This is the first post I started to write without a word in mind. It had to be about the coronavirus and COVID-19, of course — the situation is so overwhelmingly pervasive that this post started writing itself in my mind without even waiting for a word to come along. So I went ahead and …
Tag: English
Dreich
I will admit upfront that I'm not one for small talk. I'm not good at it and I don't particularly enjoy it. You could argue that one is a consequence of the other, but I just feel that there's seldom anything of interest to be gained from, say, exchanging pleasantries about the weather. Unless the …
Feuillemorte
We're well and truly in the heart of fall now, and that means seasonal words abound! Autumn and winter always seem to be the seasons described with the most poignant and evocative words — their proximity to the end of the year makes them the most appropriate seasons for reflection, and in our thoughtfulness we …
Estival
There are certain words that demand to be written about at a certain time, sometimes even during a specific week. For these words, I will wait for months until the right time comes. This word is one of them. Summer! The sweatiest time of year is now upon us. Though the official start of the …
Trochilidine
Birds are fascinating. They're marvels of the animal kingdom, capable of physical and mental acrobatics that are making us reconsider what is possible. Recent studies have illuminated them as astoundingly intelligent, and they even have language, a trait that was once thought unique to humans. I personally quite enjoy birds, whether I'm reading about them …
Brontide
Say what you will about English, but it can be used effectively if the person using it knows what they're doing. In terms of sheer vocabulary, English is simply a brute, having the largest number of distinct words of any language whose words are countable.* A large portion are stolen and pillaged, yes, and many …
Nesh
I don't know about anyone else, but for me being cold is just a fact of life. I'm partly convinced that I may be the first cold-blooded human ever to be born. A breeze on an otherwise warm day is enough to make me shiver and wish I'd brought a jacket. I have the practice …
Incunabulum
Books! Many people argue that they're the perfect medium, as evidenced by the fact that the way we make them hasn't really changed since the middle ages (though inventions such as the printing press and the computer have certainly made the process easier). The earliest ones are known as incunabula or incunables, grouped together because …
Nubivagant
Clouds have many moods. The happy, fluffy clouds of a warm summer day are nothing like their dreary cousins of the overcast days of spring or autumn. Winter clouds are silent and bleak. Rainy days can be gloomy or peaceful, and there's something thrilling about the anger of a storm: dark clouds rolling in and …
Antejentacular
When I came across this word I immediately thought of the White Queen's famous quote in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass: "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." I'm sure many of us aspire to that level of productivity. Getting anything meaningful done before breakfast can seem like a pretty …
Verbomania 