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Tag: #wordwednesday

Mither (Word Wednesday) – Number 1 Awesome Brit Word

The usual starting point of Merriam-Webster has let me down this week. It has an entry for ‘mither’ but bangs on about it being Scottish for mother or something like that. Wrong! So that means we go to a new source – the Oxford Dictionaries, another American English online resource. And it is spot on: Definition of mither in English: mither Pronunciation: /ˈmʌɪðə/ Entry from British & World English dictionary VERB dialect, chiefly Northern English 1 Make a fuss; moan: oh men—don’t they mither? 1.1 Pester or irritate (someone): More example sentences the pile of bills would mither her whenever she felt good What I cannot deal with is mithering colleagues who constantly bombard you with their insane comments or ways of working. He’s like…

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Unrequited: Word Wednesday (It’s Fun) So be Happy!

Unrequited is a word that is almost always associated with “unrequited love.” I have no idea what made me think of this word for today’s post in the series. It may be something to do with some of the books I have been reading lately 🙂 Anyway let’s ‘be off’ to good old Merriam-Webster: adjective un·re·quit·ed \ˌən-ri-ˈkwī-təd\ Popularity: Top 30% of words Simple Definition : not shared or returned by someone else Source: Merriam-Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary Full Definition : not requited : not reciprocated or returned in kind <unrequited love> See unrequited defined for English-language learners Examples in a sentence a song about unrequited love First Known Use of unrequited circa 1542 The top Facebook comment is interesting: Cecil Ryan · University of Houston My…

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Gallivant: Word Wednesday

“You need to stop your gallivanting and do some homework,” is something I heard a good few times from my mother when I was a teenager.  “Gallivant” is a word taken for granted. Even if it is in your vocabulary, did you know anything about its origins? I didn’t and I find that information fascinating and ironic. It’s ironic because my mother would say that phrase to me when I was first interested in girls. Instead of studying for exams, I would go to my local youth club in the pretense of playing table-tennis but really my main aim was to chat to girls. The end result of my gallivanting was that I read the whole of ‘A Tale of Two Cities‘ by Charles Dickens…

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Bloviate – WordWednesdayFun

Bloviate is a word I must confess I had never heard of until a few days ago. I guess that is because it is American in origin and more likely to be used in American English rather than the correct form of British English 🙂 It sounds rather jolly. So here we go with the usual format with the Merriam-Webster definition first followed by the Urban Dictionary. I wonder what lies in store for us with the latter entry? Bloviate verb blo·vi·ate \ˈblō-vē-ˌāt\ Popularity: Top 20% of words Definition blo·vi·at·ed blo·vi·at·ing intransitive verb : to speak or write verbosely and windily blo·vi·a·tion \ˌblō-vē-ˈā-shən\ noun Did You Know? Warren G. Harding is often linked to “bloviate,” but to him the word wasn’t insulting; it simply meant “to spend…

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WordWednesdayFun: Lingua Franca

Lingua Franca Lingua Franca is two words I hear you say. Correct! Who said it has to be one word in the WordWednesdayFun series? Anyway, I make the rules up as I go along 🙂 I used these words today in writing an article that is part of a series to be turned into an eBook. The series is entirely fictional but loosely based on my own experiences. Sorry, I can’t tell you any more than that owing to a confidentiality agreement between me and the publisher. Oh! Doesn’t that sound grand?! 🙂 Here we go again in almost the usual format with Merriam-Webster first. I say “almost” as the Urban Dictionary, for once, has a serious entry so I will follow up with an alternative source…

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Word Wednesday Fun: Amok

Amok is one of those words that you usually associate with one verb. In the case of amok, it is usually “run” or the past tense “ran.” The football hooligans ran amok in the streets in the wake of the fixture. That type of association applies to many words, for example, fail. As in, he failed spectacularly. Sometimes it is impossible to simply fail. It must be a “spectacular failure”! 🙂 Amok is one of those “funny” words in the English language. It just sounds funny despite almost always used in a non-humorous context. What I didn’t know prior to this post is that it is also a noun as well as an adverb. Following the usual pattern, here is the Merriam-Webster definition followed by the…

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Word Wednesday Fun: Escutcheon

Escutcheon is such a great word! Escutcheon is not one of those regular humdrum boring words!  You may be tearing your hair out wondering where on earth did he find that word! Or, maybe not 🙂 It’s the name of one of the newest WordPress themes. I was taking a good look at it in readiness to launch my book page as soon as my Operation Julie: Inside and Undercover memoir is closer to publication date. However, the theme name has no bearing on either the theme itself or the way it looks! Following the usual format, the Merriam-Webster definition appears first followed by the Urban Dictionary entry. escutcheon noun es·cutch·eon \is-ˈkə-chən\ Definition Popularity: Bottom 40% of words  a defined area on which armorial bearings are displayed and which usually…

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Word Wednesday Fun: Quagmire

Quagmire! What a great word! It’s such a great word that I didn’t bother with the Urban Dictionary this week owing to the wealth of information in Merriam-Webster, although there was one hilarious submission in the UB (as usual). Used by President Obama in his State of the Union speech may have got tongues wagging? I bet he knew what it meant. I doubt whether Donald Trump knows even though he would be in a quagmire of his own making if he actually did shoot someone 🙂 Simple Definition Popularity: Top 1% of lookups : an area of soft, wet ground : a situation that is hard to deal with or get out of : a situation that is full of problems Full Definition 1: …

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Word Wednesday Fun – Erudition

Erudition is today’s fun word. Hey, word lovers! I have changed the title of the series to ‘Word Wednesday Fun’. Words are fun despite my English Language master (yes, we called the teacher ‘master’) doing his utmost to destroy my love of language. English Literature was fun. I loved Dickens ‘Tale of Two Cities’. I never read Tolstoy’s  ‘War and Peace’ from start to finish (too long). French was a subject I loved at school and studied one of the French literary greats. I read  La Plague by Albert Camus in its entirety – in French. Probably because I thought it would stand me in good stead to chat up a pretty French girl! Non! Albert Camus taught me much – “You will never be…

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