it has been so long since we have posted on this blog, so i just decided to post the word of the day, even though i don't have something thought provoking to say about this word.
lenitive \LEN-uh-tiv\ adjective
: alleviating pain or harshness : soothing
it's a good word. and a new word. i don't think i have ever heard this word used. maybe you all have something to say about this word. post a comment.
and adriane, post something already.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
memories.
last october was a big month for me. actually, all of last year (2006) was a big year which led up to a big october. over the last year (2007), i have done a lot of learning and reflecting. and now that october has rolled around, i am doing more reflecting than usual.
so i found it very fitting that the word of the day for friday was retrospect. but instead of sharing with you retrospect, i have chosen to share retrospection.
retrospection \re-truh-'spek-shun\ noun
: the act or process or an instance of surveying the past
i have absolutely been having moments of retrospection and have been reassured that every decision i made, both good and bad, led me to where i am today. and even if i had to learn things the hard way, i am grateful that i have learned those things. and i am grateful for retrospection to remind me where i don't want to go again.
so i found it very fitting that the word of the day for friday was retrospect. but instead of sharing with you retrospect, i have chosen to share retrospection.
retrospection \re-truh-'spek-shun\ noun
: the act or process or an instance of surveying the past
i have absolutely been having moments of retrospection and have been reassured that every decision i made, both good and bad, led me to where i am today. and even if i had to learn things the hard way, i am grateful that i have learned those things. and i am grateful for retrospection to remind me where i don't want to go again.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
still here.
umm...yeah...so, everyday i have thought that i needed to post something on this blog. but then i just think..."oh, i'll do it tomorrow." well, a month of tomorrows has passed by and now i am ready to post.
over the last month i have received several fantastic words-of-the-day from my friend, and yours, merriam-webster and as much as i would like to include all of those words in this post (purely out of guilt), i will only include this one word:
quidnunc \KWID-nunk\ noun
: a person who seeks to know all the latest news or gossip : busybody
i feel like i have had an encounter of sorts with a quidnunc today. you see, my mom's best friend is someone that will go straight to the source (or in my case, the source's mother) when she hears or reads something about someone she knows.
through a random set of circumstances, this quidnunc came across my name and while having a conversation with my mother, said quidnunc decided to ask my mother about this situation. and since i am sometimes a bit orgulous, i had not shared anything about this situation with anyone in my family. and now, because of this quidnunc, everyone in my family is going to hear all about this situation.
so, today i don't like quidnuncs.
over the last month i have received several fantastic words-of-the-day from my friend, and yours, merriam-webster and as much as i would like to include all of those words in this post (purely out of guilt), i will only include this one word:
quidnunc \KWID-nunk\ noun
: a person who seeks to know all the latest news or gossip : busybody
i feel like i have had an encounter of sorts with a quidnunc today. you see, my mom's best friend is someone that will go straight to the source (or in my case, the source's mother) when she hears or reads something about someone she knows.
through a random set of circumstances, this quidnunc came across my name and while having a conversation with my mother, said quidnunc decided to ask my mother about this situation. and since i am sometimes a bit orgulous, i had not shared anything about this situation with anyone in my family. and now, because of this quidnunc, everyone in my family is going to hear all about this situation.
so, today i don't like quidnuncs.
Friday, August 31, 2007
pronoun or proper noun?
last week, as i was watching "are you smarter than a fifth grader?", they put a sentence up on the board and asked how many proper nouns were in the sentence. sheeeeesh! i had no idea. i kept wondering what is the difference between a pronoun and a proper noun...
pronoun
any of a small set of words in a language that are used as substitutes for nouns or noun phrases and whose referents are named or understood in the context
proper noun
a noun that designates a particular being or thing, does not take a limiting modifier, and is usually capitalized in English —called also proper name
well, now i know. and now you know, right? and that makes us smarter that those pesky little fifth graders.
ps. i hate that show.
pronoun
any of a small set of words in a language that are used as substitutes for nouns or noun phrases and whose referents are named or understood in the context
proper noun
a noun that designates a particular being or thing, does not take a limiting modifier, and is usually capitalized in English —called also proper name
well, now i know. and now you know, right? and that makes us smarter that those pesky little fifth graders.
