J.A. Andrews's Blog, page 2

Frequentatives – a third time

We’ve chatted about frequentatives twice. Here and here.

I discovered a few more frequentatives that I find a little gross.

 

Gross Frequentative #1: spit/spatter

So there’s spit, as a normal verb. Even when spitting is talking about oil spitting while you cook or something, the word itself is just too tightly connected to a person spitting for me to feel completely pleased with it.

But spatter – I’ve never had any issues with spatter. Paint can spatter, mud can spatter, lots of things spatter.

Somehow, though, connecting spatter to spit is making me a little more grossed out by spatter.

 

 

Gross Frequentative #2: clot/clutter

Yes, you can see this one too, right? I clutter my kitchen counter. It’s just a fact. Also that little nook of floor space behind my writing desk is often cluttered.

But clutter comes from clot? Eww.

Now I know there are different sorts of clots than gooey blood clots…but are there really??? Or is ever other sort of clot a bit disgusting because we all think “blood clot”.

So now, the word “clutter”, which has always been so mild, has this looming, gross shadow to it. I simply can not connect blood clots to my counter. I can’t! I won’t.

Ugg! Too late!

 

 

Gross Frequentative #3: grunt/gruntle

It’s fun to revisit our friend gruntle, isn’t it? It means to be pleased.

Which leads to the obvious question: Why does grunting repetitively lead to being pleased.

Setting aside the obvious adult-level answer that would be inappropriate in my family-friendly email, the answer has to do with the snorting, grunting noise that hogs make while they’re rooting around looking for food. The pleased sort of grunt lets us be gruntled like a pig in the trash.

But it does make gruntled a less pleasant sounding word even that it was before. Which, frankly, wasn’t ever that pleasant.

 

Happy Reading!

Janice

 

The post Frequentatives – a third time appeared first on JA Andrews.

Frequentatives happening again

Since last week we talked about frequentatives being a word from a verb that happens repeatedly, I thought I’d talk about them more.

Repeatedly, actually.

For instance, the verb to crack, if it gets repetitive, turns to the frequentative crackle.

I found three frequentatives that are from movement sort of verbs that we’re all familiar with, but that I never connected the frequentative with the verb itself.

 

The first is jig and jiggle.

For some reason, this makes me laugh. Dancing a jig is funny. But if you do it repeatedly, you jiggle. At least I would certainly jiggle.

 

The second is wrest and wrestle.

I’m having a hard time expressing why this one is funny to me, but I think it has to do with the strength of the two words. Wrest is such a strong, forceful word, and wrestle is more of a gridlocked thing. Somehow it makes the word wrestle more interesting realizing that it’s repeated wresting.

 

The last is joust and jostle. This is definitely a case of the two words having different strength.

Being jostled is mildly irritating. But being jousted! Ouch!

So next time you’re jostled in a crowd, just be glad it’s not a knight repeatedly jousting you, as the term would indicate.

Happy Reading!

Janice

The post Frequentatives happening again appeared first on JA Andrews.

Frequentatives, episode 1

Happy Friday!

I learned a new grammar term this week:

A frequentative is a verb that describes a repeated action.

 

For instance, sparkle is the frequentative of spark.

If you have sparks over and over, you have sparkle.

Or, more likely, you have fire, but you know what I mean.

 

Blabber is the frequentative of blab.

Flitter is the frequentative of flit.

 

How fun are these?

They’re so fun they make me want to float repetitively – or flutter.

They’re so fun they’re like a gleam of light – happening repeatedly – or a glimmer.

 

This is opening up such a fun set of words to me that I’ll be bringing more to you in the future. But for today, here’s one more gem:

 

You know the word scuttle? It’s the frequentative of scud.

 

Am I the only one who didn’t even know scud was a word?

I know about scud missiles from the Cold War, but look:

 

scud (v.) – move fast in a straight line because or as if driven by the wind

 

Yes. You can scud. They can scud. Anyone or anything can scud.

 

Stay tuned as we dabble (frequentative of dab) in more frequentative fun!

 

May your Friday scud by and let you flitter in the sparkle of the weekend.

 

Happy Reading!

Janice

The post Frequentatives, episode 1 appeared first on JA Andrews.

Signed paperbacks?

I had several readers ask me this week if there was a way to get signed paperbacks of my books, and the answer is YES!

They will cost you $1 million dollars each, cash only.

I’m just kidding.

