What's Your Word for the Day? Showing 2,451-2,500 of 3,049

[Ruth]

at·a·rax·ia
noun \ˌat-ə-ˈrak-sē-ə\
plural at·a·rax·ias or at·a·rax·ies
Definition of ATARAXIA
: calmness untroubled by mental or emotional disquiet

[Jan]

BTW, the only word accepted by spell check was skew-whiff!

[Ruth]

Jan wrote: "But what on earth is a 'prick-me-dainty'? A small, but very annoying man?
"

Close, Jan. I was sure it was a flower but it's a finicky dresser, or a person who is finicky about things.

[Jana]

I need a shirt made saying: Got Ataraxia?

[Jan]

Ruth, I think you might have missed my later message, since we both posted at the same time, by which stage I had looked up the words and written a limerick. Did you see it?

[Scribble]

Tea, a drink with jam and bread......

[Ruth]

Jan wrote: "Ruth, I think you might have missed my later message, since we both posted at the same time, by which stage I had looked up the words and written a limerick. Did you see it?"

I see it now. Your prick-me-dainty's gone away? Count yourself lucky.

[Ruth]

Gabi wrote: "Ruth, what time is it over there. I said we'd have afternoon tea until I remember..."

I'm posting 2 hours after you did, Gabi. And it's just about 11 pm. A little late for tea. I'm heading to bed.

[Ken, Moderator]

Ataraxia sounds like Hemingway's "grace under pressure." First cousins, maybe?

[Ruth]

Ack. I have to have a poem using something I've learned by looking up these words. And I need it by Monday!! Absolutely nothing is coming.

[Scribble]

Ruth, that exercise is a doozy. I'd swipe Jan's ditty if I were you...

[Ken, Moderator]

Using what words? Is it just a "fun" contest?

[Stephen]

Newengland wrote: "Is it just a "fun" contest?
... Ataraxia sounds like Hemingway's "grace under pressure." First cousins, maybe?"

Nah, Ruth mentioned that it was an exercise for a poetry wrokshop she was attending. Gotta admit it's a good one.

I've been toying with a poem (NOT my forte) that uses Ataraxia. Something about closeted homosexuals and deciding we're all really the same except for what attracts ya. Yep It's lame hence the lack of progress.

[Ken, Moderator]

ataraxia
flagitious
kinetoscope
prick-me-dainty
skew-whiff

Oh, backtracked and found Ruth's post. Remembered the hubbub around the words, but not the reason.

Anyway, I'm not so sure it's a good exercise. To me it looks forced and gimmicky (like the instructors are saying, "Ooh, look at us; we're so ORIGINAL!"

-- Curmudgeonly Commentary for the Day

[Ruth]

Oh we don't have to use the words themselves. The actual prompt is to look up these words, then write for 5 minutes on each. Find something in our writing that leads us into a poem. I'm still coming up zilch.

[Scribble]

Would it help if you looked at poetry about each of those concepts? Ode on a Grecian Urn popped into my head for ataraxia (still like the comment from Gabi?/Jan? that it sounds like a neurotic condition).

[Ken, Moderator]

So it's a fancy schmancy way of assigning a topic (only with the added hurdle of looking crazy words up).

Still not impressed.

[Stephen]

Yep. NE You're definately in one of your curmudgeonly moods again...

Often folks taking such classes have difficulty finding topics. This exercise is as good as any in helping folks get past a form of writer's block. After all writers are wordsmiths and words are their tools.

Often the right word at the right time can trigger life changing events. But, most of the time... not so much.

My word for the day is picaresque. Not to be confused with picturesque. It's from 16th century Spanish picaresco and implies episodic rogueishness (not to be confused with Rogaineliness - see bald)

[Ruth]

I've only taken one workshop where you had to write to the prompt if you didn't want to. And I don't have to here. But I always do try to respond to prompts. It's a way of jogging myself out of my well-trodden paths. And sometimes I surprise myself by writing what turns out to be a good poem in response to a subject or idea I never would have thought of myself. Last week's prompt gave me a poem that's a keeper, and it's one I never would have got to without a poke.

[Jan]

Can you use just one of the words as a theme?


Stephen, in Australia, 'rogaine' has a completely different meaning. In the sport of Orienteering, people use a compass and a map to locate certain checkpoints. Some people called Rod, Gail and Neil, decided it would be fun to have a 24 hour event, which they named after themselves, hence Rogaine. It is now an International sport and a lot of people who enjoy orienteering also like rogaining. Not all the events are 24 hours. There are also 12 and 6 hour events. Take a look http://www.wa.rogaine.asn.au/

[Ken, Moderator]

OK, I recant and am penitent. In fact, I'm making a thread in honor of the PROMPT.

[Stephen]

Don't know Ruth. The sport sounds kinda hairy to me!

BTW... My new word of the day is "rue" as in regret bitterly. Our quote of the day comes from Edmund White "Middle class rue is a way of condescending to our noblest feelings out of middle class embarassment"

I'm wondering if that embarassment's not also at the root of most adolescent disdain. A similar word ruthless springs to mind.

