Words

It's been a while since I did a words post, so here are some of my latest favourites ;)

Lepid - pleasant or charming. Is it just me, or does the meaning not seem to fit the sound of the word? Maybe it's because it sounds like tepid, but it just doesn't sound right to me!

Intergern - to snarl back. One of those words that doesn't seem to need to exist, but I'm glad it does *laughs*

Menticide - brainwashing. Literally murder of the mind.

Bezoardic - used as an antidote, a remedy. Yet it sounds so much more serious and possibly anthropological.

Ramfeezled - worn out, exhausted. I totally love this one, so much more fun than saying "I'm tired" or "I'm knackered." Try it - "I'm ramfeezled"

And this one is for me... Grammatolatry - worship of letters or words *grins*

Locution

Regular readers know I have a fondness for words, especially unusual ones...

Recently I found an app for my phone called Locution, a repository of cool words.

So I thought I'd share a few of my favourites (as my stripe study shawl isn't much further along than last week, it seemed pointless to do another update *laughs*)

Logomisia - disgust for certain words. Personally, I hate the word moist. There's something just not right about it ;)

Desparple - to scatter. I just think its fun to say.

Apanthropy - love of solitude.

Gobemouch - a gullible person.

Pililoo - a hunting cry of distress. Another one that's fun to say *laughs*

Mentimutation - a change of mind. It always amazes me that there are actual words for things like this.

Sipid - tasty, flavourful. I like this one, I've used the word insipid but I never knew there was the converse sipid before.

Random Words

I was looking at random word generators this morning (as my default approach to having no blogging inspiration is often to look up random words and either post a list of them or find that my creativity has been triggered)...

Anyway, I found a site that creates made-up words. It sounds easier than it is, because making up pronounceable words, that look like they could be real, is surprisingly hard to do. So I've been having fun generating random words, and trying to come up with meanings for them *laughs*

All of the meanings below are completely made up, from my head.

Terbumaut - a species of insect related to the termite, with an enlarged rear end
Ceercom - A dotcom millionaire who made their money by seeing trends that others didn't anticipate
Ufleralla - sounds like a disease to me! Probably affecting the lungs.
Toness - a female singer with perfect tone and pitch, the opposite of someone who is tone deaf
Natagre - a combination of Natalie and Ogre - describing me when I haven't had enough sleep *laughs*
Ipol - a fake ipod
Tylylan - no idea what I think this could mean, I just like saying it!

Please do chime in with any fake explanations you come up with, this has been kinda fun *grins*

And here is an image that I think covers Natagre ;)

Blog Hub Swap Day 5

Day five... Only 2 more presents to open after today :( I'm enjoying this far too much to stop *laughs*

So, today's package had 2 wrapped pieces, a big one and a little one. Interesting...What were they?

2 awesome books *grins* The note that accompanied these said that Tink saw these and immediately thought of me. And how right she is! The essential foreign swear words is so funny (and although I don't swear on my blog, I am a little more sweary in real life!)

As for the "Picturesque Word Origins" book, it's amazing. I have quite a few posts that demonstrate just how much I love words, and reading about their origins is fascinating to me. I love this book, thank you so much Tink!

Of course I can't post about this cool book without a few extracts for you *smiles*

Escape: originally meant to slip out of one's cape
Monster: comes from the Latin monstrum - a divine omen of misfortune

Remorse: originates in the Latin remordere, meaning "to bite again"
Subtle: from the Latin subtilis, meaning "woven fine", was applied to delicate fabrics

Unusual Words

As I have very little inspiration this morning, I turn to my trusty "list of unusual words" topic *laughs* I haven't done one for a while and I do enjoy them, so it seemed like a good plan...

My theme for this list is "words that I never knew existed/words that really have no need to exist"!

Agraffe - the wire that holds the cork in a champagne bottle
Callipygian - having beautiful or elegantly shaped buttocks
Dactylion - the tip of the middle finger
Erinaceous - relating to, or resembling, hedgehogs
Jumetous - smelling like horse urine
Mytacism - the incorrect or excessive use of the letter M
Preantepenultimate - fourth from last
Qualtagh - the first person you see upon leaving your house
Witzelsucht - a feeble attempt at humour




And, as always, one to tie this in to my blog:


Ulotrichous - having very wooly hair *laughs*

It's Been A While...

... since I did an "unusual words" list. And, as I completely forgot about the letter X during my ABC posts, I thought I'd finally get round to it ;)

So, unusual words beginning with X...

• Xanthippe - ill-tempered woman *laughs* 
• Xenium - gift made to a guest or ambassador/any compulsory gift... I'm not sure I love the idea of compulsory gifts, but then, I do like presents. Hmmm.
• Xenodocheionology - love of hotels. Who knew there was enough of a love of hotels to justify a word for it?
• Xerography - photocopying. I like that there is a much posher word for such a mundane task *laughs*
• Xilinous - of, like, or pertaining to cotton. See, there's always something topical to include ;)
• Xiphoid - sword-shaped. I'm amazed how many words there are relating to the shape of something (another good one, although not an "x" word, is Natiform, meaning buttock-shaped... No, really!)

