessive 1st person plural is needed? Or when it’s a subject pronoun for a 3rd person plural usage? If so, then this Pronoun Chart from Grammarly may be just what you need to ensure that you use the proper pronoun in the proper format.

Pronoun Chart

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Word Of The Week – Anastrophe

YodaYou may be looking at this word and thinking you have no idea what it is, but if you’re even passingly familiar with Star Wars then you DO know it without realizing it.

Anastrophe

\uh-NASS-truh-fee\

noun

Definition: inversion of the usual syntactical order of words for rhetorical effect. The name for this kind of syntactical inversion is anastrophe, from the Greek verb anastrephein, meaning “to turn back.”

Examples:

“Powerful you have become Dooku, the dark side I sense in you.” Fans of Star Wars will recognize Yoda’s line in Attack of the Clones. Others might guess that Yoda is the speaker because of the unconventional syntax that is the hallmark of Yoda’s speech. (In typical Yoda fashion, the subject is second instead of first in both clauses—it follows a predicate adjective and the direct object, respectively.)

President John F. Kennedy employed anastrophe for rhetorical effect when he inverted the typical positive-to-negative parallelism in his famous line “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

In poetry, anastrophe is often used to create rhythm, as in these lines from Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”: “So rested he by the Tumtum tree, / And stood awhile in thought.”

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Have You Written Anything Yet?

Dilbert is hoping to coax himself into writing that novel by employing the unspoken pressure that results by telling everyone he’s writing a novel. His goal is that he will be held accountable to his writing by telling all of his family and friends that he is putting words to paper or perhaps words to screen.

 

Dilbert Comic Strip

But we all know how that turns out.

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Book Riot’s “10 Scariest Books You’ve Read” Survey

A few weeks ago Book Riot ran the results of a survey they took about the “10 Scariest Books You’ve Read” and while the outcome was not all that surprising (Stephen King books grab the majority), I thought I’d throw my 2 cents into the mix.

  1. The Shining by Stephen King (199 votes)
  2. It by Stephen King (176)
  3. Salem’s Lot by Stephen King (102)
  4. The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty (99)
  5. Pet Sematary by Stephen King (94)
  6. House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski (78)
  7. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (74)
  8. The Stand by Stephen King (41)
  9. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (39)
  10. Bird Box by Joshua Malerman (36)

As you can see, Stephen King books took 6 of the top 10 places. My only real argument with the King placements is that I would move “It” to number 1 and drop “The Shining” to number 2. The other King books I might have a little difference of opinion about where they rank, but not enough to actively dispute their placement.

I haven’t read ANY of the other books, which is fine because they give me some apparently good stories to add to my “To Be Read” list. I also found it curious that Dean Koontz is not included as he’s had some scary books in the past.

swan_song275pxMy biggest “beef” is the lack of inclusion of one of the BEST horror writers; Robert R. McCammon. I actually found McCammon’s “Swan Song” and “Stinger” to be far more frightening than most of King’s works. He pulls you into his stories and then you find yourself clawing your way out in fear. It’s a shame that none of his works found their way into this top 10 survey.

But the upside of my unhappiness is that it has reminded me that it has been years since I read the titles above, and others of his, so I need to dig them out and re-read them when I get to our cabin next month…all alone in the woods.

Bwahahahahahaha!

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Word Of The Week – Libertine

The Libertine starring Johnny DeppI have never seen the Johnny Depp movie “The Libertine”, nor have I eaten at a restaurant named “The Libertine” (real), or had drinks at a bar (real) or pub (real) named “Libertine”, or enjoyed the taste of a “Libertine Ale” (real), or, to the best of my knowledge, inhaled the fragrance of White Musk Libertine (real) perfume.

But I do remember, when first stumbling across the word in my late teens, having an idea for a man who during the day pretended to be a conservative but at night donned a mask and costume to become “The Libertine”, scourge of the straight-laced.

