Monday, January 08, 2007

Wordy Meme

Thanks to Helen and (un)relaxeddad for passing this one on, I couldn't resist.

A word that describes me is:

Wooly. Because I love wool sweaters, wool knitting yarn, needle-felted wool toys, sheepskin rugs, etc. Love love love winter!

My favourite word is:

Oh, how to pick just one. How about this: raunchy. It's got such a great crispy sound, yet the meaning is so grubby and smutty.

My least favourite word is:

A tie between mischievous and irregardless. Because it's NOT mis-chee-vee-ous, and somehow I don't think people are really trying for a double negative. Maybe people think they can make themselves sound better or more educated by adding random syllables.

Use these two words in a sentence:

Irregardless of his politial persuasion, the mischievous blogger felt no compunction about posting raunchy pictures of the senator.

A word I have to think twice about pronouncing is:

Cavalry. I always want to say Calvary, and I'm pretty sure there were no mounted units with Jesus at the Crucifixion. (Though that reminds me of the funniest line from Love, Actually: "We've been given our parts in the nativity play. And I'm the lobster.")

Dictionaries. Printed or online?

Printed. I rely on The New Oxford American Dictionary, though it would end up at the thrift store in 2 seconds if I could ever afford the ginormous, amazing Oxford English Dictionary (and a house big enough for it). Now on sale for only $850.00 for the 20-volume set!!

A word whose meaning I cannot seem to retain no matter how many times I look it up is …

Sesquipedalian: adj., given to or characterized by the use of long words, a word with many syllables. Not a very useful word unless you're trying to sound overly erudite. Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditiones habes!

Open a dictionary to a random page and find a word you don’t know. Post the word and its meaning.

farruca: n., Spanish. A type of flamenco dance.

Use the word and the word you can never remember in a sentence.

She was too breathless from dancing the farruca to respond to her partner's sesquipedalian conversation.

One of the most overused words in my area of work/study is …

Poop. We're potty training.

4 comments:

Chris Hunt said...

Are you trying to say my conversation is sesquipedalian? Or are you just trying to bait me out of lurking?

Anonymous said...

Who needs a big house? If I could get my hands on the 20-volume OED I'd throw out my bed and any other furniture to make the space required.

Henitsirk said...

Chris, you're never sesquipedalian, in the sense of being long-winded or overly wordy. You never comment enough for that. :)

(un)relaxeddad, whenever I see a "Calvary Church", fairly common in the US, I always wonder if the pews are horse-sized.

charlotte, thanks for the luck. We've decided to throw in the towel and just let the boy figure it out. So far the laissez-faire technique is working pretty well!

kerryn, I think if I ever really got a copy of the OED, I'd never see the light of day. But then I could answer all my son's questions about "why do we use that word, Mama?"

Anonymous said...

It has always been one of my goals to someday have the OED. Hey, I wonder if it is on EbaY? I even have a place for it, there is an empty shelf underneath the Encyclopedia Britannica. Somehow, the vision of EB on one shelf with the OED on the shelf right underneath seems like a little bit of heaven in my living room.