This Week in Word of the Days 11-11-12
From my daily writing indulgence originally posted on my Facebook page.
nictitate \NIK-ti-teyt\, verb:
To wink.
It seemed impossible that the ambitious little mouse, named Mortimer K. Wifflebottom, successfully engineered cold fusion using a cone cup, three inches of brass piping, a dash of soda powder, and three freshly cut jalapeños. Yet, the humorless scientist couldn’t stifle a smile when Mortimer nictitated with bravado and chirped, “I’m a lab mouse, what else am I going to do with my time but save the world from you silly humans?”
armistice \AHR-muh-stis\, noun:
A temporary suspension of hostilities by agreement of the warring parties.
Everyone was amazed by how quickly the student council election between Alicia and Elizabeth (former besties) devolved into a bare-knuckle brawl of rumors, libel, smear campaigns and arson. An unsteady armistice was enforced by a rattled and overwhelmed principal who, just that morning, had accidentally been tazed when he’d foolishly stepped into the middle of an argument between the two treasury candidates.
troth \TRAWTH\, noun:
1. Faithfulness, fidelity, or loyalty.
2. One’s word or promise, especially in engaging oneself to marry.
Pungent cigar smoke tumbled gently out of the ancient’s nostrils as he smirked down at the anguishing young man. “The beautiful thing about unrequited love,” the ancient grunted in a dying gravel, “is we are allowed to worship without the burdens of ceremony, troths, tithes, or chastity. Because it can exist without tether, reward and responsibility, unrequited love is the purest of all passions.”
disbosom \dis-BOOZ-uhm\, verb:
To reveal; confess.
Already a highly skilled romantic at the age of nine, Norman tossed around his heart carelessly as only children and the insane can. He disbosomed his eternal love daily to a new quarry in rich and persuasive pleas, stunning the young and silly schoolgirls and the cynical and confused teachers alike.
bird-dog \BURD-dawg\, verb:
1. To follow, watch carefully, or investigate.
2. In slang, to steal or attempt to steal another person’s date.
noun:
1. One of various breeds of dogs trained to hunt or retrieve birds.
2. A person hired to locate special items or people, especially a talent scout who seeks out promising athletes.
Dustie’s wilting personality and small, fragile voice cloaked the unassuming woman as she bird-dogged wayward husbands for the Levivitz Private Detective Agency. Resilient and efficient, the office secretary joked that she was a sick voyeur, but in reality Dustie walked those shadowed alleyways, peeking through seedy hotel windows and listening in on bugged phone lines in an endless quest to understand. If she could finally understand, then maybe she could stop hating Ted. If she could learn to forgive Ted, then he would leave that awful woman and come back home where he belongs.
dog-ear \DAWG-eer\, verb:
1. To fold down the corner of a page in a book.
noun:
1. (In a book) a corner of a page folded over like a dog’s ear, as by careless use, or to mark a place.
Elderly oil baron, Larry, started rethinking his recent matrimony to Bunny, the recently retired exotic dancer, when he found “arsenic”, “smothering”, and “euthanasia” dog-eared in the encyclopedia.
terpsichorean \turp-si-kuh-REE-uhn\, adjective:
1. Pertaining to dancing.
noun:
1. A dancer.
The boy’s voice evaporated inches from his mouth, his eyes drifted away from all human contact and he stood away from crowds like a shadow dodging away from the sun, but when he danced, when he burst into the terpsichorean celebration of the quiet he found within the protective embrace of music, he was boundless and unashamed. He could, for just a few minutes out of every torturous day, forget.
