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A Thread of Words
I know and love the word 'milquetoast'; so very expressive.Webster's Dictionary and Roget's Thesaurus are very good friends of mine; I can really get lost in 'word-hunting' in a thesaurus, such an excellent 'read'.
Paulfozz wrote: "Charbel wrote: "A word that I feel is under-appreciated is "incongruous". I feel that it conveys its meaning phonetically as well."It's a great word, especially used alongside 'incontrovertible';..."
LOL! Had to read that twice.
@Bette- that's an interesting hobby. I once had a friend whose parents made him memorize the entire French dictionary.
I like this one... 
Mod
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Yeah, I think I saw that on facebook earlier, thought it was really cool.
Charbel wrote: "Paulfozz wrote: "Charbel wrote: "A word that I feel is under-appreciated is "incongruous". I feel that it conveys its meaning phonetically as well."It's a great word, especially used alongside 'i..."
Charbel, it actually starts as an innocent search for a word meaning. But a couple of hours later, I realize I am still in Roget's Thesaurus and sometimes have even forgotten which word I was searching for in the first place:)
I have just come across the word 'Insouciant' in one of Maya Angelou's poems.
It means a casual lack of concern. I've never heard it before but think it's interesting as it comes from French
It means a casual lack of concern. I've never heard it before but think it's interesting as it comes from French
Heather. One of my favorite words!
Jean wrote: "I like this one... "
That's positively Brobdingnagian! ;-)
Gill mentioned "milquetoast" and I remembered as a kid my father using that word, but my little brain heard "milk toast", and imagined a sloppy white mess. I was perplexed when I first saw the word written years later. Some of my currently favorite words are "susurration" I can actually hear bubbly whispering voices when I read it
and "phantasmagoria", just because
Susurration is quite an onomatopoeic word, I like that one too. I've never heard milquetoast used though.
Mod
Do you use sussurration in English? I don't think I've ever seen it. While, not having your wispering alternative, in Italian we use "sussurrare" a lot!
@Pal. I do know the concept of 'words that sound like' but I still have to look up the actual word onomatopoeic each time I see it. I seem unable to retain it's meaning:( But thanks for refreshing my memory again.@Laura I like the Italian version of susurration!
Mod
Do you use sussurration in English? I don't think I've ever seen it. Whi..."
Laura I see it in books occasionally (ran across it more than once the past few months), but I have to admit I don't think I've ever heard anyone use it in normal conversation.
Maybe I should just use it in a casual conversation at work and see what happens :)
Dean Koontz can't write a book without some susurration going on somewhere. It lends to the spookiness of the story.
That's an interesting topic too E.A.! Do people notice an overuse of a word by certain authors? I've noticed D.H. Lawrence has a great fondness for the word "lambent", for instance!
lambent: adjectiverunning or moving lightly over a surface:
"lambent tongues of flame".
dealing lightly and gracefully with a subject; brilliantly playful:
"lambent wit".
softly bright or radiant:
"a lambent light".
Jean wrote: "That's an interesting topic too E.A.! Do people notice an overuse of a word by certain authors? I've noticed D.H. Lawrence has a great fondness for the word "lambent", for instance!"
ooh, Jean, do you like Lawrence? He's probably my #1 literary hero.
I used to have a whole series of them, so read the lesser works too! My favourite is still Sons and Lovers though - the whole society and area where it is set is so familiar. (Not the main characters though, I hasten to add!) And it's so well observed. Which are your favourites, Bette?
Oh yay, Sons and Lovers, closely followed at a dead heat between Lady Chatterley's Lover and Women in Love.An aside; my sister calls me Lady Chat because the guy who mows my lawns is quite taken with me:P
Hahaha!I preferred The Rainbow to WIL - the earlier years of the two sisters. But then since I read it afterwards, I'm not sure whether that didn't feed into the equation somehow.
The Scottish words:"eejit, dunderheid, bampot, doolally, galoot, muppet, numptie, daftie, tool, choob"
all describe exactly the same thing :D
Jean wrote: "The Scottish words:"eejit, dunderheid, bampot, doolally, galoot, muppet, numptie, daftie, tool, choob"
all describe exactly the same thing :D"
I guess the Scots have a lot of nincompoops to complain about!