BBTW... Pretty sure that Shakespeare's choice of the rue plant for Ophelia had some regret associated with it.

[Jan]

Stephen wrote: "Don't know Ruth. The sport sounds kinda hairy to me!

BTW... My new word of the day is "rue" as in regret bitterly. Our quote of the day comes from Edmund White "Middle class rue is a way of cond..."

'You talkin' to me?

[Stephen]

Jan wrote: "... You talkin to me?"

Sorry Jan! Ruth made the original comment about the poetry exercise and I got mixed up as to who said what. Guess that was just plain Rue'ed.

[Jan]

Try this: http://www.nswrogaining.org/

[Ken, Moderator]

Saw the word "lour" while browsing Thoreau's Journal. Had to look it up. Another "old school" word getting lost in time's shuffle, I fear.

lour (also lower pronounced like "lour")
   /laʊər, ˈlaʊər/

–verb (used without object), noun

1. to be dark and threatening, as the sky or the weather.

2. to frown, scowl, or look sullen; glower: He lowers at people when he's in a bad mood.


–noun
3. a dark, threatening appearance, as of the sky or weather.

4. a frown or scowl.


Origin:
1250–1300; ME lour (n.), louren (v.) to frown, lurk; akin to G lauern, D loeren

—Synonyms
1. darken, threaten

[Ruth]

Seems to me I've seen the expression "a lowering sky."

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Me too.....maybe it began as 'louring sky'.....

[Scribble]

Haunted by Siegfried Sassoon

Evening was in the wood, louring with storm.
A time of drought had sucked the weedy pool
And baked the channels; birds had done with song.
Thirst was a dream of fountains in the moon,
Or willow-music blown across the water
Leisurely sliding on by weir and mill.

Uneasy was the man who wandered, brooding,
His face a little whiter than the dusk.
A drone of sultry wings flicker'd in his head.
The end of sunset burning thro' the boughs
Died in a smear of red; exhausted hours
Cumber'd, and ugly sorrows hemmed him in.

He thought: 'Somewhere there's thunder,' as he strove
To shake off dread; he dared not look behind him,
But stood, the sweat of horror on his face.
He blunder'd down a path, trampling on thistles,
In sudden race to leave the ghostly trees.
And: 'Soon I'll be in open fields,' he thought,
And half remembered starlight on the meadows,
Scent of mown grass and voices of tired men,
Fading along the field-paths; home and sleep
And cool-swept upland spaces, whispering leaves,
And far off the long churring night-jar's note.

But something in the wood, trying to daunt him,
Led him confused in circles through the thicket.
He was forgetting his old wretched folly,
And freedom was his need; his throat was choking.
Barbed brambles gripped and clawed him round his legs,
And he floundered over snags and hidden stumps.
Mumbling: 'I will get out! I must get out!'
Butting and thrusting up the baffling gloom,
Pausing to listen in a space 'twixt thorns,
He peers around with peering, frantic eyes.
An evil creature in the twilight looping,
Flapped blindly in his face. Beating it off,
He screeched in terror, and straightway something clambered
Heavily from an oak, and dropped, bent double,
To shamble at him zigzag, squat and bestial.
Headlong he charges down the wood, and falls
With roaring brain--agony--the snap't spark--
And blots of green and purple in his eyes.
Then the slow fingers groping on his neck,
And at his heart the strangling clasp of death.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

What a nightmarish poem!

[Scribble]

Debbie wrote: "What a nightmarish poem!"

that's what i thought too....

and all because NE picked lour as WFTD. Otherwise I'd never have found it.

Sorry, Gabi, never heard of John Connolly. And Siggy was enough, thanks all the same. Are you into this stuff?

[Jan]

I've never read a Stephen King
Or e'en a Peter Straub
Nor do I wish to read one
While I dwell upon this orb!

[Jan]

Very warm and sunny over here, about 32 C (90 F), so you should warm up in a day or two when this moves across the country.
Until I broke my arm, I hadn't written any poetry for 30 years. But having to spend time slowly recovering meant I started going on the internet, which lead to the discovery of Goodreads, including the Short Story Contest and Company! which is a group with a poetry as well as a short story section. This has lead to me reconnecting with my creative side, and now little rhymes spill forth almost on a daily basis. I'm also collecting favourite poems as I find them.

Halcyon...I've often seen it written, as in 'those halcyon days'...sort of nostalgia for a (usually imagined) past where life was carefree. I say 'usually imagined' because I think sometimes people talk about the past as if it didn't also have problems. It's not a word which I use myself in writing or speech, but one which I recognise when I see it. Passive vocabulary. Do you think it might sound pretentious if used in speech?

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Who cares! If you don't use it in speech it will be lost.....

[Stephen]

As to Halcyon... I've read it and heard it in the phrase Halcyon days, even in song. Of course in the chemically dependent USA I've also heard it as proscibed so many mg of Halcyon per day for manic/depression.

I looked it up an it derives from a mythical bird—often identified as a kingfisher—said to breed in a floating nest at sea during the winter solstice, during which time it charms the wind and waves into calm. (probably the reason it was chosen for the pharmaceutical)


Also a British class of minesweeper. Again I suppose that the calm seas part of the myth played into that well.

