TO THE SMALL CATALOGUE OF meaningful three-word human phrases (“I love you,” “let me help,” “take your time,” “hold my beer”) should be added one pertaining to perhaps that oldest of motivations: “Let’s go see!” Mind you, this drive isn’t…
Tag: creating
Making stuff: up, real, and nicely.
Words to Bring Back: Declaim
– Definition: v. Utter or deliver words or a speech in a rhetorical or impassioned way, as if to an audience. – Used in a sentence: Less defaming, more declaiming. – Why: What with the rise of social media, the…
“NaSSWriMo!”
TODAY KICKS OFF THE WOULD-BE novelists’ annual motivational event, NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to write 1,667 words a day for a total of 50,000 by November 30. (I participated one year, and have a fairly mediocre…
Words To Bring Back: “Patois”
– Definition: n. A type of local dialect. – Used in a sentence: His discourse was punctuated by a patois rich in “I know, right?” “Wait. What?” and “Yeah, no…” – Why: It’s a better (and more elegant and less…
Words to Bring Back: “Probity”
– Definition: n. Virtue or integrity tested and confirmed. – Used in a sentence: If our elected officials had more probity, there would be less Congressional probing. – Why: Actually, I’m not sure whether it’s the word or the concept…
Words to Bring Back: “Pink”
– Definition (per SubGenius usage): adj. Happily and/or militantly vapid and mediocre; commercially soulless n. One who or that which exhibits these traits. – Used in a sentence: adj. “I’m surprised to see the otherwise excellently talented Tom Hanks in…
Words to Bring Back: “Contretemps”
– Definition: n. a minor dispute or disagreement. – Used in a sentence: The current Administration* is one big contretemps after another. – Why: Because “kerfuffle” could use a bit of adulting.
Words To Bring Back: “Reverie”
– Definition: n. Abstracted musing; dreaming. – Used in a sentence: Since late 2016, my reveries have been somewhat disturbed. – Why: Although it comes from an Old French word meaning “dream,” it also reminds one of “revere” or “reverent.”…
Words to Bring Back: “Pellucid”
– Definition: adj. Permitting to a certain extent the passage of light. – Used in a sentence: O, for a more perfectly pellucid presidency*! – Why: I’m in favor of this one strictly for the sound of it; the feeling…
Words to Bring Back: “Concatenation”
– Definition: n. The act of linking together. – Used in a sentence: One positive effect of the 2016 election was the concatenation of disparate progressives, some actually lucid. – Why: Who could argue with a pentasyllabic synonym for “gathering?”
On Blogorrhea (And Its Opposite)
ALTHOUGH I STILL CAN’T SIT for very long, I am also still happy that my seven-year writer’s block has evidently ended (albeit with the death of a close friend). But I will know that it’s really ended when I can…
Words to Bring Back: “Adduce”
– Definition: v.t. To present for proof or consideration, as an example; cite; allege. – Used in a sentence: Rod Serling could have saved himself a couple of seconds per episode if he had only prefaced his Twilight Zone introductions…