ps. i hate that show.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
pluralization vs. possession.
this one is a bit long (because i inserted some explanations), but well worth reading...
once i got into an argument over pluralization. you know, when you have more than one thing but they're called by the same name? my former roommate and i were making a sign for her brothers, who rodeo (please reserve judgment). i can't remember exactly what she wanted the sign to say because we ended up changing it because of the argument which i will tell you about forthrightly.
so the roommate's decision (at least, this is what i think it was) was to write this on the sign: "we love (or a heart in place of the word love) the munns's". do you get it? munns is their last name and there are two of them. right? i didn't think so. i said that when you write it like that, it indicates ownership. like, "the munns' house" or "the munns' cattle ranch" (make note that in my mind, i saw munns' rather than munns's). she was adamant that i was wrong. because she has had that name her whole life and has always said "munns's". i was adamant that i was right. you know, because i usually AM at stuff like this. so, in comes rachelle.
rachelle is siding with sara and is telling me that i am too stubborn about stuff like this. that i cannot accept that there is a possibility that i am wrong. rachelle and i (being the naturally curious people we are) start making phone calls to our most intelligent of friends to help us get an answer (let it be known that we had no internet access at that house, so we had to rely on the phone for this one). i, of course, called my bff emily because she is probably the smartest person i know. first, she immediately sides with me. wooohooo! then she tells me she will do some internet research and get back to me.
in the meantime, we continue to make our other two signs, one for each brother. they do not have names which need to be pluralized. nor do we need to indicate any sort of possession with their signs. easy. and no arguments. we continue to discuss the possibility of my being incorrect.
my phone rings. it is emily. with the answer! hallelujah!
guess who was right?
Plurals.
Plural means "more than one." English handles these things more simply than many languages. You already know the basic rules: most nouns take an s or es at the end; singular nouns ending in y usually end in ies in the plural. Our adjectives don't change form at all. There are a handful of irregular nouns — child, children; woman, women — but native speakers learn the important ones early, and non-native speakers can find a list of them easily enough.
A few exceptions require special care. In some noun phrases, the "head noun" gets the plural, even if it's not at the end of the noun phrase: mothers in law, attorneys general, courts martial. (Such forms may be disappearing, but they're still preferred.)
Many people get spooked by the plurals of proper names: the rules really aren't that different. Papa Smith, Mama Smith, and Baby Smith are the Smiths; Mr. Birch, Mrs. Birch, and Junior Birch are the Birches. The only difference is that proper names ending in y shouldn't change form in the plural: just add an s. The members of the Percy family are the Percys, not the Percies.
Resist the urge to put an apostrophe before the s in a plural, whether in common or proper nouns. The term for this vulgar error is the "greengrocer's apostrophe," from the shopkeepers' habit of advertising their "potato's" and "apple's." The only occasions on which you use apostrophes to make plurals are spelled out in my entry for apostrophes. [Entry added 14 Sept. 2004.]
Possessive.
The possessive is used to indicate belonging: Carol's car ("the car that belongs to Carol"), my brother's apartment ("the apartment that belongs to my brother"), my neighbors' yard ("the yard that belongs to my neighbors"), his name ("the name that belongs to him"), and so on. You could also express most of them with of: "the car of Carol," "the apartment of my brother," "the yard of my neighbors," "the name of him."
The rules for forming possessives are simple:
The personal pronouns have their own possessive forms: my ("belonging to me"), your ("belonging to you"), his ("belonging to him"), her ("belonging to her"), our ("belonging to us"), and their ("belonging to them").
With most singular nouns, you form the possessive with an apostrophe and s: Carol's, brother's.
With plural nouns ending in s, just add an apostrophe: neighbors'. Personal names don't get treated any differently: Bush's agenda ("the agenda that belongs to Bush"), the Smiths' house ("the house that belongs to the Smiths").
Plural nouns that don't end in s are treated like singular nouns, with apostrophe and s: the people's choice, the children's toys, and so on.