 

 

 

Libertine

lib·er·tine

ˈlibərˌtēn/

noun

  1. a person, especially a man, who behaves without moral principles or a sense of responsibility, especially in sexual matters.
  2. philanderer, playboy, rake, roué, Don Juan, Lothario, Casanova,Romeo;
  3. a person who rejects accepted opinions in matters of religion; a freethinker.
  4. characterized by a disregard of morality, especially in sexual matters.
  5. “his more libertine impulses”
  6. freethinking in matters of religion.
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Word Of The Week – Vexillology

The recent situation with the Confederate Flag and its origin, history and place in modern culture reminded me of a word I first discovered way back in my junior high school (better known as the Stone Age to modern readers) Social Studies class.

Or, to be more precise, I discovered it in the school library.

In Social Studies, on a Friday, we were discussing flags of the world and I asked the teacher if there was such a thing as a person who was an expert in flags.

“Why don’t you research that and report back on it next week?”, he replied, which is teacher-speak for, “I don’t know, so I’ll turn it back on you to provide an answer.”

During lunch, I stopped by the school library and asked the matronly librarian the same question.

(By the way, there was a time in my young life that I wanted to be a librarian, though I’d never seen a male librarian up to that point, because I thought librarians were the smartest people in the world. And they got to be around BOOKS all day!)

She returned with a volume of the encyclopedia and a Webster’s dictionary opened to the word, “Vexillology” and I trotted off to an empty table to copy down the information. When I got home I checked our own encyclopedia, but the information was the same. Monday, my Social Studies teacher asked if I had found the answer to my question and I gave my short report that affirmed there was such a thing as a person who was an expert in flags; a vexillologist.

Vexillology

noun vex·il·lol·o·gy \ˌvek-sə-ˈlä-lə-jē\

Definition of VEXILLOLOGY

:  the study of flags

— vex·il·lo·log·ic \(ˌ)vek-ˌsi-lə-ˈlä-jik\ or vex·il·lo·log·i·cal \-ˈlä-ji-kəl\ adjective

— vex·il·lol·o·gist \ˌvek-sə-ˈlä-lə-jist\ noun

Origin of VEXILLOLOGY:

Latin vexillum

First Known Use: 1959

Big Bang Theory Screen Capture of Sheldon and Fun With Flags

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Word Of The Week – Interpellate

Questioning of an international political figure to illustrate the meaning of interpellateHere’s a word, if you’re an American, that you would be more apt to find in news accounts, books or magazines from elsewhere in the world because it is seldom used in the U.S. but is common in international language. The definition explains why;

interpellate   \in-ter-PELL-ayt\
Definition

verb

: to question (someone, such as a foreign minister) formally concerning an official action or policy or personal conduct

Examples

At the international tribunal, U.N. officials interpellated the premier about his country’s acquisition of illegal weapons.

“The group noted that Mr. Lotilla was being interpellated at the time by Rep. Elpidio F. Barzaga, Jr., a member of the majority bloc who supported the fare hike.” — Melissa Luz T. Lopez and Vince Alvic Alexis F. Nonato,Business World, January 23, 2015

Interpellate is a word you might encounter in the international news section of a newspaper or magazine. It refers to a form of political challenging used in the congress or parliament of many nations throughout the world, in some cases provided for in the country’s constitution. Formal interpellation isn’t practiced in the U.S. Congress, but in places where it is practiced, it can be the first step in ousting an appointed official or bringing to task an elected one. The word was borrowed from the Latin terminterpellatus, past participle of interpellare, which means “to interrupt or disturb a person speaking.” The “interrupt” sense, once used in English, is now obsolete, and interpellate should not be confused with interpolate, which means “to insert words into a text or conversation.”

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Word Of The Week – Sere

Desert illustrating the definition of "sere"While reading Dan Simmons’ “Hyperion” last week, I came across the word “sere” and one of the cool things about reading an ebook is that you can highlight a word in question and see the definition IF you have a wireless connection. At the time, I did not and I had to use my iPhone, which always has a data connection, to look up the meaning of this word.

