anachronism - Word of the Day - 01/12/17

anachronism

noun

Pronunciation

uh-NAK-ruh-niz-um

Definition

1 : an error in chronology; especially : a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other
2 : a person or a thing that is chronologically out of place; especially : one from a former age that is incongruous in the present
3 : the state or condition of being chronologically out of place

Did You Know?

An anachronism is something that is out of place in terms of time or chronology. The word derives from chronos, the Greek word for "time," and ana-, a Greek prefix meaning "up," "back," or "again." In its earliest English use, anachronism referred to an error in the dating of something (as, for example, in etymology, when a word or use is mistakenly assumed to have arisen earlier than it did). Anachronisms were sometimes distinguished from parachronisms, chronological errors in which dates are set later than is correct. But parachronism did not stand the test of time. It is now a very rare word.

Examples

"There are the truly strange anachronisms throughout. Félicie traipses around in denim shorts, and the characters … make 'Hammer Time' jokes. And yet we know it's supposed to be the 19th century because of the proliferation of top hats and horse-drawn carriages, and because both the Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty are under construction." — Katie Walsh, The Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2017

"With social media and its instantaneous but faux connection, postcards are a quaint anachronism. Part of me is hopelessly old-fashioned, so I'll revive the practice of sending 'postcards' for the next few weeks in lieu of normal columns." — Mark A. Cohen, Forbes, 9 Oct. 2017

Memory

What is the meaning of stridulate, our November 4th Word of the Day?

Merriam-Webster

http://writingforchildrenstage.blogspot.com.au/

bludge - Word of the Day - 29/11/17

bludge

verb

Pronunciation

 BLUJ

Definition

1 : (chiefly Australia & New Zealand) to avoid work or responsibility
2 : (chiefly Australia & New Zealand) to get something from or live on another by imposing on hospitality or good nature : sponge

Did You Know?

Though they can be annoying, people who bludge—bludgers—are relatively harmless. On the other hand, a bully armed with a bludgeon—a "bludgeoner"—can cause serious harm. In the 19th century, bludgeoner was shortened to bludger and used as a slang word for "pimp." That bludger was certainly a kind of bully, one apparently willing to wield a bludgeon now and then to insure his livelihood. In the early 20th century, bludge became the verb for what a bludger does. By then, a somewhat softened bludger had appeared in Australia and New Zealand: the pimping and the bullying were eliminated, and the parasitical tendencies reduced to mere cadging or sponging.

Name That Synonym

What synonym of bludge begins with "m" and has 5 letters?

Merriam-Webster

http://writingthestorypruthpunton.blogspot.com.au/

Quote of the Day - 28/11//17

Those who see the invisible can do the impossible.

Pandurang Shastri Vaijnath Athavale

http://quoteofthedayr.blogspot.com.au/

harbinger - Word of the Day - 28/11//17

harbinger

noun

Pronunciation

HAHR-bun-jer
 

Definition

1 : one that initiates a major change : a person or thing that originates or helps open up a new activity, method, or technology : pioneer

2 : something that foreshadows a future event : something that gives an anticipatory sign of what is to come

Did You Know?

When medieval travelers needed lodging for the night, they went looking for a harbinger. As long ago as the 12th century, harbinger was used to mean "one who provides lodging" or "a host," but that meaning is now obsolete. Later on, harbinger was also being used for a person sent ahead of a main party to seek lodgings, often for royalty or a campaigning army, but that old sense has largely been left in the past, too. Those sent ahead would announce the approach of who was following behind, and that's how our modern sense of harbinger (from the Anglo-French herberge, meaning "lodgings") acquired the sense with which we are familiar today, that of something which foretells a future event.

Examples

When the star running back went down with an injury in the team's first game, it turned out to be the harbinger of a disappointing season.

"A lot is riding on the results, which will be widely read as … a harbinger of the 2018 congressional midterm elections." — Laura Vozzella, The Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2017

Test Your Vocabulary

What two-word term begins with stormy and can refer to one fond of strife or a harbinger of trouble?

Merriam-Webster

http://plotsandtension.blogspot.com.au/

anneal - Word of the Day - 27/11/17

anneal

verb

Pronunciation

 uh-NEEL
 

Definition

1 a : to heat and then cool (a material, such as steel or glass) usually for softening and making less brittle; also : to cool slowly usually in a furnace
  b : to heat and then cool (double-stranded nucleic acid) in order to separate strands and induce combination at lower temperature with complementary strands
2 : strengthen, toughen
3 : to be capable of combining with complementary nucleic acid by a process of heating and cooling

Did You Know?

