This Week in Word of the Day/12-06-13
Taken from my daily writing indulgences on Facebook.
birl \burl\, verb:
1. To spin or cause to rotate.
2. Chiefly Northern U.S. Lumbering. To cause (a floating log) to rotate rapidly by treading upon it.
3. British. A. To move or rotate rapidly. B. Informal. To spend money freely. C. Informal. To gamble.
noun:
1. British Informal. An attempt; a gamble.
My boy, these women you play with, these poor fools who try to tether to your star with hope and empathy believing that your words are as earnest as they are sweet – you must begin thinking to your eternal soul. You cannot birl your heart forever, playing at love to lap out its delights, but never allowing a true romance to take root. It is an injustice to those beauties, and it is an injustice to yourself because somewhere within the parade of women I’ve seen you usher in and out of your bed is the one person who might finally quieten the storm we all know rages inside your head.
aumildar \aw-mil-DAHR\, noun:
1. A manager or agent.
2. A collector of revenue.
James enjoyed the game. It kept him young. As aumildar for Klemmons Chevy Motors, he roamed the hills of West Virginia, dodging buckshot and vicious dogs while collecting back payments or whisking the vehicles away under cover of night. He’d been stabbed twice, winged by one air rifle and blown up when he accidentally ignited a fire in a van turned meth lab.
couthie \KOO-thee\, adjective:
Agreeable; genial; kindly.
Watching Django Unchained amidst a predominantly black audience, I was tempted to walk to the front of the movie screen and formally apologize for my ancestry, but realized that this guilt was the primary reason that the slave story had not been fully embraced as a necessary sub-genre of Old West(or Old Southern, rather) cinema. As we walked out of the theater with African American families spanning four generations, it was a couthie and amused atmosphere. I was just another person that shared the experience of a wonderfully entertaining and satisfying movie. It is good to remember the evil perpetrated by plantation owners within my lineage, but guilt shouldn’t dampen my enjoyment of a great story.
violescent \vahy-uh-LES-uhnt\, adjective:
Tending to a violet color: a violescent twilight sky.
The moment stretched for an eternity. The boardmembers, who had been yelling at one another just a few seconds prior, were stunned and couldn’t meet Clint in the eyes. Clint’s face deepened into a dark, violescent blush as beaded on his forehead. He glanced at the windows and wondered how fast he would have to run to just leap through the glass and into the sweet, loving embrace of death 20 stories below. Instead, he muttered an apology, sat down, dipped his head and waited for the waves of laughter that were imminent. The CEO later called Clint a “genius” for sacrificing his pride in order to break the tension, saving the company in the process.
advert \ad-VURT\, verb:
1. To remark or comment; refer (usually followed by to): He adverted briefly to the news of the day.
2. To turn the attention (usually followed by to): The committee adverted to the business at hand.
“Yes, I appreciate the threat that Skeletor poses and the need for you to take the form of He-Man,” Man-at-Arms explained to Prince Adam. “But I would like to advert back to the matter at hand, which is why I don’t understand the need for a loin cloth.”
“It comes with the costume,” Prince Adam responded, innocently.
“Yes, but maybe we could do without that part of the costume,” Man-At-Arms sighed.
“But then I would be naked from the waste down.”
“No, that’s not what I … You would wear something else instead. We have pants technology. It’s just … when we are in battle, it is a bit off putting to see that – much of you. Do you understand?”
“Teela doesn’t seem to mind.”
exordium \ig-ZAWR-dee-uhm\, noun:
1. The beginning of anything.
2. The introductory part of an oration, treatise, etc.
The teenager slipped through the back porch sliding door and hushed the Datsun trotting toward him with a disapproving growl. Silence from the parent’s room inspired a hopeful smirk followed by a peppermint schnapps burp. When the teenager cracked open the door to his bedroom, there stood his mother and father. She wore a thin, silk robe, he wore only his white briefs and black dress socks.
The father cleared his throat and launched into an academic exordium about the documented dangers of underage drinking while the mother alternated between quiet sobs and furious scowls. Hours later, the sun rose on the small suburban house and the father wrapped up his thoughtful rebuke of young American excess. The mother shuffled to bed without a word. The father patted the boy on the shoulder and smiled.
“It could have been worse, had your mother had her way.”
compotation \kom-puh-TEY-shuhn\, noun:
An act or instance of drinking or tippling together.
The man was in love, a fact that left him deeply discomforted as he discretely plucked at a stray strand of her hair hugging the fabric of his coat. He considered slipping it into his pocket, just to keep a piece of her close, but flicked it down to the ground before looking back up to his table of friends in the midst of a productive night of argumentative compotation. They noticed the man was unusually quiet and passive and discussed this at length while the man lingered in the bathroom trading silly texts with his clandestine girlfriend. Half the group attributed it to some undefined heartache or general gloom, the other believed he had a touch of sickness. Of course, they were both right and they were both wrong.
