Interesting Words
-
Have a mixed drink?
When a craftsperson, artist, musician, or writer manages to fit a set of components together to make a congruous, harmonious whole, there used to be a word for it. Well, of course, there still are words for it — after all, I just used “congruous” and “harmonious.” And “consistency” and “elegance” could be added as… Continue reading
-
Feeling bilious?
It’s common to almost everyone that they think of a cause for what they see, coming up with an explanation that seems reasonable, at least given what they know at the time. Before things like germs, viruses, and some of the actual processes operating in your body were discovered, people dreamed up any number of… Continue reading
-
Sleigh
It goes without saying that Santa rides around in a “sleigh.” That is, it goes without saying but it doesn’t go without music and pictures — the sleigh is a crucial part of any good Santa tableau. But “sleigh,” it turns out, is a word that only arose in the 1700s. Specifically, the 1721 December… Continue reading
-
Gift
“Gift” is an old word; older than English. It comes from Old English, and even before that seems to have been part of ancient Germanic languages. After all, even thousands of years ago people got married. And in those days a “gift” was the payment a man made when purchasing a wife. It’s not certain… Continue reading
-
Yule
This is the time of year we find ourselves in the “yule” or “yuletide” season. It’s twelve days long — except when it’s about two months long — which it isn’t when it lasts just three days. But we’re only “probably” in it because it hasn’t always taken place at this time of year, or… Continue reading
-
Wait, I thought “sticks and stones…”
Some people think that a text — a book of fiction, for example, or the script for a play — is one complete thing, and that each constituent part, whether it’s a passage or just a single word, must be left as-is or the message and nature of the whole is changed. Others think of… Continue reading
-
You’re feeling sleepy…
When you’re just waking up, you’re often in a unique mental state. You’re still half asleep, and whatever nutty thing you were just dreaming about is starting to slip away, but for a little while it still makes a kind of sense. There’s also a mental state you might enter as you fall asleep; you’re… Continue reading
-
Wake up, there’s beer
The first word in an English dictionary is often “aardvark”. But what about the last one? That depends on the dictionary. In many cases it’s “zymurgy,” which is fermentation, such as in making beer or wine. The American Homebrewers Association, which is “dedicated to empowering home brewers to make the best beer in the world,”… Continue reading
-
Wile E. or While H?
When you’re musing, daydreaming, or generally relaxing in an aimless sort of way, you might say that you’re “whiling away the time”. But you might instead say — and back in the day you could have been more likely to say — you’re “wiling away the time.” “While” began to be used as a verb… Continue reading
-
I’ll have the model in rose gold, please
People remember how their neighbors act toward them and others. Particularly if you live in a village, you know who’s generous and kind, and you also know who’s a tightwad. In the case of the scrooge, you might also call them a nithing, a shut-purse, a chinch, a hayne, a nigon, or a pinchbeck. Well,… Continue reading
About Me
I’m Pete Harbeson, a writer located near Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to writing my own content, I’ve learned to translate for my loquacious and opinionated pup Chocolate. I shouldn’t be surprised, but she mostly speaks in doggerel. You can find her contributions tagged with Chocolatiana.