The only time for hesitation is when you have a singular noun that ends in s or an s sound: bus, James, house. This is a matter of house style: most guides suggest the same rules as before: the bus's route, James's friends, my house's roof. Others (especially in journalism) suggest just an apostrophe without the additional s. Some have different rules depending on whether the s is sounded like an s or a z; some have different rules based on whether it's a word of one syllable or more. But it's usually best to go with apostrophe-s with all singular nouns, whether or not they end in s. [Entry added 12 July 2005; revised 24 December 2006.]
i was.
now, as an addendum (this was already previously posted and i just remembered something), i forgot to point out that we had to completely change the sign because my roommate still did not believe that i was right. instead of saying "we heart the munnses" it read "we heart the munns boys". problem solved.
once i got into an argument over pluralization. you know, when you have more than one thing but they're called by the same name? my former roommate and i were making a sign for her brothers, who rodeo (please reserve judgment). i can't remember exactly what she wanted the sign to say because we ended up changing it because of the argument which i will tell you about forthrightly.
so the roommate's decision (at least, this is what i think it was) was to write this on the sign: "we love (or a heart in place of the word love) the munns's". do you get it? munns is their last name and there are two of them. right? i didn't think so. i said that when you write it like that, it indicates ownership. like, "the munns' house" or "the munns' cattle ranch" (make note that in my mind, i saw munns' rather than munns's). she was adamant that i was wrong. because she has had that name her whole life and has always said "munns's". i was adamant that i was right. you know, because i usually AM at stuff like this. so, in comes rachelle.
rachelle is siding with sara and is telling me that i am too stubborn about stuff like this. that i cannot accept that there is a possibility that i am wrong. rachelle and i (being the naturally curious people we are) start making phone calls to our most intelligent of friends to help us get an answer (let it be known that we had no internet access at that house, so we had to rely on the phone for this one). i, of course, called my bff emily because she is probably the smartest person i know. first, she immediately sides with me. wooohooo! then she tells me she will do some internet research and get back to me.
in the meantime, we continue to make our other two signs, one for each brother. they do not have names which need to be pluralized. nor do we need to indicate any sort of possession with their signs. easy. and no arguments. we continue to discuss the possibility of my being incorrect.
my phone rings. it is emily. with the answer! hallelujah!
guess who was right?
Plurals.
Plural means "more than one." English handles these things more simply than many languages. You already know the basic rules: most nouns take an s or es at the end; singular nouns ending in y usually end in ies in the plural. Our adjectives don't change form at all. There are a handful of irregular nouns — child, children; woman, women — but native speakers learn the important ones early, and non-native speakers can find a list of them easily enough.
A few exceptions require special care. In some noun phrases, the "head noun" gets the plural, even if it's not at the end of the noun phrase: mothers in law, attorneys general, courts martial. (Such forms may be disappearing, but they're still preferred.)
Many people get spooked by the plurals of proper names: the rules really aren't that different. Papa Smith, Mama Smith, and Baby Smith are the Smiths; Mr. Birch, Mrs. Birch, and Junior Birch are the Birches. The only difference is that proper names ending in y shouldn't change form in the plural: just add an s. The members of the Percy family are the Percys, not the Percies.
Resist the urge to put an apostrophe before the s in a plural, whether in common or proper nouns. The term for this vulgar error is the "greengrocer's apostrophe," from the shopkeepers' habit of advertising their "potato's" and "apple's." The only occasions on which you use apostrophes to make plurals are spelled out in my entry for apostrophes. [Entry added 14 Sept. 2004.]
Possessive.
The possessive is used to indicate belonging: Carol's car ("the car that belongs to Carol"), my brother's apartment ("the apartment that belongs to my brother"), my neighbors' yard ("the yard that belongs to my neighbors"), his name ("the name that belongs to him"), and so on. You could also express most of them with of: "the car of Carol," "the apartment of my brother," "the yard of my neighbors," "the name of him."
The rules for forming possessives are simple:
The personal pronouns have their own possessive forms: my ("belonging to me"), your ("belonging to you"), his ("belonging to him"), her ("belonging to her"), our ("belonging to us"), and their ("belonging to them").