A-Z Round-Up

As the ABC meme finishes this week, I thought it would be fun to do a round-up post... Click here to go to all posts with the ABC tag to read more.

A - I missed the first week thanks to my excitement to post something else entirely.
B - Bags. My obsession with handbags and my search for the right knitting bag.
C - Chaos. Following a weekend of trying out some new crafts and making a lot of mess.
D - Doodling. I doodle a lot.
E - Expectations. I enjoyed this post, looking back at some of the erroneous expectations I'd had when I started knitting. The comments were very reassuring too ;)
F - Fruity Fun. Or Adventures in Dyeing sock yarn with Kool Aid *laughs*
G - Gastronomy. This picture of my cookbooks all lined up is part of what inspired me to start my cookbook challenge!
H - Home. A small tour around my living room.
I - In the City. All about the book "Little Red in the City" by Ysolda.
J - Junebug win. A post about winning a giveaway on figknits and getting some gorgeous sock yarn.
K - Knit Nation. Fortuitous timing, as I would have been posting about it anyway *grins*
L - Random word list. As a "logophile" (lover of words) these lists crop up whenever I couldn't think what to write ;)
M - Many things beginning with M.
N - Natalie. That's me!
O - Outfits. A question for the reader - do you knit what you want and fit it into your wardrobe, or do you knit things that will already fit your usual outfits?
P - Plans. A post about my tendency to make (and then immediately break) lots of plans to do with my knitting...
Q - Quack. A photograph of ducks invading boyfriend's living room *laughs*
R - Random word list. The word "reremouse" actually inspired me to write a children's story!
S - Shakespeare. In which I confessed my love for the Bard and tried to demonstrate that he is still relevant and influential today.
T - Travel. The post conveniently co-incided with the trip to France boyfriend and I had taken the day before ;)
U - Random word list. The word "usward" was the best, and most popular *laughs*
V - Vastness (of space). A post about the time I spent on the back of a boat in Australia learning about the stars.
W - Writing. This post reminded me just how much I love writing, and how much I really want a writing room!
X - I completely forgot about X *ooops face*
Y - You. This was a fun one, looking at my stats and seeing what an "average" reader is like (although I'm sorry I forgot the small but vocal group of Chrome users!)
Z - Random word list. My favourite one was Zenzizenzizenzic ;)


I had fun doing this, and will probably carry on posting random word lists on days where my inspiration is lacking - from the comments they do seem fairly popular *grins*


For now though, after 26 weeks of this, I shall have to come up with posts all by myself...

W is for...

Writing

I love writing. I got out of the habit for a long time so, when I started this blog, part of my enjoyment of it was to do with the simple fact that I was writing again. Not a lot, and not anything earth shattering, but putting my thoughts down into a coherent form and enjoying the process.

I have ideas and rough notes for 2 novels (although I am sure that everyone has their dream novel in their head, so until I actually write them they really don't count!) They're both utterly different, one is a fantasy novel with a heaven/hell theme and one is based on politics... Not quite sure how that works *laughs*

I've also written 3 children's stories. They do count, because I have actually written them ;) Boyfriend would love for me to get them illustrated and then attempt to get them published. I really enjoyed writing them, I have a very different style depending on what I am writing and the one that comes most naturally is the one where I feel more like I am talking to the reader than setting out a story. It just so happens that both my blog and the children's stories are written in that sort of style (albeit with fairly significant differences).

One thing I found with these stories is that I can't force them, I don't decide on a subject or character or storyline  Inspiration strikes randomly and I write. The last story I wrote was actually inspired by a post on this blog. My "R is for" post...

I mentioned the word "reremouse" meaning bat, which I read as ra-ra mouse. I ended up writing about a slightly odd bat, a little bit flamboyant and playful, who saves the day through his eccentricities *laughs*

Unfortunately, the adult sized stories I want to tell don't flow as quickly and easily as those for children, so I struggle to force the words out. One day I would love to have a writing area with a huge whiteboard where I could plot out the details/timelines/characters/relationships, so that I could just get on with the writing part.

Until then, I shall continue to seek inspiration in the unexpected and enjoy writing at all.

Interesting...

Anyone who has seen some of my Monday posts will know that I am a big fan of words. I find them fascinating. I love finding out where words come from and how they have developed.

Well, thanks to a link on twitter, I discovered this Mental Floss article, about words that do not have an English language equivalent. The most well known word of this sort is "schadenfreude", meaning taking pleasure in someone else's misfortune (as evidenced by reality TV's popularity I think *laughs*)

The list I linked shows some different ones, so I've picked out a couple that I particularly like. Check out the link for more because some of them are really quite funny.

Shedmomedjamo (Georgian word) - literal meaning is "I accidentally ate the whole thing"... you know, when something is so tasty you keep eating even though you're feeling sick and full.

