Word Meme
From Helen's blog, memed from Charlotte's Web, memed from Zia...of course I'm completely making up the fact that "meme" can be a verb and will probably bring down some sort of word nerd wrath upon myself. In my defense I will be just like Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking-Glass:
When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'
`The question is,' said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
`The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master--that's all.'
At any rate...
A word that describes me is:
Creative.
My favourite word is:
Limn. It should be in much wider use for its evocativeness.
My least favourite word is:
Noob. Come on, it's not even a real word and gets mis-applied all over the place anyway.
Use these two words in a sentence:
The noob's face was limned with the bluish glow of his computer screen, as he gazed in rapt delight at his new game.
A word I have to think twice about pronouncing is:
Bowdlerize. I always want to put that "l" in the wrong place.
Dictionaries. Printed or online?
Both, for sure. Online for quick lookups, print when I want to be really sure.
A word whose meaning I cannot seem to retain no matter how many times I look it up is …
Chartreuse. It simply does not sound green to me.
Open a dictionary to a random page and find a word you don’t know. Post the word and its meaning.
Hesperidium. n. fruit with sectioned pulp inside separable rind, e.g. orange.
Use the word and the word you can never remember in a sentence.
I wasn't sure if these particular hesperidium were ripe--were they supposed to be chartreuse?
One of the most overused words in my area of work/study is …
Grinned. Everyone in my stories seems to grin too much.
3 Comments:
I love all your words! You reminded me how much I like chartreuse (you're right, it sounds purpley-pink rather than green) and limn.
Are those all your dictionaries? Wow! That looks like a good big Roget's Thesaurus (speaks the Roget's Thesaurus addict).
I love Humpty Dumpty in Through The Looking Glass. I had a lesson based around him when I was teaching English.
Chartreuse definitely sounds red to me. Ooh bowdlerise, I am going to drive myself mad for the rest of the day wondering how to pronounce it.
My characters love grinning too and "giving smiles", I really need to cut the "give" habit out.
Thanks, Charlotte! Yes, purplish is how I always think of chartreuse, although it's gotten a little easier to remember since I started working with colored pencils. Since there is one named "Chartreuse!"
Yes, Helen, those are all the dictionaries I could round up in the house. I used to have a little pocket-sized one, too, but I couldn't find it. Maybe it was TOO small... The thesaurus was a gift from hubby when I really got serious about writing. It is very well-thumbed!
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