Tag: Grammar

Word Wednesday Part IV

Word Wednesday Part IV

So I’m feeling a bit of pressure here. I’m told that the fourth installment of a series should be the best. Many of my geeky friends argue that the fourth Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope, which was actually the first one released… so now I’m not sure if it fits my point) is the best one[Yes, I know, some of you beg to differ]. The fourth Harry Potter book (Goblet of Fire for those keeping track at home) was a change of pace from the first three, marking not only the era of longer books but also a darker tone to the series, and is definitely a favourite of mine. If something is going to continue on, the fourth installment needs to be great. Plus, having missed last week due to some website moving /hosting issues and a few life events, the fourth installment falls on Canada Day. Well let’s hope I hit it out of the ballpark with this week’s word.

I mentioned this word on my Facebook page last week and one of my friends, Laureen (who, incidentally, has a great blog over at Tempered With Kindness) was very much in support of me using this word for my Word Wednesday post. Even though it’s technically 2 years too early. On the other hand. it’s good to know about this nice and early-like so we can all be prepared when the event happens right? Yep. That’s what I’m going to go with. In 2017, Canada will be celebrating it’s sesquicentennial, meaning the country will be turning 150 years old; so today’s Word Wednesday is sesquicentennial.

The word just rolls off the tongue

Sesquicentennial – I love the way the word sounds. Six syllable words have a way of rolling off the tongue that makes them amongst my favourite words to say (see also the word amongst which, despite what WordPress seems to think, is a legitimate word). The ‘squ’ trigraph (a phoneme with 3 letters that make a single sound) is one of the word sounds I find really easy on the ears. So any word that has 6 syllables and the ‘squ’ trigraph is doubly awesome.

As a note, sesquicentennial is relatively young as a word – though the components are old. The word comes from combining the Latin words sesqui, which means one and a half times, and centennial, which comes from the the Latin word for 100 (centum). Putting them together we get sesquicentennial meaning the 150th anniversary of an event. According to the Mirriam-Webster dictionary, the first known use of sesquicentennial was in 1880 for the city of Baltimore’s 150th anniversary.

Canada’s sesquicentennial celebration is going to be awesome, with lots of events already being planned. I remember the celebrations for the 125th anniversary of the creation of Canada, and the sesquicentennial celebrations promise to be bigger. Maybe not as big as the centennial in 1967, because there’s no Expo ’67 like event going on and I’m not sure if the provinces are going to create ear-worm like songs (Ontari-ari- ario anyone?) for the sesquicentennial but it’s going to be a great party.

Sesquicentennial (ses-kwi-sen-ten-ee-uh l) Noun – A 150th anniversary or its celebration.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a few quintessentially Canadian pictures in honour of the day.

The CN Tower lit up in our National colours

The giant Canadian flag that was unfurled on the field at the 100th Grey Cup game in Toronto.

A loon swimming on the lake

July 1, 2015
Word Wednesday – Again!

Word Wednesday – Again!

I swear I’m going to get a non Word Wednesday post up soon – life has been hectic and I’ve got a bunch of drafts started but haven’t managed to finish any of them. I’m also working on a new site so watch for that announcement coming very soon!

I make no secret of the fact that I’m a bibliophile. I LOVE books. I love holding them, reading them, reviewing them, talking about them, pretty much anything to do with books. In fact, today’s Word Wednesday word came out of a book I read recently. I keep a notebook beside me when I read and write down any really cool words I read so that I can use them in my own writing. (I know, I’m a giant word nerd and I’m proud of it!)

I loved the fact that I had to go look up what this word meant – I had pretty much figured it out from the contextual cues but I still like to look up new words to ensure that they mean what I think they mean. (*Said in my best Inigo Montoya voice)

Without further ado, today’s word is:

Infandous – isn’t it an awesome word?

Infandous – the word isn’t even IN most dictionaries today, it’s that out of use. Of course, having a subscription to the Oxford English Dictionary comes in really handy at times like this. (To be fair, the book I found it in was pretty old so I’m not surprised there were some words that are obsolete in it.)

