I use my laptop only as a tool and rarely go noodling around on it, so it's no surprise that I only recently discovered a "Word of the Day" button on my taskbar (toolbar? whatever).
Today's is "clepe," meaning to call or name. It's related to "yclept," which I learned in those days of yore while reading Middle English.
I am going to start following "Word of the Day," not really to improve my vocabulary, but just because I like words.
I like them enough that there are certain words that I always associate with certain people. Sometimes they are words those people use often, but they are also words people introduced to me or which they have a certain way of altering.
My family is full of "C" words. "Cogitate" was my father's, as in, "I'm not sleeping; I'm cogitating." My mother used "cattywampus" often enough that I can hear her saying it, and "caterpillar" belongs to my grandmother because she used to change it to "pitter catter."
My husband likes to say "quiescent." I accused him of making it up, but then I went and looked it up. It's real.
And maybe it's not in the same category, but I love Aunt Julie's euphemistic ejaculation, "Summon a Beech Nut gum!"
Fellow writer Diane Taylor introduced me to "susurration," which describes the sound of palm trees in the wind, so I made sure to use it, just once so as not to show off, in Fish-Eye Lens.
Our friend David from Lebanon County, Pa., uses several words that are considered Dutchified English, i.e., common to the Pennsylvania Dutch. I will always think of him as "ferhoodled."
A certain artist friend (nameless, because she'll be so embarrassed) gets stuck being associated with "anus," a word that accidentally gets inserted where it oughtn't.
And while I'm embarrassing friends ... Lynn Rae's words constantly delight me, because she's a true Mrs. Malaprop and a mispronouncer. I'll never hear "Camembert" again without thinking of her.
My favorite word is "intuitive," but I doubt people associate it with me. And after this blog, I shudder to think what word does make them think of me!
Today's is "clepe," meaning to call or name. It's related to "yclept," which I learned in those days of yore while reading Middle English.
I am going to start following "Word of the Day," not really to improve my vocabulary, but just because I like words.
I like them enough that there are certain words that I always associate with certain people. Sometimes they are words those people use often, but they are also words people introduced to me or which they have a certain way of altering.
My family is full of "C" words. "Cogitate" was my father's, as in, "I'm not sleeping; I'm cogitating." My mother used "cattywampus" often enough that I can hear her saying it, and "caterpillar" belongs to my grandmother because she used to change it to "pitter catter."
My husband likes to say "quiescent." I accused him of making it up, but then I went and looked it up. It's real.
And maybe it's not in the same category, but I love Aunt Julie's euphemistic ejaculation, "Summon a Beech Nut gum!"
Fellow writer Diane Taylor introduced me to "susurration," which describes the sound of palm trees in the wind, so I made sure to use it, just once so as not to show off, in Fish-Eye Lens.
Our friend David from Lebanon County, Pa., uses several words that are considered Dutchified English, i.e., common to the Pennsylvania Dutch. I will always think of him as "ferhoodled."
A certain artist friend (nameless, because she'll be so embarrassed) gets stuck being associated with "anus," a word that accidentally gets inserted where it oughtn't.
And while I'm embarrassing friends ... Lynn Rae's words constantly delight me, because she's a true Mrs. Malaprop and a mispronouncer. I'll never hear "Camembert" again without thinking of her.
My favorite word is "intuitive," but I doubt people associate it with me. And after this blog, I shudder to think what word does make them think of me!
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