If you were looking for a saying to apply to the word anneal, it might be "everything old is new again." The word was originally associated with one of the oldest technologies of humankind: fire. It derives from the Old English word onǣlan, which was formed from the Old English root āl, meaning "fire." In its earliest known uses, anneal meant simply "to set on fire." That sense has become obsolete, however, and nowadays anneal is associated with metalworking and glasswork as well as a much more recent technological development. As addressed in sense 3 of the definition, it has come to be used in the context of DNA research, in reference to the heating and cooling of double-stranded nucleic acid.

Examples

"Before and after the Eagles organized team activities last spring, Nelson Agholor retreated to his hometown for a series of training sessions with an old friend and mentor that would anneal his mind as much as his body." — Mike Sielski, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 9 Oct. 2017

"Primarily I work in brass and silver-soldered brass. The process is heating and annealing the brass, bending it, soldering pieces together to get the general form and then slowly bending until the pieces fit." — Andrew Watt, quoted in The Washington Post, 10 Sept. 2017

Test Your Vocabulary

What word refers to a mixture of metals (such as lead and tin) that is melted and used to join metal parts?

Merriam-Webster

http://creatingcharactersforfictionwriters.blogspot.com.au/

illustrious - Word of the Day - 26/11/17

illustrious

adjective

Pronunciation

ih-LUSS-tree-us
 

Definition

: notably or brilliantly outstanding because of dignity or achievements or actions : eminent

Did You Know?

Illustrious people seem to light up everything around them. The etymology of illustrious makes it clear that a shining glow (both literal and figurative) has long been associated with the word. Illustrious derives from the Latin illustris, which was probably a back-formation of the verb illustrare ("to illustrate"), which in turn comes from lustrare, meaning "to purify" or "to make bright," and which is related to the Latin noun lustrum that gave us luster. At one time, illustrious was used in the literal sense of "shining brightly with light," but that meaning is now considered archaic. The word is today almost exclusively used in its figurative application to describe something that stands out brilliantly, much like a bright star stands out in the sky.

Examples

During the ceremony, the illustrious star of stage and screen was presented with a lifetime achievement award.

"For the first time, WWE's illustrious father-daughter duo 'Nature Boy' Ric Flair and Charlotte come together to tell their legendary story through their autobiography Second Nature…." — Jim Varsallone, The Miami Herald, 26 Sept. 2017

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of illustrious: r _ _ o _ b _ a _ _ e.

Merriam-Webster

http://writinghaikup.blogspot.com.au/

non sequitur - Word of the Day - 25/11/17

non sequitur

noun

Pronunciation

NAHN-SEK-wuh-ter

 Definition

1 : an inference that does not follow from the premises
2 : a statement (such as a response) that does not follow logically from or is not clearly related to anything previously said

Did You Know?

In Latin, non sequitur means "it does not follow." The phrase was borrowed into English in the 1500s by people who made a formal study of logic. For them it meant a conclusion that does not follow from the statements that lead to it. But we now use non sequitur for any kind of statement that seems to come out of the blue. The Latin verb sequi ("to follow") has actually led the way for a number of English words. A sequel follows the original novel, film, or television show. Someone obsequious follows another about, flattering and fawning. And an action is often followed by its consequence.

Examples

Unprepared for the question, the speaker gave a response that was a jumble of non sequiturs and irrelevant observations.

"Chicago scored well on 'digital security,' because, as the report notes, 'the city is home to several leading cyber security firms and in January its mayor … announced the launch of a new cyber security training initiative.' This non sequitur is like saying that New Jersey is the healthiest state because it is home to so many pharmaceutical companies." — Nicole Gelinas, City Journal, 20 Oct. 2017

Word Quiz

What is the meaning of sequacious, an adjective derived from Latin sequi, meaning "to follow"?

Merriam-Webster

http://writingforchildrenstage.blogspot.com.au/

mucilaginous - Word of the Day - 24/11/17

mucilaginous- Word of the Day  - 24/11/17

mucilaginous

adjective

Pronunciation

myoo-suh-LAJ-uh-nus

Definition

1 : sticky, viscid
2 : of, relating to, full of, or secreting mucilage

Did You Know?

Unlike its meanings, there's nothing terribly sticky about the origin and use of mucilaginous. Like thousands of other words in the English language, mucilaginous (and the noun mucilage) oozed out of Latin during the 15th century. Mucilage is from Late Latin's word for "mucus," mucilago, and is used for the gelatinous substance found in various plants, such as legumes or seaweeds. Mucilaginous stuck as the noun's adjective form and is used by scientists and foodies alike for sticky or mucous things.

