Unless you are at home in the metaphor, you are not safe anywhere.”
— Robert Frost
Tag: writers
A breed apart from ordinary humans, and responsible for much of their culture. Some would call them the salvation of humanity; others wouldn’t call them a cab.
Words To Bring Back: “Desultory”
– Definition: adj. marked by lack of definite plan, regularity, or purpose – Used in a sentence: Except for my relatively brief writing career, my life has been a desultory yet full one. – Why: It seems to characterize much…
Death steals everything except our stories.”
— Jim Harrison
Metaphoraging Roundup: 2018
IF A GOOD FRIEND HADN’T died this year and cured me of a years-long writer’s block, I wouldn’t be posting this. But he did, so I am, proffering 2018’s Top 10 Viewed Pages and Posts at this writing: 1. Home…
Words To Bring Back: “Trenchant”
– Definition: adj. 1. vigorous or incisive in expression or style. 2. sharply perceptive – Used in a sentence: What we need is more trenchant male characters, unlike Peter Jackson’s Aragorn or the ubiquitous “Bumbling Dad.”. – Why: These are…
Words To Bring Back: “Proffer”
– Definition: v. t. To offer for acceptance. – Used in a sentence:To you the reader, I hereby and humbly proffer my Cook For Any Price stories. – Why: It implies a social contract somewhat different from its rhyming synonym;…
Words To Bring Back: “Cubit”
– Definition: n. A unit of measurement; the distance between one’s elbow and middle-fingertip (approximately 18 inches) – Used in a sentence: My cat is almost exactly two cubits long, including his tail. – Why: Sure, we could always double…
Words To Bring Back, Special Edition: “Wheeler”
SOMETIMES, WE ATTAIN IMMORTALITY BY becoming part of the language: e.g., “boycott,” “pasteurize,” “guillotine.” And to these noble eponyms I would like to append … “wheeler.” – Definition: v. To unconsciously, persistently and innocently pocket other people’s stuff.
Words to Bring Back: “Ambit”
– Definition: n. A space surrounding a house, castle, town, etc. A precinct. – Used in a sentence: It is my ambition to diligently guard my ambit against encroachment. – Why: Where I live in semi-rural Northern California, such things…
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”
― Isaac Asimov
Words to Bring Back: “Desuetude”
– Definition: n.; pronounced “DES-wuh-tude” or “de-SUE-uh-tude.” A condition of disuse. – Used in a sentence: Unless we act to protect them, our Constitutionally guaranteed rights are apt to fall into desuetude. – Why: It rolls nicely off the tongue.…
Words To Bring Back: “Terrible”
– Definition: adj. Of a nature to excite terror; appaling – Used in a sentence: “That’s the most terrible Hallowe’en costume I’ve ever seen.” – Why: The current connotation of “terrible” as slipshod, sub-par, etc. really grinds my gears. Time…