Category Archives: words

Dec13

don’t be a yuleshard.

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for a little variety, learn  these words for your next holiday gathering,

some borrowed from foreign languages and others from long ago.

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Someone doing their Christmas shopping on December 24 is the epitome of a Yuleshard  – a person who waits until the last minute to finish preparations for the holidays. This Scottish word dates to at least the mid-18th century. “Yule” is a synonym for the Christmas season, and “shard” is a corruption of the word jade and has been used since the 16th century as an insult in Middle English, referring to a worn-out horse.

Italians have the perfect word for how many feel after a holiday meal. Abbiocco refers to the drowsiness that occurs after a large meal, making it distinct from simple sleepiness before bedtime. It also involves a state of pure relaxation while delaying responsibilities, something that tends to occur on holidays. The word originated in central Italy from two verbs, abbioccare and abbioccarsi, meaning “to exhaust” and “to doze off,” respectively.

 It’s easy to overindulge during holiday meals, and those who do might need to take advantage of a yule-hole. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a yule-hole is “the hole in the waist-belt to which the buckle is adjusted, to allow for repletion after the feasting at Christmas.”

A bummock is an alcoholic beverage brewed to enjoy at a “merry meeting” — aka a holiday party. This Scottish drink has been around since at least the early 19th century, but an 18th century definition of “bummock” (sometimes spelled “boumack”) is “an entertainment anciently given at Christmas by tenants to their landlords.”

 

 

Schnapsidee is a German word that  translates literally as “booze idea,” something many people have during the holidays. It’s a ridiculous, ill-advised idea that sounds like it was made up during a drunken state — sledding off the roof at a holiday party, for example. (Don’t do that!) Germans tend to use the word to describe any outlandish idea, though, whether alcohol was involved or not.

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‘action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.’

-mark twain

 

 

 

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source credits: word smarts, rachel gresh, vintage postcards, pinterest, bbc, wasau news

Aug30

hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.

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In an interview with The Guardianin 2019, English stand-up comic Chris McCausland claimed the funniest English word is “hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.” Not only is this a silly word to say, but it also has a humorously ironic meaning, as it refers to a fear of long words.

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“don’t gobblefunk around with words.”
― Roald Dahl, The BFG

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source credits: the guardian, wordsmarts, google images

Aug26

fighting words.

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our founding fathers irked england by inventing american english

thomas jefferson is credited with coining over 100 words — more than any other president. among the words the third president introduced are “indecipherable,” “belittle,” and “pedicure,” the latter of which means to care for the feet and toenails. “Pedicure” was one of several words that Jefferson borrowed from the French after spending many years in Paris.

next time you get your pedicure,

you’ll have TJ to thank for bringing this word to us,

otherwise you wouldn’t have known what service to ask for

when you booked your appointment. 

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‘where can i find a man who has forgotten words so i can have a word with him?’

-zhuangzi

 

 

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source credits: VOA, Saturday Evening Post

Mar15

‘i never said most of the things i said.’ – yogi berra

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why is ‘oxymoron’ an oxymoron?”

Much like “deafening silence” and “jumbo shrimp,” the word “oxymoron” is a bit of an oxymoron in itself.

The word “oxymoron” may sound like an insult or maybe a cleaning product, but it’s neither. It’s the name for a figure of speech where contradictory terms appear together (e.g., “minor crisis,” “small crowd,” “bittersweet”). But the word “oxymoron” also falls into that category, as it’s derived from ancient Greek words that contradict each other.

“Oxymoron” comes from the Greek oxumōron,which combines oxus (meaning “sharp”) and mōros (“foolish”). Calling something both sharp and foolish comes across as, well, oxymoronic, thus making the word “oxymoron” a perfect example of what it describes.

But being a walking contradiction never stopped the word from becoming a part of our collective vernacular. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it became popular in the mid-17th century, with people using it to rhetorically emphasize blatantly contradictory phrases. While you may be tempted to call someone an oxymoron as a personal descriptor, doing so wouldn’t be by the book. Instead, the term is best reserved for incongruous sets of words.

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just when i thought I had a handle on this…..

what is your favorite oxymoron?

my personal favorite is:

‘definite maybe.’

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‘i’m not going to say i told you so, but i did.’

-nouriel roubini

 

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Source credits: Bennett Kleinman, SergioVas/Shutterstock
Apr4

your words.

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when you’ve just settled in for the night

and someone calls asking you to go out

you roll your eyes, you sigh

 then have a couple of ways to turn down the offer,

one leaves the caller with a better feeling about you than the other:

 

option#1

“i don’t feel like going out tonight.”

lazy

unoriginal

puts the blame on you

 

option#2

“for now, my place is here.”

surprising

philosophical

you answer to a higher power

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choose your words wisely.

 

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“facts matter not at all. perception is everything. it’s certainty.”

-stephen colbert

 

 

 

 

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credits: franklin springboro library, take a hike photography

 

 

 

Mar9

bimble.

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not me, a south african ground squirrel, but we both tend to bimble at times.

kind of like a saunter or an amble, but cooler.

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bimble:

english (verb)

to walk without purpose

to stroll leisurely

“i have an important appointment in thirty minutes. this is not the time to bimble about.”

 

 

 

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image credit: pinterest

Feb27

word after a word.

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someone sure has a lot to say
not sure exactly what that is yet
but i think
someone has to pay something.
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“a word after a word after a word is power.”
― margaret atwood
Jan28

tiny grass is dreaming.

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小草休扈 请勿扛搅

inaccurate translation:

DO NOT DISTURB. / TINY GRASS IS DREAMING.

while the image of blades of grass sleeping soundly is undeniably adorable,

the chinese public lawn sign posted near the grass was actually meant to read,

accurate translation:

GRASS IS RESTING. DO NOT DISTURB.

i personally prefer the first.

 

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“every act of communication is a miracle of translation.”
― ken liu,  the paper menagerie and other stories

 

 

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photo credit: university animal clinic

Jan6

tribute.

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during the wake

we all gathered inside

close together

to talk, eat, laugh, cry, listen to music, tell stories, remember

celebrate a life

the children from 4-10

all played together

went outside

chalk in hand

 wrote a beautiful welcome to all who would come

and loving tributes to the one who had left.

“tears are words that need to be written.”

-paul coelho

Jan4

words on a page.

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ten  years ago

this surprise postcard

appeared in my mailbox 

from a former student

now far away

addressed to peaches

my affectionate nickname

sent to me

when she was seven not yet eight

her only message

a beautiful poem 

summed up

 life

in three lines

love is love

life is life

there is nothing else to it.

i knew way back when

she was just four not yet five

learning

how to hold a pencil to write

she was a beat poet and roller derby queen of adventure.

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“one should write because one loves the shape of stories and sentences

and the creation of different words on a page.”

-annie proulx