two words of the day.

today's word of the day:

purview \PER-vyoo\ noun
1 a : the body or enacting part of a statute b : the limit, purpose, or scope of a statute*2 : the range or limit of authority, competence, responsibility, concern, or intention3 : range of vision, understanding, or cognizance
Example sentence:The court ruled that the student's T-shirt fell under the purview of the First Amendment.

i have a hard time with words that are defined by words i don't exactly know. like cognizance.

so,
cog·ni·zance
1 : a distinguishing mark or emblem (as a heraldic bearing)2 a : KNOWLEDGE, AWARENESS b : NOTICE, ACKNOWLEDGMENT 3 : JURISDICTION, RESPONSIBILITY

all right. now i realize that i vaguely knew this word but just wasn't sure how to define it. so today i have learned two new words. having said all of that, i have just now admitted to a few people that i don't know everything. see? i am not a know-it-all. or a smarty-pants. i would also like it to be known that these are not endearing phrases, so when you call your friend a know-it-all or a smarty-pants, please be aware that their reaction may not be one of gratitute. maybe they will shoot back with a sarcastic remark to cover their hurt feelings, but deep down their pride and ego have been severely wounded.

where am i going with this? someone called me a smarty-pants today. at first, i was nonplussed. then a little bit offended. i'm a bit knowledgable, but i'm no "smarty-pants", thankyouverymuch.

another favorite word.

resplendent \rih-SPLEN-dunt\

adjective : shining brilliantly : characterized by a glowing splendor

this was the word of the day for monday. i know this word. i may have used it in the past, but once again, i am drawn to the word because of the definition. i like this definition because it has the word brilliantly in it. i love the word brilliant and all variations thereof.

and i will tell you why i love it. i love it because adriane, my co-author, uses it all the time. and i love adriane. and i love that she uses this word. it is so "british" and, for some odd reason, i associate "british" with sophisticated. and when she uses this word, i feel sophisticated, too.

yeah. so that might be the lamest reason to love a word. but i love words and i will not apologize for that, nor for the reasons why. hahaha.

and now i love the word resplendent, because the definition rocks.

danglish language.

i have cleverly (or accidentally) created my own word today: danglish. really, it started as a typographical error. sometimes when i type, i merge words, leaving out the end of one word and the beginning of the following word. thus, danglish. in my mind, the title was supposed to read "dangling english". i liked the accidental effect much, much better.

so, since i have not been actually studying the english language on a regular basis since about my 19th year of life, i have decided that i am getting a little bit dumber and now i am going to use this blog as an opportunity to re-educate myself. i know, it seems preposterous - "adriane, not knowing something about the english language when she claims to know everything!?" but it's true. and i'll be the first one to admit it. i cannot remember what a dangling participle is. and who reminded me that i don't know? house. yes, that ornery, negative, genius of a fake doctor, gregory house. i was watching the season finale and he said "dangling participle" while criticizing a cuban on his poor english. so i looked it up.

Dangling Participle
A present participle is a verb ending in -ing, and is called dangling when the subject of the -ing verb and the subject of the sentence do not agree. An example is "Rushing to finish the paper, Bob's printer broke." Here the subject is Bob's printer, but the printer isn't doing the rushing. Better would be "While Bob was rushing to finish the paper, his printer broke." (Pay close attention to sentences beginning with When ——ing.)

One way to tell whether the participle is dangling is to put the phrase with the participle right after the subject of the sentence: "Bob's printer, rushing to finish the paper, broke" doesn't sound right.

Not all words ending in -ing are participles: in the sentence "Answering the questions in chapter four is your next assignment," the word answering functions as a noun, not a verb. (These nouns in -ing are called gerunds.) [Revised 3 August 2001.]

so there's your english lesson for today. don't dangle your participles or an arrogant doctor type may harshly criticise you. and now i can, too.

i changed my mind.

i know that in my last post i said that trickery was my favorite word. but i changed my mind after i received the word of the day on monday. here is the word and definition.

wimple \WIM-pul\ verb

1 : to cover with or as if with a wimple : veil
2 : to ripple
3 chiefly scottish : to follow a winding course : meander


can you guess my new favorite word? okay, i will tell you. i think my new favorite word might be meander. don't get me wrong. i still really enjoy trickery. but i enjoy meander just a tiny bit more.

i know that i like this word because of the essay by mary schmich that people claimed was kurt vonnegut's work. i enjoy that essay and i especially enjoy that baz luhrmann put it to music.

whenever i heard the word meander, i think of this essay/song. and when i think of this essay/song, i think of the part that says, "the real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle tuesday." and when i think of that part, i think of the day that i decided i was going to move to boston. it wasn't 4 pm on an idle tuesday. it was 6 pm on an idle thursday. i don't know how the connection was made, but it was and now it will forever live in my memory.

