Words

National Dictionary Day

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National Dictionary Day is observed annually on October 16.

National Dictionary Day was created in honor of Noah Webster’s birthday (October 16, 1758) and was set aside as a day to emphasize the importance of learning and using dictionary skills and increasing one’s vocabulary.  Webster is considered the “Father of the American Dictionary”. 

Source: National Day Calendar

There’s a Word for That

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Haughty and fastidious.

I read a post about feet. I didn’t read it for the information, but the attitude of the writer. There seems to be a common attitude which (to me) is overly fussy, disapproving and expecting approval. I wanted to find a word for it. I still haven’t found just one exact word but I’ve come close.
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Words You Didn’t Know Had Opposites

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A chance to learn some new words. I like the opposite of deja vu, jamais vu. When would you ever use it in conversation? But, it is interesting to know.
What’s the opposite of disgruntled? Chances are you’re thinking the answer should rightly be gruntled—but is that really a word you recognize? The problem here is that disgruntled, alongside the likes of uncouth, disheveled, distraught, inert, and intrepid, is an example of an unpaired word, namely one that looks like it should have an apparently straightforward opposite, but in practice really doesn’t.
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Ruderal – Growing Where it Can

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Found this on Twitter today. It’s a great word for urban exploration, at least for me. I do like the plants growing in odd places: rooftops, cracked cement, and railway tracks as shown in the photograph. Sort of abandoned gardens and yet, most were never planted deliberately. Where have you seen something growing in spite of it’s habitat?
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How do you Name a Woman?

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Does it bother you to hear an adult man call his wife “Mother”, “MaMa” or other words similar? How about people who call themselves their pet’s “Mother”, “Daddy”, etc.?

Names are our identity/ identification. Names are how other people view us. I do think it is a bit odd when people refer to another person by their role – especially when it isn’t the role they have for the person who spoke.… Read the rest

Imitations in Words

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Watching Museum Diaries early this morning on TVO and I noticed a word they used when talking about fakes and forgeries, pastiche. It is interesting how fakes have become their own genre. Antique fakes can be as interesting and historical as the real artifacts. Also, there is still the danger of being wrong and deciding an item is fake when it is not.
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A Punch Censor?

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I remember Batman from the 1970’s. To hide the fights or make them less serious looking, graphics were used to illustrate punches, hits and smashes. While camouflaging the fights the punch censors also made them funny, so I’d guess they worked. Too bad that plan changed. I’d still rather see the censors, they had character. 
How would you use a punch censor?
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Heteronyms and Homographs

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My Mom forwarded this to me in email: 

Heteronyms…
Homographs are words of like spelling but with more than one meaning.
A homograph that is also pronounced differently is a heteronym.
You think English is easy? I think a retired English teacher was bored…THIS IS GREAT!
Read all the way to the end…
This took a lot of work to put together!

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Cybertwee: Feminine Technology

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From a post on The Guardian:
Imagine, though, what the tech landscape might look like if soft hues and girly aesthetics were championed, rather than ridiculed? That’s exactly what three young artists – Gabriella Hilleman, 27, Violet Forest 26, and May Waver, 23 – decided to do a few years ago, when, mostly on a lark, they convened the first International Cybertwee Conference and Roundtable.
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