Examples

"It started quietly last summer, when social media watchers began buzzing about it. Tweens had struck on a recipe for a mucilaginous, stomach-turning substance and were posting videos of themselves playing with it. The slime trend had hit." — Robert Klara, Adweek, 8 May 2017

"… okra is best picked right off the vine, before it gets too big. For this recipe, a simple bath in milk, a romp in a bowl of flour and cornmeal, and a dip in hot oil are all that's needed to render the mucilaginous veggie into the ambrosial stuff of cafeteria dreams." — Courtney Bond, Texas Monthly, July 2016

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of mucilaginous: gl _ _ _ no _ s.

Merriam-Webster

http://writingthestorypruthpunton.blogspot.com.au/

viand - Word of the Day - 23/11/17

viand

noun

Pronunciation

VYE-und
 
Definition

1 : an item of food; especially : a choice or tasty dish
2 : (plural) provisions, food

Did You Know?

Are you someone who eats to live, or someone who lives to eat? Either way, you'll find that the etymology of viand reflects the close link between food and life. Viand was borrowed into English in the 15th century from the Anglo-French viaunde or viande (viande, meaning "meat," is still found in modern French usage). The Anglo-French viaunde derives ultimately from the Medieval Latin vivanda ("food"), an alteration of vivendus, a participial form of the verb vivere, meaning "to live." Vivere is the ancestor of a number of other lively and life-giving words in English, including victual, revive, survive, convivial, and vivacious.

Examples

"The family sat down to table, and a frugal meal of cold viands was deposited before them." — Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, 1891

"No fewer than three restaurants are planned for the new hotel, including one at ground level, and two others on the top two floors of the building, providing city vistas along with the viands." — Lewis Lazare, The Chicago Business Journal, 13 May 2016

Test Your Vocabulary

What noun begins with "k" and can refer to a fancy dish or a trinket?

Merriam-Webster

http://plotsandtension.blogspot.com.au/

obliterate - Word of the Day - 22/11/17

obliterate

verb

Pronunciation

uh-BLIT-uh-rayt

Definition

1 a : to remove from recognition or memory
   b : to remove from existence
2 : to make undecipherable by wiping out or covering over

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—from the prefix ob-, meaning "in the way," and littera, meaning "letter"—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, and eventually its meaning was generalized to removing anything from existence. In the meantime, 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."

Examples

The children's chalk drawings remained on the sidewalk until a rainstorm came along and obliterated them.

"That was before Hurricane Maria obliterated the only tropical rain forest in the United States forest system. Left behind was a scene so bare that on a recent visit, it was possible to see the concrete skyline of San Juan about 30 miles west—a previously unimaginable sight." — Luis Ferré-Sadurní, The New York Times, 11 Oct. 2017

Test Your Vocabulary

What two-word term includes the word letter and can refer to a law or agreement that has lost its force or authority without being formally abolished?

Merriam-Webster

http://creatingcharactersforfictionwriters.blogspot.com.au/

wifty - Word of the Day - 21/11/17

wifty

adjective

Pronunciation

WIF-tee 

Definition

: eccentrically silly, giddy, or inane : ditzy

Did You Know?

Wifty is a synonym of ditzy. And, like ditzy, its origins remain unknown. The earliest print evidence of wifty goes back to the early 20th century, though the word was certainly being used in spoken English before that. Ditzy stumbled into American slang decades later—we are able to trace it back to the 1970s. But dizzy, which in its Old English origins meant "foolish" or "stupid," has been used in a sense similar to ditzy or wifty since the 16th century.

Examples

"Developers are, by nature, dreamers and gamblers, seeing opportunity and growth where others see only the Steak & Bagel Train. Many developers appear a tad wifty, perhaps existing in some altered state of consciousness, but this project is in a class by itself." — Karen Heller, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 28 Oct. 2012

"… he paints a tender and sensitive portrait of a modern-day Don Quixote trapped in his own grand, wifty delusions." — Laura Bennett, The Boston Globe, 2 July 2009

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of wifty: d _ _ t.

Merriam-Webster

http://writinghaikup.blogspot.com.au/

bombinate - Word of the Day - 20/11/17

bombinate

verb

Pronunciation

BAHM-buh-nayt

 Definition

: to make a sustained deep murmuring, humming, or buzzing sound : buzz, drone

Did You Know?

Bombinate sounds like it should be the province of bombastic blowhards who bound up and bombard you with droning blather at parties—and it is. The word derives from the Greek word bombos, a term that probably originated as an imitation of a deep, hollow sound (the kind we would likely refer to as "booming" nowadays). Latin speakers rendered the original Greek form as bombus, and that root gave forth a veritable din of raucous English offspring, including not only bombinate, but also bomb, bombard, and bound ("a leap or jump"). However, Latin bombus is not a direct ancestor of bombastic, which traces to bombyx, a Greek name for the silkworm.

