Showing posts with label Thesaurus Thursday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thesaurus Thursday. Show all posts

Thursday, March 8, 2018

I would have made up this word if it didn't already exist

Language is a tool to be used for clear communication. It is no secret that i often combine, add pre- and post-fixes and plain make up words to get exactly the meaning i need.
One of my favorite things about researching Thesaurus Thursdays has been discovering words that seem to have come straight from the Niktionary and this week's is a doozy:
AMOREVOLOUS -  an anglicised version of the Italian adjective amorevole (loving) to mean kind and affectionate, possibly from the 1600s [primary source]
Isn't it wonderful? Dare i say marvelous? In fact, i would.
It takes the feel and power of marvelous and makes it stronger by specifying that someone or thing is marvelous in the way that s/he/it/they loves and cares and shows affection.
It describes a wonderous kindness and i can support that.



This is Rickki Rea.
My champion through life's crap.
She's amorvelous.

Thursday, February 8, 2018

fast and easy

Fleet of finger and easy as a breeze, this post for Thesaurus Thursday must rapidly introduce thrip as a simple way to say swift and uncomplicated.


ps - it is an old way to describe snapping your fingers and should not be confused with the icky, invasive insects called thrips ;-)

Thursday, January 25, 2018

for anyone who trips over air

I am clumsy.
There is no way around the truth: i bang into things. A lot.
Mostly i am not really awkward, except when dancing and then watch out for the flailing.
It's not like i have long, gangly limbs that i can't control getting in my way and tripping me up or that i lack confidence in myself and end up bumbling about.
Quite the contrary.
Poised and self-assured, completely in control of my faculties, i walk right into things.
And trip over things.
And scrape across things.
And fall down.
It is like an affliction, people.
My brain and my body are just slightly out of synch. I know that i need to walk through the doorway and turn down the hall, but my brain does it faster than my body so that by the time i reach the door my brain is already thinking about going down the hall so i turn a split second too early and smack right into the post.
All of this happens in milliseconds without me being consciously aware it. That is, unaware of it until my hip checks the wood. Owwwww
It has taken me years to figure out the problem.
Folks would helpfully suggest that i pay more attention to my surroundings, but i thought i was.
This tiny body lag is also why i drop words out of sentences when i am writing and interrupt people when they are talking, which is super annoying for my grammar checker and anyone trying to maintain a conversation with me.
Everyone naturally has body lag, of course. Neural impulses travel faster than muscles can contract. But not everyone is clumsy.
I feel like i am somehow physically lagging much further behind my mind than most people. Hence the tripping over the same rug that has been in the same place for years or hitting my toe on the bed leg even though i know exactly where it is.
I am fine as long as i concentrate only on locomoting. And i do mean concentrate.
Don't laugh at me when i go down stairs one step at a time like a toddler, clutching the banister or walls like we are experiencing an earthquake because no matter how ridiculous and feeble i might look, i know that if my concentration slips even for a moment, down i will tumble.
Why am i sharing all of this?
It is Thesaurus Thursday and i have stumbled upon (rimshot) the perfect adjective for me:
 aclumsed.
Why did this gem ever become defunct?
Aclumsed sounds way cooler than clumsy; it is more refined and less clunky, but none the less is still covered in mystery bruises. Like me.
Aclumsed really hits home the sense of  the clumsiness being forced upon one like a curse or a Christmas fruitcake.
Let's bring aclumsed  back into the vernacular so that we can at least sound cool while laying in that puddle.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

medium level annoyed or mildly angry

My favorite curse word is piddlypot.
I don't know why it is, i don't remember where it came from, but if i am upset enough to call out an expletive it is 8 times out of 10 piddlypot (the other 2 might be too filthy to type here). In fact, i never realized that it was my signature curse until Dash started talking and i confided in JP and Kate that i was worried he would pick up bad language habits from me (i was thinking of that other 20%) and Kate replied, We'll know he is listening closely to you the first time he says piddlypot.
I am also fond of the word crap, normally in conjunction with something else, i.e. crap on a stick, crap on a cracker, crapcakes with a side of tartar sauce.
But i need a curse or expletive that lies somewhere between crap (not good) and piddlypot (really, really not good).  There are two good words that i will say to myself that fit the bill - baldershaft and bagondasheesh - but they come from private jokes and it doesn't feel right using them in public because then i'd have explain all of the backstory and who has time for that when you are already upset about something?
That is where Thesaraus Thursday will come to my rescue!
As i continued to read about words that have fallen out of common use, i came across zooterkins.
Zooterkins!
Yes, it sounds like the name of a fire Pokemon, but in fact zooterkins is a 17th century expletive akin to consarn it, but less 1849 prospector-y. It even feels like a word that would live in the Nikiverse.
Let's try to bring zooterkins back, people. It is a kinder, gentler way to let everyone around you know that something or someone has just stromped on your next to next to (would that be your third to) last nerve and attention needs to be paid to keep the situation from boiling up to piddlypot.
Or that other 20%.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

because day after tomorrow is just too many syllables

Poplollies and Bellibones is a fun book by Susan Kelz Sperling about words that have fallen out of use in modern English. I found a copy for a dime a few years ago at a book sale and have been enjoying finding and trying out new (old) words.
I am on a quest to bring overmorrow back to common usage.
It indicates the day after tomorrow and has a commonly used equivalent in German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Afrikaans and French.
Come on people, join me in promoting overmorrow in sentences such as, "Overmorrow is Saturday; let's go dancing" and, "There is no possible way i can have 70 original greeting cards created by overmorrow! Have you gone insane?"