so, yes...meander is my favorite word, at least for today.

learning curve.

okay, let me clarify a claim i made in my first post on this blog. i think i mentioned i was already getting the word of the day from m-w.com. well, i totally lied. i was getting words from dictionary.com. and so far, there is a BIG difference. and that difference is this...i learn new words from dictionary.com. i see words i already know from m-w.com. dangit.

without doing any investigating, i have decided that i must have signed up for the remedial word of the day at m-w.com. grrrr. not only do i know what poignant means, i even already knew how to pronounce it! same goes for the word nook. jeez.

so this is me, complaining about the english language and the crappy word of the day i signed up for. now, having looked at the website, i see that i signed up for the "learners word of the day". well, i do know that i am definitely still learning many, many new things each and every day, but i wouldn't consider myself a "learner" when it comes to these words. more like a "knower". haha.

as a work in progress, i just changed my subscription to the regular word of the day. hopefully now i will be enriched. and the rest of you as well.

The Word of the Day for June 09, 2007 is:
obstinate • \AHB-stuh-nut\ • adjective

*1 : perversely adhering to an opinion, purpose, or course in spite of reason, arguments, or persuasion

2 : not easily subdued, remedied, or removed

Example Sentence:As usual, Cassie remained obstinate in her opinion even though the facts were clearly stacked against her.

Did you know? If you're obstinate, you're just plain stubborn. "Obstinate," "dogged," "stubborn," "pertinacious," and "mulish" all mean that someone is unwilling to change course or give up a belief or plan. "Obstinate" suggests an unreasonable persistence; it's often a negative word. "Dogged," which can be more positive, implies that someone goes after something without ever tiring or quitting, while "pertinacious" suggests a persistence that can be annoying. "Stubborn" indicates a resistance to change, which may or may not be admirable. Someone who displays a really unreasonable degree of stubbornness could accurately be described as "mulish."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

ahhhh, that's better.

ah...words...funny, little words.

first--thanks ade, for making our new blog look beautiful.
sure do appreciate ya!

the m-w.com word of the day sure brought a smile to my face. not so much the word, but the definition. here it is:

thimblerig \THIM-bul-rig\ verb

1. to cheat by trickery.
2. to swindle by a trick in which a small ball or pea is quickly shifted from under one to another of three small cups to fool the spectator guessing its location.

definition number two is quite descriptive and defines only one situation. i like its preciseness. but this is not the definition that brought a smile to my face.

definition number is the one that brought a smile to my face. i decided when i was reading the definition that i love the word trickery. i truly enjoy it. i don't use it nearly enough. actually, never, but i should. and i am going to. i'm going to start using the word trickery more. starting today.

i don't know why i love the word. to me, it sounds like a fun word, even though it technically isn't a "fun" word. i think that maybe i love it so much because one of my favorite actors delivered a line in a movie that included the word trickery.

in the break-up, vince vaughn--my favorite actor--says, "there's a really big gap between getting your ass kicked, and having a dancing, singing sprite fool you with trickery, and then strike your throat before you know that you're even in the fight."

i didn't care much for the entire movie, but that one line alone makes the movie for me. and i think that is where my love for the word trickery comes from.

so...

thimblerig--good word.
trickery--best word.

well, at least for today.

ps. a special thanks goes out to my movie guru for the movie quote.

word flash.

so, rachelle is a blogging genius. not only is she the world's champion blog stalker, but she figured out all of the weird little idiosyncrasies of the program. so now she's snagged me into a joint blogging venture. i am excited. not only because she and i are most anal about things like spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc., but because to us, this stuff is fun.

we look for mistakes everywhere. we debate about punctuation. we make phone calls to friends who (we think) are smart to settle such debates. since chelle is getting the m-w.com word of the day (i already am, too), then i decided to get another word of the day via dictionary.com. so our readers will be SO enriched. except for the part where i am a slow blogger...

well, to start off, here is today's dictionary.com word of the day! i have never heard of it, nor will i probably ever use it. but there is a chance that sometime in my future i will come across it and i will think, "hmmm...i've seen that word somewhere..."

lumpen \LUHM-puhn; LUM-puhn\, adjective;
plural lumpen, also lumpens:
1. Of or relating to dispossessed and displaced individuals, especially those who have lost social status.
2. Common; vulgar.

noun:
1. A member the underclass, especially the lowest social stratum.

. . .an academic sweatshop where underpaid lumpen intellectuals slave for a pittance.
-- Ashlea Ebeling, "I got my degree through e-mail", Forbes, June 16, 1997