Ooo dangerous grounds there Leslie - though it was a Scot from whom I took the definitions.Here's an interesting post about subtle nuances in the actual meanings of spoken British English. It made me smile anyway!
Looks very funny. I must be very attentive to the British..
It will be interesting to me to know whether non-Britishers are bemused or amused. It looks as if it might be the latter!I had wondered if it would just be funny to us English people poking fun at ourselves.
A murder of crows! What fascinating terminology.The term "murder" was used to describe a flock of crows as far back as the 15th century, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. (Here’s a spine-chilling version from 1475: "A morther of crowys.")
The OED suggests this is an allusion to “the crow's traditional association with violent death” or “its harsh and raucous cry." If you've ever heard dozens of agitated crows in full cry, it really does sound as if they're yelling bloody murder.
This usage, which apparently died out after the 1400s, was revived in the 20th century. The first modern citation in the OED comes from 1939, but the usage was undoubtedly popularized by its appearance in An Exaltation of Larks (1968), a compendium of "nouns of multitude" by James Lipton.
Other interesting groupings are: an unkindness of ravens, a parliament of owls!
Oh Jean, you did make me laugh and mentally agree "that is so true". The one I loved especially 'That's a brave proposal.' = 'You are insane.'But..... we might all be reading/comprehending your comments here in GR in a totally different way now! :D
LOL You clearly understand us all too well ;) And don't worry Bette - I just say what I mean (unless it's very rude!)There are loads of those collective nouns for birds - Here are most of them. As you can see, there are often multiple ones for the same species. So my favourite - swans - for instance has "gaggle, wedge, bank, bevy, whiteness, herd, eyrar, gargle". I always think of them as a "whiteness" myself :)
I never have really known why collective bird nouns are so weird though - it's as if someone actually invented them in a fit of insanity! When Iwas a child we had to learn quite a few of them :(
Jean wrote: "Ooo dangerous grounds there Leslie - though it was a Scot from whom I took the definitions.Here's an interesting post about subtle nuances in the actual meanings of spoken British English. It mad..."
Love this, Jean! And mostly so true, ha ha!!
Jean wrote: "LOL You clearly understand us all too well ;) And don't worry Bette - I just say what I mean (unless it's very rude!)There are loads of those collective nouns for birds - Here are most of them. A..."
Jean, you are so into swans, aren't you? :D
I love 'a charm of goldfinches' - so very apt as they are charming. 'A screech of gulls' is pertinent too.
I think anyone would be if they regularly visited a colony of 600, there since medieval times, amidst stunning scenery, was aware they were wild but also managed to touch one occasionally, got followed by three day-old cygnets when visiting wearing white jeans, much to the annoyance and hissiness of the mother ... Actually puffins used to be my water-bird of choice, after being close enough to their burrows on Lungha off the Isle of Mull. We subsequently visited colonies all over Britain.
My favourites from the list?
a paddling of ducks
a charm of finches
a brood of hens
a clattering of jackdaws
an exaltation of larks
a pandemonium of parrots
a huddle of penguins
But it's interesting that there are so many, sometimes for the same bird!
@Jean 600 years old, those swans must be looking a bit haggard by now:D hahahaha! I'm in a naughty mood and I'm just playin' with you here.I feel sort of similar about our Southern Right whales who have their babies in our bay here before their long trek up the coast of Australia and then onwards north. I spend heaps of time on the beach just watching them frolic and then rest.
I used to have an LP (remember those?) of songs by the humpback whale. And unfortunately I do know the derivation of the name "Southern Right" whale. But you are indeed privileged, Bette, and if I allowed myself to I would envy you ;) The swans nest every year, in the colony established in the 12th century by monks. Although mute swans mate for life, the 600 fluctuates a little year by year. I think this year they counted 604. Those included 2 noisy black swans which had escaped from a nearby country house. So it's pretty constant, yes. Occasionally a bereaved swan finds a new mate, and the cycle continues. The colony remains at 600.