Examples

The only sounds Jared could hear in the office that night were those of his own typing and the air conditioner bombinating.

"Black-marketeers and scalpers began buzzing around the theatres, bombinating ceaselessly, … 'Ten-for-five, ten-for five, ten-for-five.'" — Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey, 1991

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of bombinate: b _ m _ _ e.

Merriam-Webster

http://writingforchildrenstage.blogspot.com.au/

fervid - Word of the Day - 19/11/17

fervid

adjective

Pronunciation

 FER-vid

Definition

1 : very hot : burning
2 : marked by often extreme intensity of feeling

Did You Know?

The Latin verb fervēre can mean "to boil" or "to glow," as well as, by extension, "to seethe" or "to be roused." In English, this root gives us three words that can mean "impassioned" by varying degrees: fervid, fervent, and perfervid. Fervid and fervent are practically synonymous, but while fervid usually suggests warm emotion that is expressed in a spontaneous or feverish manner (as in "fervid basketball fans"), fervent is reserved for a kind of emotional warmth that is steady and sincere (as in "a fervent belief in human kindness"). Perfervid combines fervid with the Latin prefix per- ("thoroughly") to create a word meaning "marked by overwrought or exaggerated emotion," as in "a perfervid display of patriotism."

Examples

"Here at the Toronto International Film Festival, there are posters for an upcoming Guillermo del Toro-curated exhibit called 'Influences' that will let you sample the movies and books and music that fed the director's fervid imagination." — David Edelstein, Vulture, 14 Sept. 2017

"The travellers set forth on horseback, and purposed to perform much of their aimless journeyings under the moon, and in the cool of the morning or evening twilight; the midday sun … being still too fervid to allow of noontide exposure." — Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun, 1860

Word Quiz

Unscramble the letters to create a verb derived from Latin fervēre that can mean "to bubble, hiss, and foam as gas escapes" or "to show liveliness": VFFCEEREES.

Merriam-Webster

http://grammarandpunctuationmodule4.blogspot.com.au/

belaud - Word of the Day - 18/11/17

belaud

verb

Pronunciation

bih-LAWD 

Definition

: to praise usually to excess

Did You Know?

You may recognize the word laud (meaning "to praise or extol") in belaud. In fact, belaud was formed by combining the prefix be- and the verb laud. Since be- can denote both "to a greater degree" and "excessively or ostentatiously," it perhaps should come as no surprise that while laud may imply praise to a deserved degree, belaud often has the connotations of unreasonable or undeserved praise. Incidentally, both laud and by extension belaud derive from the Latin verb laudare, which in turn traces back to laud-, meaning "praise." Other descendants of laud- in English include laudatory, laudable, and even laudation, meaning "an act of praising."

Examples

"Several cheers went up. Piccard, unaware of the scene unfolding behind him, seemed to think they were meant to belaud his plan." — Jake Silverstein, Nothing Happened and Then It Did: A Chronicle in Fact and Fiction, 2011

"We believe it was about 1835 that Mr. Dearborn republished the Culprit Fay, which then, as at the period of its original issue, was belauded by the universal American press…." — Edgar Allan Poe, "J. G. C. Brainard" in The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe, 1850

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of belaud: GIFMAYN.

Merriam-Webster

http://writingthestorypruthpunton.blogspot.com.au/

jalousie - Word of the Day - 17/11/17

jalousie

noun

Pronunciation

 JAL-uh-see

Definition

1 : a blind with adjustable horizontal slats for admitting light and air while excluding direct sun and rain
2 : a window made of adjustable glass louvers that control ventilation

Did You Know?

Etymologists are clear on the source of the word jalousie—it's French for "jealousy"—but the relationship between the emotion and the window treatments originally referred to as jalousies is not something they've speculated much about. Is it that those peering out through the original jalousie blinds were jealous of the people outside? Or is it more likely that the jealousy festered in the hearts of those outside, who could see the blinds but not the faces and lives of the people they hid? This excerpt from the October 23, 1766 entry in the Duchess of Northumberland's diary perhaps provides a clue: "Rows of Seats with Jalousies in Front that [the women] may not be seen."

Examples

The rooms of the little bungalow were protected from the brutal tropical heat by wooden jalousies.

"All the old jalousies have been replaced with new windows framed in mahogany, but many interior doors and much of the original hardware have been retained." — Christine Davis, The Palm Beach Daily News, 14 July 2011

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word that refers to intense jealousy: h _ _ r _ _ ur _ in _.

Merriam-Webster

http://plotsandtension.blogspot.com.au/

lollygag - Word of the Day - 16/11/17

lollygag

verb

Pronunciation

LAH-lee-gag 

Definition

: to spend time idly, aimlessly, or foolishly : dawdle

Did You Know?

