More Words Dusted Off & Used Again

This is another episode in the life of an amateur philologist.  As the log- will tell you, it’s about words, the philo-meaning love for ist meaning person a philologist is a person who loves words.  As a child, I studied the origins of both words and personal names, believing that the meaning of a name held clues to that person’s character.  I spent my babysitting money on baby name books to appropriately name the characters in my stories. This was long before the days of personal computers or the internet, so I typed my stories on my mother’s, and later my own typewriter.  

Once in jr. high, due to a transgression, the nature of which I do not now recall, I was sentenced to a couple hours of detention, and the teacher in charge very unwisely assigned us to copying pages out of the dictionary.  I say unwisely because while he may have gotten the desired groan from the boys, in my case it was a squeal of delight. Here I was exposed to a whole wonderland of new vocabulary. He would have done better to have given me the sports pages.  That would have quelled my feeling of delight.  

to suppress; put an end to; extinguish:

The troops quelled the rebellion quickly.

to vanquish; subdue.

to quiet or allay (emotions, anxieties, etc.):

The child's mother quelled his fears of the thunder.

Instead, I chortled my way through the punishment, which for me, was no punishment at all.  to chuckle gleefully.

verb (used with object), chor·tled, chor·tling.

to express with a gleeful chuckle:

to chortle one's joy.

noun

a gleeful chuckle.

A word listed with chortle was snigger.  I always pictured this one cartoon dog sniggering.  My favorite reference defines it as snicker.

WORDS RELATED TO SNIGGER

dump, twit, gird, slam, deride, jest, rally, caricature, leer, snicker, swipe, insult, lampoon, decry, travesty, crack, scorn, smile, gibe, slight

They’re probably not old words, but they’re good words which onomatopoeically describe the words themselves.  The great Bard William Shakespeare would have loved them. If he didn’t use them himself, which I believe he did, in at least one play, he should have.  

Fustilarian is a word the Bard did use as an insult, but the dictionary lists no definition for it, but from the context I can guess at the meaning.  It would mean someone fussy about his appearance, but has no basis for being so. 

onomatopoeia noun

the formation of a word, as cuckoo, meow, honk, or boom, by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent.

a word so formed.

the use of imitative and naturally suggestive words for rhetorical, dramatic, or poetic effect.

What words would you like to see dusted off and used again?  Words are the very stuff of writing, so there is the connection to writing.  Words are both my tools and my toys. What are words to you?

Dusting Off Old Words, and Using Them Again

This week’s blog has to do with words, yes, words, the very stuff of writing.  After all, we writers use words to paint pictures in their readers’ minds. I got the idea when I posted on Facebook my love of taking an old word down out of the mental attic, dusting it off, and using it.   The word in question was personable. It had been years, if not decades since I had heard someone use the word, but it seemed to be a very apt descriptor for the cashier who had waited on us at the supermarket last week.  Yes, we go shopping. What, did you think we had our groceries delivered? Nat not! That’s a luxury we cannot as yet afford.  

But back to “personable.”  of pleasing personal appearance; handsome or comely; attractive.

having an agreeable or pleasing personality; affable; amiable; sociable.

Christina certainly is that, and that’s how I described her, mostly by her personality.  When it comes to a colorful vocabulary, nobody can beat the people of Shakespeare’s time for colorful insults. Such as “Thou pusillanimous scurvy  lout!” Lout is another good old word that ought to come back into fashion. Without looking it up in my friend dictionary.com, I would guess it to have a similar meaning to oaf.  an awkward, stupid person; clumsy, ill-mannered boor; oaf.  I was right; a lout is similar to an oaf. I don’t know about you, but I pick up the meanings, or at least the connotations of a lot of the words I use from the context in which I find them.  It is only later that I feel compelled to look up the denotative meaning in the dictionary. The denotative meaning is the dictionary meaning of the word. Have you noticed: louts and oafs are almost always male?  What word would you use to describe an awkward or clumsy woman or girl, I wonder.  

A word that came up often in my reading of English Romantic novels, such as those by the Bronte sisters is  biddable, which means willing to do what is asked; obedient; tractable; docile:a biddable child  We don’t see that word much anymore, unless you are talking about playing cards.  Nowadays, a biddable girl is the one most likely to get herself into trouble; good for the story, bad for the girl.  The word is much more likely to come up in the conversation of elder female relatives of the young girl in question, than in anyone else’s conversation.  I can’t see two gentlemen describing a young lady as biddable, can you? A lout would probably nudge his fellow lout and wink feverishly, “She’s very biddable, and very personable too, don’t you think?  Didn’t raise the slightest objection to my suggestion. But did it most biddably..” And now the poor girl is bundled off to a convent somewhere, to spend the rest of her days in seclusion, the subject of a scurrilous scandal.

Scurrilous, another good word we hardly hear anymore.  It means grossly or obscenely abusive:

a scurrilous attack on the mayor.

characterized by or using low buffoonery; coarsely jocular or derisive:

a scurrilous jest.

With almost daily scandals in use by the US Clown-in-Chief, you’d think we’d hear or see it more often.  

I hope you’ll join me in this fun pastime.  Look to this space for more on my writing.