Was it all this talk of 'louring skies' that made you think we needed a calming influence?

[Carol]

That and Autumn I seem to get maudlin this time of year.

maudlin [môdlin]
adj.
after Maudlin, Magdalene < ME Maudeleyne < OFr Madeleine: Magdalene was often represented with eyes red from weeping
1. foolishly and tearfully or weakly sentimental
2. tearfully sentimental from too much liquor

[Jan]

Somebody tell M...Kitty's getting maudlin.


Kitty could you please come and have a look at the mash-up game...I'm sure you could solve it...or Suz or GN...it's half solved already.

[Scribble]

Kitty, you've been sneaking peeks at Maud, haven't you? M's alter ego...

[M]

You've probably hit the bullseye about Maud being my alter ego, G N, if Jung is right that men have a female soul whose personality type is the opposite of that characterizing the ego. Maud would type as an ESTJ. I'm an INFP.

[Savvy]

Yo? ENFJ...says Briggs!

[TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez]

Stephen wrote: "As to Halcyon... I've read it and heard it in the phrase Halcyon days, even in song. Of course in the chemically dependent USA I've also heard it as proscibed so many mg of Halcyon per day for mani..."

Come on! The US is no more chemically dependent than Britain. I've lived in the US, in Switzerland, France, and England and I found England just as chemically dependent as any other place on earth. If the US has more chemically dependent people, it's only because we have more people - about 350 million of them.

Halcion (it's spelled differently from the adjective) is a hypnotic, used to treat insomnia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triazolam

I once owned a vintage clothing store called "Halcyon Days." It didn't make much money, but it was fun, though I finally gave it up due to a lack of time.

[Savvy]

Interesting.....

What's Your Bookprint?

In today's guest post, regular contributor Denise Neary shares a new word with us. She always finds the coolest things!

I learned a new word today…..bookprint. Do you know it?

A bookprint, according to Scholastic (and they should know, right?) is the list of books that leave an indelible mark on our lives, shaping who we are and who we become.

Log into Scholastic---you can enter your five books (I hope it is an easier task for you than it was for me!), and learn more about the books that are significant to all sorts of people.

http://youarewhatyouread.scholastic.c...

It is fun, it is interesting, and it makes you grateful again for the power of books.
Unlike fingerprints, two people’s bookprints might look the same under a microscope---but even if you and I have the same list of five significant books, our bookprints aren’t the same because the individual reader makes the book different. That is just one of the many things I love about reading.

As they say at Scholastic, you are what you read! Hey, what’s YOUR bookprint?

-- Denise Neary, Regular Contributor

[TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez]

That's really interesting, Susanne. Thank you! :) I had never heard of "bookprint" before, only "bookplate."

[M]

G, you look a lot like MrsSeby!

Suz, I knew there must be somebody around here who speaks Myers-Briggs. An ENFJ, huh? Outgoing, people oriented, probably makes lists. Do you tend to keep things straight in drawers?

[Savvy]

M wrote: "

Suz, I knew there must be somebody around here who speaks Myers-Briggs. An ENFJ, huh? Outgoing, people oriented, probably makes lists. Do you tend to keep things ..."

Yes, I'm an organizer! ...and people person.
Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton are two others.
However, unlike Clinton, I am a straight shooter and not one to lie!

[Savvy]

PANTLER

■(noun) An officer in a great family who has charge of the bread; in general, a servant who has care of the pantry.

Notes
■'Pantler' comes from the French, 'paneterie,' place where the bread is kept, and is related to 'pantry.'

Examples
■“In the absolutely necessary intercourse with domestics, Louise, more accustomed to expedients, bolder by habit, and desirous to please Catharine, willingly took on herself the trouble of getting from the pantler the materials of their slender meal, and of arranging it with the dexterity of her country.”

■“It seems as if the butler and the pantler had their own separate quarters; and the different species of wine, and the vessels for holding it, are not forgotten.”

■“A good shallow young fellow: a' would have made a good pantler, a' would ha' chipp'd bread well.”

[Ruth]

And here I thought a pantler was a tailor who restricted himself to trousers.

[TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez]

M wrote: "G, you look a lot like MrsSeby!

Suz, I knew there must be somebody around here who speaks Myers-Briggs. An ENFJ, huh? Outgoing, people oriented, probably makes lists. Do you tend to keep things ..."

I'm not happy with "G," either, M, I may go back.

I'm an INFP, I never make lists, am very disorganized, tend to keep myself to myself, etc.

I am not an idealist, though as many INFPs are, and I don't do anything to make the world a better place. I've given up on the world.

[TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez]

Ruth wrote: "And here I thought a pantler was a tailor who restricted himself to trousers."

That's funny, Ruth. When I was a little kid, I actually though "garde manger" was "guard manager." I thought it had something to do with the military.

[Ruth]

And I got guerillas and gorillas mixed up. I thought guerrilla fighters were were called that because they ran around in the jungle like gorillas.