With most singular nouns, you form the possessive with an apostrophe and s: Carol's, brother's.
With plural nouns ending in s, just add an apostrophe: neighbors'. Personal names don't get treated any differently: Bush's agenda ("the agenda that belongs to Bush"), the Smiths' house ("the house that belongs to the Smiths").
Plural nouns that don't end in s are treated like singular nouns, with apostrophe and s: the people's choice, the children's toys, and so on.
The only time for hesitation is when you have a singular noun that ends in s or an s sound: bus, James, house. This is a matter of house style: most guides suggest the same rules as before: the bus's route, James's friends, my house's roof. Others (especially in journalism) suggest just an apostrophe without the additional s. Some have different rules depending on whether the s is sounded like an s or a z; some have different rules based on whether it's a word of one syllable or more. But it's usually best to go with apostrophe-s with all singular nouns, whether or not they end in s. [Entry added 12 July 2005; revised 24 December 2006.]
i was.
now, as an addendum (this was already previously posted and i just remembered something), i forgot to point out that we had to completely change the sign because my roommate still did not believe that i was right. instead of saying "we heart the munnses" it read "we heart the munns boys". problem solved.
Monday, August 13, 2007
dream a little dream of me.
there was a time last week when i said something to rachelle and i used the word "dreamed". like, dreaming in past tense. she made a comment that the proper verbiage was "dreamt". well, the word has come up again and i feel so weird using "dreamt", even though i know i've heard it used before and even though rachelle is quite knowledgeable on stuff like this. so, being the type of person who was told, even as a child, to "look it up" if i had a question or a doubt in my mind about something, i took my father's advice and looked it up.
what did i find?
we were both right. i first looked it up on merriam-webster.com. since that didn't really tell me how to conjugate the verb properly, i googled "how to conjugate dream". then i found this website...verbix.com. oh, what a joy to my young girl brain! there it is, right in plain, easily understandable english, how to conjugate the word dream in every possible way!
so, the point to this post is this: rachelle and i are equally intelligent. and now we are even more so.
what did i find?
we were both right. i first looked it up on merriam-webster.com. since that didn't really tell me how to conjugate the verb properly, i googled "how to conjugate dream". then i found this website...verbix.com. oh, what a joy to my young girl brain! there it is, right in plain, easily understandable english, how to conjugate the word dream in every possible way!
so, the point to this post is this: rachelle and i are equally intelligent. and now we are even more so.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
i did it all for the nookie.
i know i once told you that i signed up accidentally for the "learner's word of the day" email from merriam-webster, right? yeah. so i never un-signed up for it. so, i get definitions to many words i already know and use proficiently in my daily activities. so, when i get one that catches my attention, i have to share it with the masses. i don't know why this one did in particular, okay. i do. it's because it reminded me of a horrible limp bizkit song from the late 90's, which you can watch here.
as if i needed an actual definition to figure out what this word means. besides, hasn't it been slang for much longer than 8 years?
nooky or nookie
Function: noun
Status: slang
Meaning: : sexual relations : the act of having sex
great. now i've gone and gotten this song stuck in my head.
one more thing before i go...wikipedia defines slang as this, which is exactly as i understand it. i guess "nooky/nookie" is no longer considered slang if it has a merriam-webster dictionary definition? gross. i am embarrassed to be part of the english speaking world if this word is in our dictionary.
as if i needed an actual definition to figure out what this word means. besides, hasn't it been slang for much longer than 8 years?
nooky or nookie
Function: noun
Status: slang
Meaning: : sexual relations : the act of having sex
great. now i've gone and gotten this song stuck in my head.
one more thing before i go...wikipedia defines slang as this, which is exactly as i understand it. i guess "nooky/nookie" is no longer considered slang if it has a merriam-webster dictionary definition? gross. i am embarrassed to be part of the english speaking world if this word is in our dictionary.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
i'm failing, but trying.
remember how i resolved to quit swearing?
well, it isn't going so well.
adriane asked me tonight at dinner how that was going and i was reminded that i needed to do better.