You certainly didn't want to be known as a lollygagger at the beginning of the 20th century. Back then, lollygag was slang for "fooling around" (sexually, that is). That sense of lollygag was in use at least as long ago as 1868, and it probably originated as an alteration of the older (and more dawdlingly innocent) lallygag. Nowadays, lollygag doesn't usually carry such naughty connotations, but back in 1946, one Navy captain considered lollygagging enough of a problem to issue this stern warning:

"Lovemaking and lollygagging are hereby strictly forbidden.... The holding of hands, osculation and constant embracing of WAVES [Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service], corpsmen or civilians and sailors or any combination of male and female personnel is a violation of naval discipline...."

Examples

Owen had a habit of lollygagging in the morning when he was supposed to be getting ready for school, and that meant that he was sometimes late.

"We were spoiled in the heart of summer by daylight that lingered until 10 p.m. We felt no sense of hurry. We could get home from work and still have almost five hours to lollygag away catching walleyes, water-skiing or having picnics on the beach." — Sam Cook, The Duluth (Minnesota) News Tribune, 29 Sept. 2017

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of lollygag: l _ i _ _ r.

Merriam-Webster

http://creatingcharactersforfictionwriters.blogspot.com.au/

proximity - Word of the Day - 15/11/17

proximity

noun

Pronunciation

prahk-SIM-uh-tee

Definition

: the quality or state of being proximate : closeness

Did You Know?

The history of proximity hinges on the idea of closeness, both physical and metaphorical. English speakers borrowed the word from Middle French, which in turn acquired it from Latin proximitat-, proximitas, forms of the adjective proximus, meaning "nearest" or "next." A number of other languages, including Catalan, Portuguese, and Italian, derived similar words from Latin proximus. Other descendants of proximus in English include proximal, proximate, and the somewhat more rare approximal (meaning "contiguous").

Examples

"[T]he company's main advantages as an exporter include proximity to the U.S. market, quality of production and its ability to alter production to suit the needs and design tastes of U.S. consumers." — Thomas Russell, Furniture Today, 4 Oct. 2017

"Common interests, shared experiences and momentum are the things that bind superficial relationships…, but remove the natural closeness that proximity creates and you find that having once shared a few high school classes is not enough to sustain a lifelong relationship." — Jonathan Look, Forbes, 24 Sept. 2017

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of proximity: p _ o _ i _ q _ i _ y.

Merriam-Webster

http://writinghaikup.blogspot.com.au/

stellar - Word of the Day - 14/11/17

stellar

adjective

Pronunciation

 STEL-er 

Definition

1 a : of or relating to the stars : astral
   b : composed of stars
2 : of or relating to a theatrical or film star
3 a : principal, leading
   b : outstanding

Did You Know?

Stella, the Latin word for "star," shines brightly in the word constellation, but stella words have been favored by scientists to describe earthly things as much as heavenly bodies. Stellar was once used to mean "star-shaped." That use is no longer current, but today biologists and geologists might use one of these synonyms: stellular, stellate, and stelliform. Poets, too, have looked to stella. John Milton used stellar in its infancy when he wrote in Paradise Lost "these soft fires … shed down their stellar virtue." Stellar shot into its leading role as a synonym of star (as when we say "stellar pupil") in the late 1800s.

Examples

Kelly's stellar academic record should help her gain acceptance to almost any college she wants to attend.

"The carbon-rich asteroid is like a time capsule from more than 4.5 billion years ago when the solar system formed. Scientists hope that the samples that Osiris-Rex collects and brings to Earth in 2023 will contain clues from the earliest history of our stellar neighborhood." — Nicholas St. Fleur, The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2017

Test Your Vocabulary

What is the meaning of the adjective star-chamber?


Merriam-Webster

http://writingforchildrenstage.blogspot.com.au/

roué - Word of the Day - 13/11/17

roué

noun

Pronunciation

 roo-AY

Definition

: a man devoted to a life of sensual pleasure : rake

Did You Know?

Roué originated as a French word and gained momentum when it began to be used in reference to the libertine companions of Philippe II, France's regent from 1715-1723. Roué means "broken on the wheel" in French and ultimately derives from Latin rota, meaning "wheel." Since the wheel being referred to was an instrument of punishment, the French were implying that such dissolute beings deserved this punishment. By the end of the 18th century, English-speakers added roué to its list of synonyms for a rake, libertine, debaucher, lecher, etc.