Sere

adjective \ˈsir\

Definition of SERE

1:  being dried and withered

2:  archaic :  threadbare

Variants of SERE

sere also sear \ˈsir\

Examples of SERE

  • <a sere region that can’t support agriculture>

 

Origin of SERE

Middle English, from Old English sēar dry; akin to Old High German sōrēn to wither, Greek hauosdry, Lithuanian sausas

First Known Use: before 12th century

Related to SERE

Synonyms

arid, droughty, dry (also sear), thirsty, waterless

Antonyms

damp, dank, humid, moist, wet

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Word Of The Week – Jiggery-Pokery

Language is so wonderful! Even as you think you have a pretty wide-reaching vocabulary, someone, usually a writer, but in this case a very intelligent and well-read justice of the Supreme Court, will introduce you to a new word or phrase that you had never heard before.

This past week Justice Antonin Scalia wrote a scathing dissent of his co-supremes majority decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act against a court challenge by accusing his assenting colleagues of “interpretive jiggery-pokery”, which sent me scurrying to my dictionary to identify this phrase I had never heard before.

Justice Antonin Scalia

I’m sure more than a few people (OK, maybe it was just me) thought that the Supreme Court Justice was making up a word, since he had stated that, “Words no longer have meaning…” and suspected he was illustrating that point with the seemingly nonsensical phrase, Jiggery-pokery. However, it turns out he was using an English term that dates back to the late 1800’s meaning, “deceitful or dishonest behavior”, but it’s even a little more descriptive than that. In popular usage, it meant what we mean when we say “baloney”, “rubbish” or “hogwash” to indicate what has been stated holds very little or no truth.

Editors over at the Oxford English Dictionary traced the phrase back to a Scottish word, “Jouk”, which meant to skillfully twist one’s body as to avoid a blow. It seems pretty obvious that Scalia was writing that the majority justices had twisted their views or bent themselves in order to make words seem what they did not clearly (in his opinion) mean.

But it’s even a little more descriptive than that.

The word, “Jouk”, led to Scots using the word or its variable of joukery to describe trickery, or even worse, dealing in an underhanded way. Another Scottish word, “Pawk”, meant a trick. The words were eventually combined into the phrase joukerypawkery, or what is referred to as rhyming reduplication. It eventually morphed into the English phrase “jiggery-pokery” that Justice Scalia employed. A real word/phrase with a real defamatory meaning.

It seems clear that Scalia was attempting to paint his colleagues as people who were willing to bend and twist themselves to perpetuate a trick or in a tricky fashion to arrive at the basis for their decision. Quite the insult, I would think, to his colleagues. He’s clearly not trying to win friends and influence people.

But he did broaden our vocabulary.

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Word Of The Week – Gossamer

Spider web on tree limbThe word “gossamer” has always been one of my favorite words. I know that I first read it somewhere as a child and even though the context (the passage was about a spider’s web) made it pretty clear what the word meant, I still, as was my habit when confronted with new words, looked it up in the dictionary and so discovered that it could also refer to a light, delicate material, such as a “fairy’s gossamer wings.”

gossamer

noun

gos·sa·mer \ˈgä-sə-mər also ˈgäz-mər, ˈgä-zə-\

: a piece of a spider’s web
: a very light or delicate material

Full Definition of GOSSAMER

1:  a film of cobwebs floating in air in calm clear weather
2:  something light, delicate, or insubstantial

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Word Of The Week – Inculcate

Inculcate definitioninculcate

[in-kuhl-keyt, in-kuhl-keyt]

verb (used with object), inculcated, inculcating.

  1. to implant by repeated statement or admonition; teach persistently and earnestly (usually followed by upon or in):

to inculcate virtue in the young.

  1. to cause or influence (someone) to accept an idea or feeling (usually followed by with):

Socrates inculcated his pupils with the love of truth.

