Oh for the Love of Words! (5)…Word Dynamo (or how TheLibrarian got distracted)

This meme was created by RachelKiwi over at She is too fond of books and it has addled her brain. She decided that Fridays should be dedicated to logophilia. Logophilia is “the love of words” for all of you without a dictionary close at hand.

Posts are dedicated to either a new word you found in your reading this week, a juicy quote, or a general need to share your vocabulary ability. ‘Cause you know you’ve been dying to show off your reading skills since that final time you took your SAT’s.

Without Further Ado…Word Dynamo

So this week’s post was going to be of a thesaurus theme. I LOVE me a thesaurus. And my love gets lots of play because my students are always looking for synonyms while writing their last-minute assignments in my library.

Word to the wise: There is no good alternative for “swim” without referring to different types of strokes. I learned this the hard way with a 7th grader. Think about it…paddle, crawl, breast-stroke, bathe, dive (which I would argue does not belong in the synonym pool for swimming). Extra credit for those who caught the pun.

Anyway, a few weeks ago a student and I thesaurus-ed a word that really entertained us. Seriously. We were both completely surprised by the idioms that were synonyms for the word. Cracked. Me. Up. But…

We both forgot the original word!

I even went so far as to bring up said account with the student.

She remembered the laughter…

Totally forgot the word.

Said I’d Ninja-ed her brain for the day…it was gonna bug her.

Me too dear student, me too.

But far be it for me to leave you without some word-ly fun. In my desperate attempt to search my computer’s history, and type random stuff into the Thesaurus.com search box the following pop-up kept, well, popping up:

And I thought to myself:

“I want to know how many words I know!”

10 minutes later I was up to 45,563 and counting. That means I’m beyond college people. Give a big Whoo Hoo! for that graduate degree.

So on this Friday I give all Lovers of Words a fun little time waster…Word Dynamo

 

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Oh For the Love of Words! (4)…Hamartia, Toroidal, Sobriquet

This meme was created by RachelKiwi over at She is too fond of books and it has addled her brain. She decided that Fridays should be dedicated to logophilia. Logophilia is “the love of words” for all of you without a dictionary close at hand.

Posts are dedicated to either a new word you found in your reading this week, a juicy quote, or a general need to share your vocabulary ability. ‘Cause you know you’ve been dying to show off your reading skills since that final time you took your SAT’s.

This week’s words come from my new read The Fault in our Stars by John Green.

Summary from GoodReads:

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs… for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

I’ve earmarked so many of his words. He uses them uniquely and with multiple meaning. The writing is exceptionally beautiful as well. Such a delight that I had to pick more than one word!

Without Further Ado, My Word(s)…

hamartia  (həˈmɑːtɪə) — n

1. literature  the flaw in character which leads to the downfall of the protagonist in a tragedy
2. medical A developmental defect characterized by the abnormalarrangement or combination of tissues normally present in aspecific area.

“…and pulled out, of all things, a pack of cigarettes…

…”Are you serious?” I asked. “You think that’s cool? Oh, my God, you just ruined the whole thing.”

“Which whole thing?” he asked, turning to me…

…”The whole thing where a boy who is not unattractive or unintelligent or seemingly in any way unacceptable stares at me and points out incorrect uses of literality and compares me to actresses and asks me to watch a movie at his house. But of course there is always a hamartia and yours is that oh, my God, even though you HAD FREAKING CANCER you give money to a company in exchange for the chance to acquire YET MORE CANCER…”” (19, eBook ed.)

What I think is so smart about the use of this word is it’s double meaning for our new love interest’s potential character flaw (spoiler: he doesn’t actually smoke them, which is kind creepy but our heroine seems to understand). It also serves as a pretty apt definition of cancer itself…which is the subject matter of the book.