Examples

"Hugh Grant, as a roué who seems to realize that his charm is a regrettably cheap commodity, enjoyed something of a comeback in Florence Foster Jenkins." — Tom Gliatto, People, 17 Jan. 2017       
   
"[Roger Moore's] Bond was a roué, a bounder, a debonair playboy not remotely like a real spy and arguably all the better for it." — Alex Bilmes, Esquire, 25 May 2017

Test Your Vocabulary

What word combines with path to form an expression for a figurative path of ease or pleasure?

Merriam-Webster

http://grammarandpunctuationmodule4.blogspot.com.au/

shilly-shally - Word of the Day - 12/11/17

shilly-shally

verb

Pronunciation

 SHIL-ee-SHAL-ee

Definition

1 : to show hesitation or lack of decisiveness or resolution
2 : dawdle

Did You Know?

Shall I? Shall I? When you just don't know what to do, it may feel as if asking that question twice will somehow help you decide. The 17th century saw the use of the phrase "stand shall I, shall I" to describe vacillation or indecision. By that century's end, the phrase had been altered to "shill I, shall I," most likely because people just liked the vowel alteration (that's the same process that gave us dillydally and wishy-washy). Soon after, the adverbial shilly-shally made the jump from slang to literature and writers began applying it as an adjective, a noun, and a verb as well.

Examples

"As for buying Concord grapes at either a farm stand or a supermarket, the rule of thumb is, when you see them, claim them. Don't shilly-shally, because the season for this most coveted of grapes is fleeting." — Heidi Legenbauer Williams, The Daily Gazette (Schenectady, New York), 9 Sept. 2016

"He chaired a meeting this month that called on reluctant officials not to shilly-shally with economic and social reforms…." — The Economist, 18 Feb. 2017

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of shilly-shally: b _ g _ _ e.

Merriam-Webster

http://writingthestorypruthpunton.blogspot.com.au/

doughty - Word of the Day - 11/11/17

doughty

adjective

Pronunciation

DOW-tee
 

Definition

: marked by fearless resolution : valiant

Did You Know?

Doughty is a persevering English word. In Old English, it shows up as dohtig, which was probably an alteration of dyhtig that resulted from the influence of the Old English dohte, meaning "had worth." By the 13th century, the spelling doughty had begun to appear. The expected pronunciation would be \DAW-tee\, paralleling other similarly spelled old words like bought and sought. But over the centuries, the spelling was sometimes confused with that of the now-obsolete word doubty, meaning "full of doubt," and thus, so it is conjectured, we have the pronunciation we use today.

Examples

Noticing that the cashier shorted him a nickel, the doughty child marched up to the counter and demanded it from her.

"The early lighthouse keepers were a doughty lot, and had to be, insofar as their job wasn't merely to light the wick, but save the occasional ship that foundered…." — Verne Gay, Newsday, 26 May 2010

Name That Antonym

Fill in the blanks to complete an antonym of doughty: _ _ m _ r _ us.

Merriam-Webster

http://plotsandtension.blogspot.com.au/

pathos - Word of the Day - 10/11/17

pathos

noun

Pronunciation

PAY-thahss

Definition

1 : an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion
2 : an emotion of sympathetic pity

Examples

"Clowns have always been represented as tricksters and jokers, from the days of jesters all the way through Ronald McDonald, but the high jinks were always paired with pathos and humanity." — Vulture, 7 Sept. 2017

"The best survival movies are often harrowing; packed with loss and pathos while testing the limits of human endurance." — Mathew DeKinder, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 5 Oct. 2017

Did You Know?

The Greek word pathos means "suffering," "experience," or "emotion." It was borrowed into English in the 16th century, and for English speakers, the term usually refers to the emotions produced by tragedy or a depiction of tragedy. Pathos has quite a few kin in English. Pathetic is used to describe things that move us to pity. Empathy is the ability to feel the emotions of another. Though pathology is not literally "the study of suffering," it is "the study of diseases." You can probably guess at more relatives of pathos. Sympathy, apathy, antipathy, sociopath, and psychopath are a few.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a verb that means "to feel or express sympathy": c _ _ m _ s _ _ _ te.

Merriam-Webster

http://creatingcharactersforfictionwriters.blogspot.com.au/

cotton - Word of the Day - 09/11/17

cotton

verb

Pronunciation

 KAH-tun
 

Definition

1 : to take a liking — used with to
2 : to come to understand — used with to or on to

Examples

"He was so much fun to have in the company. He had that warm, inviting voice. Audiences just cottoned to him." — Gary Gisselman, quoted in The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 3 Mar. 2016

"This exhibition—like many of [Jim] Henson's shows—is mainly for adults, concerned with the craft of puppetry and the expansion of broadcast media…. Henson, born in Greenville, Miss., in 1936, had an early gift for landscape drawing, but he cottoned on quickly to the potentials of a new medium—and to the branding opportunities that the medium would allow." — Jason Farago, The New York Times, 21 July 2017

Did You Know?