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Word Of The Week – Prefatory

PrefatoryFor some reason, I prefer this word over the modern-day “Introduction” that is so familiar to most of us.

prefatory

adjective pref·a·to·ry \ˈpre-fə-ˌtȯr-ē\

: included at the beginning of a book, speech, etc., as an introduction

Full Definition of PREFATORY

1:  of, relating to, or constituting a preface <prefatory remarks>

2:  located in front

Examples of PREFATORY

  1. The speaker made some prefatory remarks.
  2. Each chapter in the book has a prefatory quotation.

Origin of PREFATORY  Latin praefari

First Known Use: 1675

Related to PREFATORY

Synonyms:

beginning, introductory, precursory, preliminary, prelim, prelusive, preparative, preparatory, primary

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Word Of The Week – Synecdoche

Synecdoche graphicHere’s a word I stumbled across when I saw this graphic over on Pinterest, I believe, and found myself enamored by its sound and meaning.

Here’s the official Dictionary.com definition:

[si-nek-duh-kee]

noun, Rhetoric

  1. a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special, as in ten sail for ten ships or a Croesus for a rich man.

Origin of synecdoche

Medieval Latin and Greek – 1350-1400; < Medieval Latin < Greek synekdochḗ, equivalent to syn- syn-+ ekdochḗ act of receiving from another, equivalent to ek- ec- + -dochē,noun derivative of déchesthai to receive.

Let me know in the comments if you’re able to use the word “Synecdoche” this week and how.

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The 14 Highest Rated Books Of 2015

Trigger Warning book coverGoodreads shared with BuzzFeed their 14 highest rated books of 2015, as voted on by members of Goodreads (I’m one, are you?) thus far this year.

Under the Fiction category I’ve already read The Secret Wisdom of the Earth and I want to read The Little Life. I haven’t read either book listed under Non-Fiction and probably won’t this year, nor do I read books in the Young Adult or Romance categories because they’re just not my things, you know?

I’ve read The Girl on the Train in the Mystery and Thriller category and I want to read The Stranger. I really want to read both A Darker Shade of Magic (short stories by the inimitable Neil Gaiman) under the Fantasy and Sci-Fi category and finally, I don’t have any interest in either book listed under the Historical Fiction category, though sometimes I do enjoy books of that genre.

Have you read any of these 14 highest rated books of 2015? Or are there any you see on the list that you’d like to read? Let me know in the comments.

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Word Of The Week – Terroir

terroir imageA few years back when I was researching wines I came across the word, “Terroir”, and ever since I have loved how it just rolls off the tongue, though I admittedly have few opportunities to use the word in writing or conversation.

Here’s the definition from Dictionary.com:

 

terroir

[ter-wahr; French ter-war]

noun

  1. the environmental conditions, especially soil and climate, in which grapes are grown and that give a wine its unique flavor and aroma: the high quality of the region’s terroir.
  2. also called goût de terroir [goo duh terwahr, gooduh ter-war]. the unique flavor   and aroma of a wine that is attributed to the growing environment of the grapes.
  3. the conditions in which a food is grown or produced and that give the food its unique characteristics: grass-fed beef with an Idaho terroir.

Origin of terroir

< French: literally, ‘soil, land’>

 

Let me know in the comments if you’re able to use the word “Terroir” this week and how.

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Dictionary Of Clichés

A couple of weeks ago when Cindy and I were over at Daytona Beach, we stopped in at a used book store we had visited before.

I walked back to the “Writing” section and after a minute or two of scanning the 6 shelves they had dedicated to the subject, I came across this beauty; The Dictionary of  Clichés by James Rogers, for an excellent price of only $5.00. This will be a great addition to my reference bookshelf!

The Dictionary Of Clichés

There was also an extra “kick” in it for me because when I opened the Dictionary Of Clichés up and began to browse through it to be sure it was intact, I glanced at the first entry and was pleased to see that I already knew the origin and definition of A-OK.

A-OK Entry in The Dictionary Of Clichés

Yeah, I’m easily amused.

 

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