AWADmail Issue 298
Mar 16, 2008
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
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From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: Interesting stories from the net
A Boy Named Sue, and a Theory of Names:
http://nytimes.com/2008/03/11/science/11tier.html?ex=1362888000&en=81e771df5de2857d
Pronouncing Names:
http://nytimes.com/2008/03/11/opinion/11tue4.html?ex=1362888000&en=8417d8fb3ccf90c4
Are Women Really Better at Language?
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=are-women-really-better-with-language
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From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: Wordsmith Chat
Online Chat: Join us in an online chat with Michael Erard, author of
"Um...: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean"
Mon, Mar 17, 6pm Pacific (GMT -7) at http://wordsmith.org/chat
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From: Alexandra Halsey (alexandra.s.halsey gmail.com)
Subject: the 14th
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/acritochromacy.html
Happy Birthday to Wordsmith, Anu!
Wordsmith.org has been a great gift to the world. :)
This week's 14-letter words have been fascinating. And bravo for
hewing to the strictness of 14-letter definitions as well.
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From: Garrett Hildebrand (gdh uci.edu)
Subject: Re: quadridecennial celebration
Wow. 14 years already. I had left McDonnell Douglas that year to work for
a then (and probably still) small company called Paciolan Systems. My job
was to get them on the Internet. One of the first things I ran across (and
I don't recall how) after I got them online was your A.Word.A.Day and I
signed up for the list.
I've enjoyed your emails every day!
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From: Alan Gasser (argasser gmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--tintinnabulate
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/tintinnabulate.html
Thanks for that fabulous word. I immediately began counting and thinking
in 14s: to ring like a bell (oops 15); 2 ring like a bell?
Anyway, that put in my mind the old Malvina Reynolds song, "If I Could Ring
Like a Bell".
Oh, if I could ring like a bell!
If I could swing like the clapper on a bell,
To tell the world that the wars are over,
Wouldn't that be the day!
It's such a great song, and cheered me up immensely, just thinking silently
about it. Remainder of the lyrics:
http://www.lyricstime.com/malvina-reynolds-ring-like-a-bell-lyrics.html
Wishing you e-felicitations! That's 14, eh?
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From: Lynn Mancini (mancini dtcc.edu)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--tintinnabulate
My favourite use of today's word is in Edgar Allen Poe's onomatopoetic
poem The Bells: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/medny/venturi-poebells.html
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From: Barbara Entlova (galanin22 aol.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--tinctumutation
Although this word sounds more scientific than literary, I was pleased to
learn it, since there are countless situations in which one might use it
simply as an obiter dictum. It might be particularly useful when a simple
"wow" will not suffice; for example, while admiring an incredible composition
by the brilliant Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt on a Vienna's vernissage
full of pretentious people about whom you know nothing and with whom you
share nothing in common, except the fancy glass of Joseph Perrier Vintage
Champagne in your left hand, the hors d'oeuvre in your right -- and perhaps
your height and weight. Thinking about Klimt makes me think of his "Hope II"
that's hanging in the finance office of my school ... I often wonder how
many people would notice the wall's tinctumutation if I exchanged the
picture, after-hours of course, for the Gruyère cheese that -- although not
as plentiful in colours but certainly more appetising -- is currently
hanging in my kitchen.
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From: Steve (scarab1 mindspring.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--circumbendibus
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/circumbendibus.html
Anyone from London would think "circumbendibus" could be a verb too, as in
"I had to circumbendibus to get across the street." In other words, walk
around the big bendibus blocking my way. See
http://www.busesatwork.co.uk/01-50%20images/018_ECA3001.jpg
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From: Christa Watters (wattrsedge aol.com)
Subject: feedback: circumbendibus
Circumlocution seems so much more precise, in that talking around a topic is
visible right in the word, at least for those of us who took Latin in high
school, back in the days when that was still the norm. On the other hand, as
a hiker, it occurs to me to ask: Could one instead apply circumbendibus to
a physical path around an obstacle, a fallen tree, for example?
............................................................................
Homicide and verbicide -- that is, violent treatment of a word with fatal
results to its legitimate meaning, which is its life -- are alike forbidden.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., poet, novelist, essayist, and physician
(1809-1894)
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