The noun cotton first appears in English in the late Middle Ages. It comes, via Anglo-French and Old Italian, from the Arabic word for cotton, quṭun or quṭn. In the 15th century, cotton acquired a verb use meaning "to form a nap on (cloth)." Though this verb sense is now obsolete, our modern-day use might have spun from it. In 1822, English philologist Robert Nares reported that cotton had been used to mean "to succeed" and speculated that this use came from "the finishing of cloth, which when it cottons, or rises to a regular nap, is nearly or quite complete." The meaning of cotton shifted from "to get on well" to "to get on well together," and eventually to the sense we know today, "to take a liking to." The "understand" sense appeared later, in the early 20th century.

Name That Synonym

What 6-letter verb beginning with "t" is a synonym of cotton, meaning "to come to understand," and also means "to fall suddenly and helplessly"?

Merriam-Webster


http://writinghaikup.blogspot.com.au/

archetype - Word of the Day - 07/11/17

archetype

noun

Pronunciation

AHR-kih-type
 

Definition

1 : the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies : prototype; also : a perfect example
2 : a transcendent entity that is a real pattern of which existing things are imperfect representations : idea
3 : (psychology) an inherited idea or mode of thought in the psychology of C. G. Jung that is derived from the experience of the race and is present in the unconscious of the individual

Examples

"That archetype of the clean-cut, indefatigable and incorruptible agent was largely the invention of J. Edgar Hoover, who led the FBI for 48 years, from May 1924 to May 1972." — Vanessa Romo, NPR.org, 13 July 2017

"In Nashville, … [Shania] Twain has come to be embraced as an elder and an archetype. Carrie Underwood had to prove that she could handle one of Twain's hits when she competed on American Idol en route to becoming one of the reigning pop-country figures of the post-Shania era." — Jewly Hight, Vulture, 29 Sept. 2017

Did You Know?

Archetype derives via Latin from the Greek adjective archetypos ("archetypal"), formed from the verb archein ("to begin" or "to rule") and the noun typos ("type"). (Archein also gave us the prefix arch-, meaning "principal" or "extreme," used to form such words as archenemy, archduke, and archconservative.) Archetype has specific uses in the fields of philosophy and psychology. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato, for example, believed that all things have ideal forms (aka archetypes) of which real things are merely shadows or copies. And in the psychology of C. G. Jung, archetype refers to an inherited idea or mode of thought that is present in the unconscious of the individual. In everyday prose, however, archetype is most commonly used to mean "a perfect example of something."

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of archetype: e _ _ m _ _ ar.

Merriam-Webster

http://writingforchildrenstage.blogspot.com.au/

esemplastic - Word of the Day - 06/11/17

esemplastic

adjective

Pronunciation

 ess-em-PLASS-tik

Definition

: shaping or having the power to shape disparate things into a unified whole

Examples

"Art achieves its impact from something Samuel Taylor Coleridge called its esemplastic power, the ability to make sense out of chaos, to 'shape into one' the many truths around us." — Teresa Jordan, The Year of Living Virtuously: Weekends Off, 2014

"The prison walls of self had closed entirely round him; he was walled completely by the esemplastic power of his imagination…." — Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929

Did You Know?

"Unusual and new-coined words are, doubtless, an evil; but vagueness, confusion, and imperfect conveyance of our thoughts, are a far greater," wrote English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Biographia Literaria, 1817. True to form, in that same work, he assembled esemplastic by melding the Greek phrase es hen, meaning "into one," with plastic to fulfill his need for a word that accurately described the imagination's ability to shape disparate experiences into a unified whole (e.g., the poet's imaginative ability to communicate a variety of images, sensations, emotions, and experiences in the unifying framework of a poem). The verb intensify was another word that Coleridge was compelled to mint while writing Biographia.

Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete an adjective that means "formed by the collection of units or particles into a body, mass, or amount": a _ _ r _ g _ _ e.

Merriam-Webster

http://grammarandpunctuationmodule4.blogspot.com.au/

parable - Word of the Day - 05/11/17

parable

noun

Pronunciation

PAIR-uh-bul

 Definition

: example; specifically : a usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle

Examples

The priest opened his homily by relating the parable of the Good Samaritan, from the Gospel of Luke.

"Remotely based on the 1844 Hans Christian Andersen tale 'The Snow Queen,' a parable about faith and friendship, the movie ['Frozen'] retained only the central metaphor of a woman who can freeze people's hearts with her witchcraft." — Jesse Green, The New York Times, 15 Sept. 2017

Did You Know?