I mean, if you want to pay me $1 million, I’m not going to stop you, but you can actually pick up signed paperbacks of my books from my website for the same price as you can get them through Amazon.

You can check them all out under my Shop tab. 

 

Bonus buy – there are also awesome mugs.

This or That?

 

I ask this because, I don’t know!

There are some books it would be fun to go into (Narnia) and others…not so much (Westeros in Game of Thrones).

I’d like to bring house elves from Harry Potter’s world into real life. My house would appreciate it.  I’d treat them well, I promise.

What would you pick?

The post This or That? appeared first on JA Andrews.

Book Characters in Real Life

 

I came across an interesting question recently:

What fictional character is amazing in their book/show/movie, but would be insufferable if you had to deal with them in mundane everyday situations?

 

I immediately thought of Jack Sparrow.

I love watching him in Pirates of the Caribbean (the first movie, anyway. Let’s not open the can of worms of the rest of the movies…), but if I had to work with the guy? I’d wanna smack him in his big red bandana.

How about you? Who do you love in books or shows or movies who would be intolerable in real life?

 

The post Book Characters in Real Life appeared first on JA Andrews.

Weird but fun German words.

It’s been a while since we talked fun words.

I took German in high school, and while I’ve forgotten most of it, I do remember our German friends’ love of compound nouns. Have two nouns that are vaguely related?  Shove ‘em into one word! Who cares if it’s now 27 letters long! It’s fun!

I had a German friend share a list of 18 Weird German Words You Won’t Believe Exist and I just had to share.

Here are two of my favorites:

 

Treppenwitz (Staircase joke)

Have you ever noticed how when you have a chance encounter with an attractive person of the opposite sex or get into an argument with someone, the best jokes, lines, and comebacks always occur to you afterwards? That’s the so-called Treppenwitz. It’s the joke that comes to your mind on the way down the stairs after talking to your neighbor in the hallway two floors up.

 

Yes. This. Why will the brain not think faster?

 

 

 

Dreikäsehoch (Three cheeses high)

This sounds like it would make a great name for a pizza. However, what it describes is a person who is vertically challenged, implying they’re only as tall as three wheels of cheese placed on top of each other. Usually this label is reserved for small children, together with Zwerg or Pimpf.

 

Being among the smallest adults at any given event, I’m pretty sure that Dreikäsehoch would be applied to me at some point.

 

Thank you Germany for fun, weird words.

The post Weird but fun German words. appeared first on JA Andrews.

what are you reading?

Helllooo!!

What are you reading? Do you recommend it?

image credit

 

 

I just finished Barbara Kloss’s The Gods of Men, and it was AMAZING.

I may have gasped out loud at a reveal during the climax.

And now I’m starting Alisha Klapheke’s The Fate of Dragons. Dragons, seafolk, elves…yay!

(It’s only 99¢ for the next few days.)

 

What are you reading right now?

The post what are you reading? appeared first on JA Andrews.

What to say when you got nuthin’

The post What to say when you got nuthin’ appeared first on JA Andrews.

Medieval Book Curses

Did you know…

…medieval scribes put curses in their books lest anyone harm them?

I’m not sure I blame them. Being a scribe in the Middle Ages would have been slow, detailed work. Can you imagine writing this?

 

Apparently these scribes weren’t interested in sharing their books with people who wouldn’t care for them well. So they added dramatic curses threatening anyone who would steal or damage their books.

Protect Your Library the Medieval Way, With Horrifying Book Curses lists these curses, collected from old manuscripts by Marc Drogin.

 

There were the straight forward ones:

May the sword of anathema slay

If anyone steals this book away. 

Which is sweet, to the point, and even rhymes.

 

There are ones with more feeling:

“If anyone take away this book, let him die the death;

let him be fried in a pan;

let the falling sickness and fever size him;

let him be broken on the wheel, and hanged. Amen.”

I think the “Amen” at the end really seals the deal.

 

 

Then, for the medieval scribe who had just had it up to here with people disrespecting books:

“For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner, let it change into a serpent in his hand & rend him. Let him be struck with palsy & all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain crying aloud for mercy,  & let there be no surcease to his agony till he sing in dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw his entrails in token of the Worm that dieth not, & when at last he goeth to his final punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him for ever.”

 

 

So, there you have it.

Next time you lend a book to a friend, consider jotting a quick curse at the front to make sure they walk the straight and narrow, and bring your book back in good shape.

 

Happy Reading!

Janice

The post Medieval Book Curses appeared first on JA Andrews.