Full Disclosure: didn’t know the secondary meaning of the word till I looked it up. Goes to show you should just Google every word you don’t understand. Or at least have your Nook look it up for you. Mine’s good like that 😉

toroid  (ˈtɔːrɔɪd) — n

1. geometry  a surface generated by rotating a closed planecurve about a coplanar line that does not intersect the curve

“…one day I was shooting free throws – just standing at the foul line at the North Central gym shooting from racks of balls. All at once, I couldn’t figure out why I was methodically tossing a spherical object through a toroidal object. It seemed like the stupidest thing I could possibly be doing.” (26, eBook ed.)

The word toroidal surprised me. I wasn’t expecting it to pop up there. Made me happy that it did.

sobriquet or soubriquet  (ˈsəʊbrɪˌkeɪ) — n

1. a humorous epithet, assumed name, or nickname

“Now, it wasn’t as if I held my phone in my sweaty hand all day, staring at it while wearing my Special Yellow Dress, patiently waiting for my gentleman caller to live up to his sobriquet.” (47)

Not gonna lie. John Green is smarter than myself. Took me at least 3 re-reads of that sentence to figure out what the ‘sobriquet’ was…Tricky, tricky capitalizing Special Yellow Dress. Like verbal camouflage.

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Oh for the love of words! (3)…Absconded

This meme was created by RachelKiwi over at She is too fond of books and it has addled her brain. She decided that Fridays should be dedicated to logophilia. Logophilia is “the love of words” for all of you without a dictionary close at hand.

Posts are dedicated to either a new word you found in your reading this week, a juicy quote, or a general need to share your vocabulary ability. ‘Cause you know you’ve been dying to show off your reading skills since that final time you took your SAT’s.

Without Further Ado, My Word…

absconded 

past participle, past tense of ab·scond (Verb)

1. Leave hurriedly and secretly, typically to avoid detection or arrest.
2. (of someone on bail) Fail to surrender oneself for custody at the appointed time.

I don’t believe I chose this word for this week. I think the word chose me. I used it in a post yesterday to explain that the main character left town quickly, under the guise of bad fashion to avoid being killed by Vampires. She most definitely absconded. But why do I say that this word chose me this week?

Because I had no conscious knowledge of this word or what it meant when I typed it.

None.

Actually had to look it up when I thought of it.

I was just typing along yesterday morning (yes. I wrote my post the morning I posted it. Don’t judge.) and my fingers, of their own accord, typed “Lady Maccon has absconded to Italy…”

I thought to myself…”absconded?! Is that even a word? How the heck do I know that word? Do you say it like ‘ab-scone-d’? Because that would be very English-Tea-Time of me.”

I’m not being humble when I say I didn’t recognize the word coming out of my brain. My Id was dictating my typing (or is it my superego? always did get confused). Apparently the soft click-clak of the keyboard together with a distinct lack of coffee lulled me into a state in which I accessed a part of the 90% of our brains we don’t use.

Quite Limitless of me don’t you think? And I didn’t even need that little pill.

All this time I’ve been a prodigy and I’ve never known. Well, that or I have some type of early on set dementia.

So how about you? Ever surprise yourself with knowledge you didn’t know you had? Forgetful lately as well? Do share…

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Oh, for the love of words! (2)…Cartomancy

This meme was created by RachelKiwi over at She is too fond of books and it has addled her brain. Last week she decided that Fridays should be dedicated to logophilia. Logophilia is “the love of words” for all of you without a dictionary close at hand.

Posts are dedicated to either a new word you found in your reading this week, a juicy quote, or a general need to share your vocabulary ability. ‘Cause you know you’ve been dying to show off your reading skills since that final time you took your SAT’s.

Without Further Ado…My Word:

cartomancy

a form of divination involving playing cards.

See also: Divination

This one comes from The Night Circus as well

Look out for next week’s word to be from this one too! ‘Cause even though I’m loving the sumptuous language, and excited by all the unique uses of words, it’s a slower read. Anyone else feel that way?