Parable comes to us via Anglo-French from the Late Latin word parabola, which in turn comes from Greek parabolē, meaning "comparison." The word parabola may look familiar if you remember your geometry. The mathematical parabola refers to a kind of comparison between a fixed point and a straight line, resulting in a parabolic curve; it came to English from New Latin (Latin as used since the end of the medieval period, especially in scientific description and classification). Parable, however, descends from Late Latin (the Latin language used by writers in the 3rd to 6th centuries). The Late Latin term parabola referred to verbal comparisons: it essentially meant "allegory" or "speech." Other English descendants of Late Latin parabola are parole and palaver.

Word Quiz

What 6-letter noun is derived from Late Latin parabola and refers to a conference or discussion?

Merriam-Webster

http://plotsandtension.blogspot.com.au/

stridulate - Word of the Day - 04/11/17

stridulate

verb

Pronunciation

STRIJ-uh-layt

 Definition

: to make a shrill creaking noise by rubbing together special bodily structures — used especially of male insects (such as crickets or grasshoppers)

Examples

"When attacked from the side, the crickets stridulated and tried to bite their attacker." — Matt Walker, BBC News, 28 July 2009

"Every day throughout the year begins and ends with … insects rattling and stridulating, and birds singing their hearts out." — Alex Shoumatoff, Yale Environment 360, 18 May 2017

Did You Know?

Stridulate is one member of a word family that has its ancestry in the Latin word stridulus, meaning "shrill." The word alludes to the sharp, high-pitched sound that is produced by a number of insects—particularly crickets and grasshoppers but also certain beetles—as well as other animals, usually as a mating call or a signal of territorial behavior. Stridulus comes from stridere, which is the direct source of our noun stridor, a word found in medical dictionaries. Stridor means "a harsh, shrill, or creaking noise" and also "a harsh vibrating sound heard during respiration in cases of obstruction of the air passages."

Test Your Vocabulary

What instrument emits a high shrill sound called a skirl?

Merriam-Webster

http://creatingcharactersforfictionwriters.blogspot.com.au/

tin-pot - Word of the Day - 03/11/17

tin-pot

adjective

Pronunciation

TIN-PAHT
 

Definition

: cheap or trivial of its kind : petty, small-time, two-bit

Examples

"Every fascist, authoritarian and tin-pot dictator in history has tried to shut down dissent." — Michael Goodwin, The New York Post, 15 June 2017

"What a gaggle of tin-pot soldiers we were, the intelligent bored silly, the mediocre exhausted, and the dense frightened out of their wits." — Paul West, Harper's, January 2009

Did You Know?

Tin has never commanded as much respect as some other metals. As a reflection of this, its name has long been used in terms denoting the tawdry or petty. Tin-pot has been used for minor or insignificant things or people since the early 1800s. Tinhorn has named fakes or frauds (especially gamblers) since the second half of that century, and tin lizzie has been a nickname for an inexpensive car since Ford introduced the Model T. Another example is tin-pan, meaning "noisy, harsh, tinny." That word features in the name of the famous Tin Pan Alley, in which it evokes the tinny sound of pianos pounded furiously by musicians plugging tunes to producers.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of tin-pot: p _ c _ _ u _ e.

Merriam-Webster


http://writinghaikup.blogspot.com.au/

clew - Word of the Day - 02/11/17

clew

noun

Pronunciation

KLOO

Definition

1 : a ball of thread, yarn, or cord
2 : something that guides through an intricate procedure or maze of difficulties : clue
3  a : a lower corner or only the after corner of a sail
    b : a metal loop attached to the lower corner of a sail
    c : (plural) a combination of lines by which a hammock is suspended

Examples

"High overhead, topmen scrambled to furl and unfurl sails and tend to yards and booms and spars and various clews." — Corey Kilgannon, The New York Times, 30 Aug. 2009

"But this boldness that I took to be presumption was a vital clew to the nature of Ernest Everhard." — Jack London, The Iron Heel, 1908

Did You Know?

The "ball of thread" meaning of clew (from Middle English clewe and ultimately from Old English cliewen) has been with us since before the 12th century. In Greek mythology, Ariadne gave a ball of thread to Theseus so that he could use it to find his way out of her father's labyrinth. This, and similar tales, gave rise to the use of clew for anything that could guide a person through a difficult place. This use led, in turn, to the meaning "a piece of evidence that leads one toward the solution of a problem." Today, the variant spelling clue, which appeared in the 17th century, is the more common spelling for the "evidence" sense, but you'll find clew in some famous works of literature. Also, clew is the only choice for the sailing senses.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a noun that refers to something serving as a guide to understanding or knowledge: fi _ _ _ rpo _ _.

Merriam-Webster

http://writingforchildrenstage.blogspot.com.au/