I'll channel you next June when they come back:)Swans, what a love story in nature, hey? I think I might be a bit of a swan myself, one mate for me now sadly absent. I won't give it another go. Unfortunately for the world, I am not mute, lol:)
I'm going off to hunt the web for photos and info, it's in Abbotsford, isn't it? ohhhh, found it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbotsbu...
That's it! I'm linked to them on Facebook and in May watched cygnets coming out of the eggs day by day. If you find their own website there are video clips.Please do that, Bette :)
Mod
Jean wrote: "It will be interesting to me to know whether non-Britishers are bemused or amused. It looks as if it might be the latter!I had wondered if it would just be funny to us English people poking fun a..."
Definitely amused!
The mystery I just finished set in medieval England (is 1363 medieval?) had a glossary of terms, which was not just useful but necessary! The one that took me most by surprise was:marshalsea -- the stables and associated accoutrements
Considering the usage, I could figure out the meaning without the glossary but now I wonder if this meaning has any bearing on the famous prison (which was the only meaning I had previously known for this word!).
The first Marshalsea prison was established in 1373, so I have drawn a bit of a blank there - sorry. The only other meaning of the word I can find, is "(in England) a court formerly held before the steward and the knight marshal of the royal household."
I was just wondering if the first Marshalsea prison was on the site of a stable!!
There seems to be no record of it prior to 1373 - but it's a nice idea. Apparently it was attacked by Wat Tyler's rebels in 1381 and that seems to be about the earliest mention. The London Encyclopaedia by Christopher Hibbert Ben Weinreb is my oracle :)
I might seem old-fashioned here but I'm bothered by the modern use of nouns as verbs. Words such as impact and access for example.But my all-time #1 dislike is plate e.g. the mother plated the food for the children. Absolutely no way on God's green earth will I ever use plate in that sense.
I hopped into Google to see if I am alone in disliking this phenomenon and to see if this 'nouns as verbs' habit is widespread. If you're interested, I found this excellent link:http://oupeltglobalblog.com/tag/nouns...
B the BookAddict wrote: "I might seem old-fashioned here but I'm bothered by the modern use of nouns as verbs. Words such as impact and access for example.But my all-time #1 dislike is plate e.g. the mother plated ..."
LOL! I wonder if that use of the word "plate" came from cooking shows, where there is often talk about how the food is displayed on the plate as "plating".
I am annoyed by nouns as verbs AND by its opposite, verbs as nouns. Of course now I can't think of a good example...
Nouns as verbs are difficult - there are many that seem perfectly reasonable but there are definitely limits. 'Plating up' is a term that makes me shudder, though I don't know why; it just seems very wrong. Unrelatedly I also squirm when people call houses 'property'; probably because of its use by estate agents.Saturnalia is rather an appropriate word for the moment - the ancient Roman festival of Saturn, which later morphed into Christmas. My favourite usage was in an episode of the TV show The Big Bang Theory; when Sheldon hugged Penny and Leonard declared it was a Saturnalian miracle. :-D
I've never heard of "plated" used in that sense! To me it always means a precious metal coating - silver or gold-plated. Or electroplating. Don't think I like the other usage much :(
Mod
Impossible to have a planning meeting without hearing impact used as a verb. I hear access constantly as well, especially in terms of accessing computer files. Even more discouraging are the ridiculous emphemisms (can you believe people are still using the word "right-sizing" to refer to layoffs?).
Plating is a restaurant term, or any food industry where food is actually put on a plate. I've heard it my whole life. It's more specifically used in upscale environments, where timeliness and presentation are as important as the food itself. Years ago, as a captain at a country club, I would coordinate seating, plating and serving for myriad occasions.
All About Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer's Guide to Getting It Right (other topics)Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer's Guide to Getting It Right (other topics)
1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (other topics)
Twenty Years After (other topics)
The Polar Express (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Enid Blyton (other topics)Enid Blyton (other topics)
Bertrand Russell (other topics)
Bertrand Russell (other topics)
Bertrand Russell (other topics)
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It's a great word, especially used alongside 'incontrovertible';
"He was incontrovertibly incongruous in his intransigence regarding the inculcation of contemporaneous theoretical postulations." ;-)