The chapter entitled Cartomancy was one of my favorite sections in the book so far. It’s where a young man who is searching for a particular woman, as well his path in life gets his fortune read:

“You are part of a chain of events though you may not see how your actions will affect the outcome at the time”

-Isobel (171 ebook ed.)

I won’t give away the rest of his reading for those who haven’t enjoyed the book yet. Bailey (the young man from above) is beginning to be one of my favorite plots.

Isobel, resident fortune-teller of The Night Circus also reads the future of main character Celia, who after years of playing a game in which she doesn’t know her opponent or the rules, finally gives into the lure of cartomancy:

“There is emotion,” she says. “Deep emotion but you are only on the shore of it, still near the surface, while it is waiting to pull you under.”

…

“It’s nothing that I can clearly see as good or bad, but it is…intense”

-Isobel (162 ebook ed.)

*Sigh* Just when you think you’re gonna get somewhere with a fortune-teller, like, oh…give the reader a HUGE PLOT BREAK. The reading illuminates as much information as it questions.

I’ll leave you with a little interactive fun this Friday. If you dare, here’s a site that’ll read your Tarot online for free. The site and cards are awful pretty but I have my suspicions that the internet isn’t pulling my cards at random…that is, unless my questions really are going to come true…

*Fingers Crossed*

Free Tarot Reading via Tarot Goddess.com

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Oh, for the love of words! (1) Exsanguinated

This meme was created by RachelKiwi over at She is too fond of books and it has addled her brain. Last week she decided that Fridays should be dedicated to logophilia. Logophilia is “the love of words” for all of you without a dictionary close at hand.

Posts are dedicated to either a new word you found in your reading this week, a juicy quote, or a general need to share your vocabulary ability. ‘Cause you know you’ve been dying to show off your reading skills since that final time you took your SAT’s.

Without Further Ado…My Word:

Exsanguinated

My word this week comes from The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

Quote:

“There is a complicated-looking lock holding the gates shut, and a small sign that reads:

Gates Open at Nightfall & Close at Dawn

in swirly lettering, and under that, in tiny plain letters:

Trespassers Will Be Exsanguinated

Bailey doesn’t know what “exsanguinated” means, but he doesn’t much like the sound of it.” (54, eBook ed.)

Well wouldn’t you know, I agreed with Bailey…I didn’t know what it meant either. So I did what Bailey couldn’t do during the 1800 [the time in which the book is set] I Googled it.

Exsanguinated:

1. To bleed to death (a.k.a. bleeding out)

2. The fatal process of hypovolemia (blood loss), to a degree sufficient to cause death.

Interesting Facts Garnered while Researching the Word:

• One does not have to lose all of one’s blood to cause death. Losing 1/2 to 2/3 will suffice.
• It’s currently a practice used in animal slaughter…See the following excerpt from Wikipedia:

Exsanguination is used as a method of slaughter where, before the incision is made, the animal, depending on species, is rendered insensible to pain by various methods, including captive bolt, electricity or chemical. Without prior sedation, stunning or anesthetic, this method of slaughter causes a high degree of anxiety and should not be used alone.

Thanks for the tip Wikipedia. When submitting someone [something?] to a torturous death, I always look for a way to ease their anxiety…It’s why I teach and practice yoga. *eye-roll*

Good thing the short article goes on to explain:

Exsanguination is a relatively uncommon and dramatic cause of death in humans.

I like the addition of “dramatic”…Makes me think that I may or may not have seen this very process on Grey’s Anatomy in years past. Sometime after Lizzie (when she was on the show) saved that Deer in the back of a pick-up? Surely that’s not what the Deer was dying of…It all gets a little hazy, and might I add Dramatic, after that point.

Anyway, though this makes for a slightly gruesome first entry for this meme. It was the first word I’ve looked up all week. So there you have it. Use knives carefully to avoid exsanguination. Also, don’t jump the gates of The Night Circus for the same reason. Happily enjoy the word play from the safety of your favorite reading spot 😉

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