Pelinti (Ghanaian word) - "to move hot food around in your mouth"... and I think we've all done that when taking an impatient bite of something *laughs*

Rhwe (Tsonga, South African) - "to sleep on the floor without a mat while drunk and naked"... I don't think I need to say anything about this one!

But my favourite is a word that I think we should have in English (and isn't food related, as I realise the other two are!)...

Zeg (Georgian again) - "the day after tomorrow"

Now wouldn't that be a helpful word *laughs*

S is for...

Shakespeare.

As someone who likes words, you may not be surprised to discover that I quite like Shakespeare. Whilst most people I know who were forced to study his plays at school got sick of him, I was lucky to have a few teachers who managed to make things interesting.  My college tutor decided to set us the most bloodthirsty play of all, Titus Andronicus, deciding that teenagers would be far more likely to pay attention if people kept getting beheaded *laughs*

One of the things I most like about the Bard, though, is how much our language was influenced by his work, whether we realise it or not. A lot of people know that he invented new words (approximately 1700 of them, including "advertising", "undress", "blanket" and "swagger"), but he also put existing words together in ways we still use today, for example "seen better days" or "come full circle". He described jealousy as the "green eyed monster", referred to family as "your own flesh and blood" and coined the now overused phrase "the long and short of it" *smiles*

Considering how much language has changed since his time, I find it amazing that his influence is still evident today, in popular culture as well as more academic pursuits. I've always liked the number of times lines from his plays crop up as titles of other things:

What Dreams May Come - film/book - line from the famous "To be or not to be" speech from Hamlet
Darling Buds of May - long running very English TV show - line from one of the more famous sonnets
The Dogs of War - Pink Floyd song - line from Julius Caesar
Band of Brothers - book and TV series - line from Henry V
Brave New World - book - line from the Tempest

Then there's the influence of the stories themselves - Disney's "The Lion King" seems based on Hamlet, while teen flick "10 Things I Hate About You" was clearly influenced by The Taming of the Shrew. And of course everyone recognises Romeo and Juliet in "West Side Story".

So, apologies to those who weren't expecting a lecture this morning *smiles* but I hope it was at least slightly interesting. I was inspired to write about something a bit different this morning ;)

R is for...

Now my initial thought was to post about Ravelry... But I couldn't think of anything to say that hasn't already been said. If you've never used it, go check it out right now (then come back)!

Of course, once I'd discounted that, my brain went completely blank and just wouldn't come up with anything else beginning with "R" *laughs* So I shall use my approach for a previous uninspired post and list some interesting words again...

Rabelasian - coarsely hilarious (I like that there is a word for this)
Ragabash - idle, worthless fellow (fun word to say, although it doesn't sound very insulting, it sounds quite fun!)
Ranarian - froggy (I've never needed to describe something as "froggy" before, but now I know the proper word)
Rectalgia - pain in the butt (*laughs*)
Rejectamenta - rubbish/excrement (is it just me, or does it sound more like a spell from Harry Potter?!)
Reremouse - bat (I read it as ra-ra mouse, as though bats are just really fancy mice with a bit of pizzazz)
Resistentialism - theory that inanimate objects display malice towards humans (and any of us who have had yarn tangle for no good reason know that this theory is true!)

And to bring this back to knitting, check out this rug knit from rope.

L is for....

Ok, for some reason I struggled with a word for this week. I was going to do L is for Learning, and talk about all the different things I have learned since starting knitting. But I'm planning to do something similar for my knitting anniversary in November, so I decided to avoid repeating myself!


One of my favourite words begins with L, "lethalogica". It means "inability to remember the right word", and I just love the fact that there is a term for it! 


So I decided to look up other unusual words beginning with L. As a huge fan of words and their meanings, this seemed like a cunning solution to my writer's block *laughs*

• Lanameter - instrument for measuring the quality of wool (see, I even manged to make it topical)
• Laniferous - wool bearing
• Lentigo - freckle (I need to try and work this one into conversation some time)
• Lethanomia - tendency to forget names (boyfriend has this!)
• Lexiphanic - actually a synonym for my other favourite word (sesquipedalian) - prone to using long words ;)
• Libriform - shaped like a book (why there needs to be an actual word for this, I'm not sure *laughs*)
• Locutory - a room for conversation (how very civilised!)
• Logophile - lover of words (that's me)
• Ludic - spontaneously and aimlessly playful (as opposed to planning your playfulness with a purpose in mind *smirks*)
• Lutescent - yellowish (not sure why "yellowish" isn't good enough?!)

So, I'm sorry for the cop-outness of this post, but inspiration really deserted me this morning! Tomorrow will have far more exciting content (boyfriend had a go at dyeing yarn) and Wednesday will reveal whether or not I managed to get to grips with toe up socks *laughs* And in the meantime, I think we've all learned that words are interesting, bizarre and sometimes utterly pointless ;)