Infandous – another word with a Latin root. This time the root is infantus – meaning abominable or unspeakable. This is also the same root as infant (or one who does not speak) which makes me laugh since the definition of infandous is “too odious to be expressed or mentioned”. Which is not what I think of when I hear the word infant!

Infandous – (In-‘FAN’-dus) Adjective. Something too odious or abominable to be mentioned.

So if you’re looking for a word that is no longer in use and need to describe something that is too horrible to mention, try using infandous. Sometimes, the old words are better than anything we have now.

June 20, 2015
#WordWednesday: The sequel

#WordWednesday: The sequel

Okay, So it’s looking like this may stick. At least for the next little while. Today’s word is one that I love using and as many of my friends will attest, I have been known to seek out occasions to use this word. Granted, sometimes I have had to shoehorn in in but it’s such a fun word, it’s totally worth the effort. You might say that playing with words is my thing. It’s my happy place, something I do for my own personal enjoyment.

In other words, playing around on the linguistic jungle gym is my bailiwick.

Today’s Word Wednesday is Bailiwick

There are plenty of synonyms I could use, wheelhouse, domain, even ‘thing’ – as in ‘it’s my thing’ but bailiwick just sounds so cool. It rolls off the tongue. I was surprised to learn that the word bailiwick isn’t as old as I thought it was – it’s late middle English so not exactly new but not a Latin based word either. It does have a secondary meaning (which used to be the primary meaning) which is the one that it literally translates to. The original meaning of bailiwick was “an area under the supervision of a bailiff (this could be a mayor, sheriff, or other official instead of the bailiff we think of today – though I still picture Bull from Night Court whenever I hear that word).” The origin of the word is partly French – the word bailie refers to the official who was ordered to supervise an area.

Not this kind of bailiff…

In France, this area was called a bailliage but the English never liked to steal a word outright, they always made a few changes. When they adopted the use of the word bailie, they added the word wik to the end. Wik in middle English meant village (it’s also the root word for a town name like Greenwich – literally ‘green village’) so bailiwick became the area or village that fell under the supervision of the bailie. Surprisingly, there are still a few official bailiwicks left in the United Kingdom today – the islands of Jersey and Guernsey are legally bailiwicks.

With only two bailiwicks of the traditional sense left, it is the new meaning that has me using this word whenever I can. The modern definition of bailiwick is a person’s “specific sphere of interest, or area of expertise”. So, really, writing, and more specifically, grammar is my bailiwick. What’s yours?

Bailiwick – (bai·li·wick ) Noun

i) A person’s specific sphere of interest or area of expertise.

ii) The area in which a bailiff has jurisdiction.

June 10, 2015
#WordWednesday

#WordWednesday

Okay, So I know that #WordlessWednesday is a thing, but I’m a writer by trade and I love using the perfect word for the situation so I’m going to try to do some #WordWednesday posts where I talk about a word and how it is used and / or misused. Maybe it will be a regular thing or maybe it will happen once a month. I’m not sure – but I love words and I love learning more about my favourite words.

Some of the words, I’ll choose because of the way they sound, others because I like the usage, others because I’ve stumbled across them and either had to look them up or work out the meaning for myself. This one I think I first learned while perusing (another fun word), Wordsmith.com ’s Word of the Day archives a few years ago.

Today’s #WordWednesday word is perendinate

Okay, so I’m a total Latin geek – I took it in high school and in university simply because I love learning new words and Latin is a great basis for that – and any word that makes me think back to those Latin root words is going to make my day. I remembered when we learned that in Latin, cras means tomorrow. Suddenly the word procrastinate made a lot more sense – it literally means to put off until tomorrow. Which is all well and good, but what if you want to put something off until the day AFTER tomorrow? Surely there’s no English word for that right? Except there is! You guessed it, that word that means to put something off until the day after tomorrow is perendinate. The Latin root of this word is obviously dies or day. From there we get perendie which means “on the day after tomorrow” and ta-da – to perendinate is the action (verb form) of this, which means to put something off until the day after tomorrow.

What’s on your to-do list?

So, to butcher an old proverb, never procrastinate when you could perendinate instead.

Perendinate – (puh-REN-di-nayt) Verb. To put off until the day after tomorrow.

There you go. Now use it wisely and impress your friends and family.

June 3, 2015