so here, in my attempt to do better, is a brand new word to use as a replacement for that other foul word you may be using:
scaramouch \skair-uh-MOOSH\ noun
1 capitalized : a stock character in the italian commedia dell'arte that burlesques the spanish don and is characterized by boastfulness and cowardliness
2 a : a cowardly buffoon b : rascal, scamp
i love it. i fear people wouldn't take me very seriously if i do use it, but i'm going to try anyway. i will keep you posted.
well, it isn't going so well.
adriane asked me tonight at dinner how that was going and i was reminded that i needed to do better.
so here, in my attempt to do better, is a brand new word to use as a replacement for that other foul word you may be using:
scaramouch \skair-uh-MOOSH\ noun
1 capitalized : a stock character in the italian commedia dell'arte that burlesques the spanish don and is characterized by boastfulness and cowardliness
2 a : a cowardly buffoon b : rascal, scamp
i love it. i fear people wouldn't take me very seriously if i do use it, but i'm going to try anyway. i will keep you posted.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
so i thought i'd take up fencing.
and then i thought, "nahhhh." but, if i did take up fencing, i would probably be really good at the riposte. because i am quick like a cat. like a ninja. like whatever kind of animal and or person who has mastered the art of stealth fighting. actually, the only reason i know that i am quick is because i have much experience in the area of recovering from slips and trips. that's right, my friends. i have excellent reflexes. it's a blessing. i was blessed with quick reflexes to counteract the curse of clumsiness.
riposte \rih-POST\, noun:
1. A quick thrust given after parrying an opponent's lunge in fencing.
2. A quick and effective reply by word or act.
3. To make a riposte.
now, i say that i would be good at the #1 definition of the word for a few reasons. because i like to think that i would. because, as i mentioned earlier, i have quick reflexes. and because i somewhat lack skill in the #2 definition of riposte. i can be effective in reply by word or act. but there's usually no quick about it. i suffer from what george costanza himself suffers from. the inability to think of a clever, spot-on comment when the need arises.
it's a horrible curse which one day i will hopefully be able to overcome.
riposte \rih-POST\, noun:
1. A quick thrust given after parrying an opponent's lunge in fencing.
2. A quick and effective reply by word or act.
3. To make a riposte.
now, i say that i would be good at the #1 definition of the word for a few reasons. because i like to think that i would. because, as i mentioned earlier, i have quick reflexes. and because i somewhat lack skill in the #2 definition of riposte. i can be effective in reply by word or act. but there's usually no quick about it. i suffer from what george costanza himself suffers from. the inability to think of a clever, spot-on comment when the need arises.
it's a horrible curse which one day i will hopefully be able to overcome.
Friday, July 27, 2007
resolutions.
this may surprise several of you, but i swear. i use swear words and i sometimes don't even realize that i do it. and other times i feel like there is no way to better express myself than to use these words. people know what they mean and they know that when i am screaming them, i am very upset.
but today i am turning over a new leaf. i am going to stop. i mean, if i slip up and "accidently" let one slip out, give me a break. this is not a habit that i can break in just a few short days. why can't i break it in a short period of time? well because i have decided that the best way to break my swearing habit is to teach myself new, more intelligent words to replace the lowly words i already know.
so, today (or for the last few days), i have been trying to use this word instead of other, more foul words. (and if you have the same habit i do, i challenge you to join me on my endeavor.)
dolt \'dōlt\ noun
1: a stupid person
i can't even wait to use this word in conversation or in my rage. it will rock.
but today i am turning over a new leaf. i am going to stop. i mean, if i slip up and "accidently" let one slip out, give me a break. this is not a habit that i can break in just a few short days. why can't i break it in a short period of time? well because i have decided that the best way to break my swearing habit is to teach myself new, more intelligent words to replace the lowly words i already know.
so, today (or for the last few days), i have been trying to use this word instead of other, more foul words. (and if you have the same habit i do, i challenge you to join me on my endeavor.)
dolt \'dōlt\ noun
1: a stupid person
i can't even wait to use this word in conversation or in my rage. it will rock.
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