New Words

Meriam-Webster recently added over 300 new words to the dictionary. Reviewing the list, I found that I was already aware of most of them—I guess that’s the point. As Meriam-Webster explains on their site, “The dictionary chronicles how the language grows and changes, which means new words and definitions must continually be added. When many people use a word in the same way, over a long enough period of time, that word becomes eligible for inclusion.”

Here are some of the newly added words. I knew some of them from being on social media (“virtue signaling”), watching the television show Parks and Recreation (“Galentine’s Day”), and having Gen Z kids (“yeet” and “sus”)—though “dawn chorus” was new to me:

laggy : having a delayed or slow response (as to a user's input) : marked or affected by lag

virtue signaling : the act or practice of conspicuously displaying one's awareness of and attentiveness to political issues, matters of social and racial justice, etc., especially instead of taking effective action

greenwash verb 1 : to make (something, such as a product, policy, or practice) appear to be more environmentally friendly or less environmentally damaging than it really is 2 : to mislead (someone) by means of greenwashing greenwash noun : something (such as a claim or action) that is intended to make a product, policy, activity, etc. appear to be more environmentally friendly or less environmentally damaging than it really is

dawn chorus : the singing of wild birds that closely precedes and follows sunrise especially in spring and summer

yeet interjection, slang — used to express surprise, approval, or excited enthusiasm yeet verb : to throw especially with force and without regard for the thing being thrown

sus slang : SUSPICIOUS, SUSPECT

janky informal : of very poor quality : JUNKY; also : not functioning properly or adequately : FAULTY

lewk slang : a fashion look that is distinctive to the wearer and that is noticeable and memorable to others

Galentine’s Day : a holiday observed on February 13th as a time to celebrate friendships especially among women

level up : to advance or improve (oneself, someone else, or something) in or as if in a game

FWIW abbreviation for what it’s worth

ICYMI abbreviation in case you missed it

What do you think?

--Marcia Peterson

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1 comment dictionary, language, Marcia Peterson, new words, Words

10 Interesting Words from Other Languages

I love coming across beautiful words from other languages, especially ones that have no English equivalent. Some are deeply meaningful, some are interesting for writers, and some describe the funny parts of life. Here are ten from my ongoing list:

• Petrichor: the wonderful smell in the air after it’s been raining

• Komorebi: sunlight filtering through trees

• Waldeinsamkeit: The feeling of solitude and connectedness to nature when being alone in the woods.

• Tsundoku: the act of buying a book and leaving it unread, often piled with other unread books

• Kaizen: a method for transforming habits incrementally, one step at a time, in order to continuously improve

• Meraki: to do something with soul, creativity, or love; when you leave a piece of yourself in your work

• Irusu: pretending to be out when someone knocks at your door

• Yaourt: To sing along to a song even though you don’t know the lyrics. Instead, you use nonsensical noises that vaguely resemble the lyrics of a song.

• Shemomedjam: to eat something because it’s so yummy and delicious, even though you’re not hungry

• Meriggiare: to rest or relax at midday, usually in a shady spot on a sunny day

          BONUS:

• Ubuntu: The act of being kind to others because of one’s common humanity.

Are you a word lover too? Share one of your favorites in the comments below.

--Marcia Peterson  

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4 comments foreign words, interesting words, Marcia Peterson, Words, writer inspiration

A Fine Romance

It’s true confession time, y’all. I’m having an affair. And it’s been going on a loooong time.

It all started when I was about eight years old. That’s when I learned to read and fell in love with words. Big words, little words, hard words, easy words. Words could make me laugh out loud, and sometimes, words could bring me to tears. Words were—are—endlessly fascinating to me. I especially love origins, of individual words and of phrases. And today, since earlier this week marked the first day of winter, and since I’m a little snowed under (see what I did there?) with holiday baking, I decided to share a little of my romance with winter words.

 As pure as the driven snow: 

This is a somewhat old-fashioned expression meaning pure, but it’s a lot older than you think. First, you’ll want to know that driven snow is snow that’s been blown into drifts, and that snow is very clean and purely white. The first use of the expression can be found in texts around the start of the 19th century, but the idea of purity associated with snow is way older than 1800. Would you be surprised to know that William Shakespeare first brought that imagery to play goers way back in The Winter’s Tale in 1611? To wit, “Lawn as white as driven snow.” 

Walking on thin ice: 

Yep, old Will was quite a prolific wordsmith and we can thank him for many expressions. But of course, there are other well-known writers who’ve gifted us with winter idioms we still use today. Like “walking on thin ice.” (Or “treading on thin ice,” or “skating on thin ice.”) It’s an expression that even a Southern girl who’s never seen thin ice can understand, namely that one is on dangerous ground, metaphorically speaking. It was first seen in print in the essay, Prudence, by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.” Makes perfect sense! 

Jack Frost nipping at your nose

I’m not sure how old I was before I realized that Jack Frost was a name and not just a crazy way of referring to frosty weather. So who the heck is this Jack Frost fellow, anyway?

From Harper's Weekly, October 5, 1861

Turns out, he’s not a fellow at all. Jack Frost is a personification of winter, based on Scandinavian traditions—maybe. There’s also plenty of evidence that Jack Frost has English roots, dating back to 1734 in a book called Round About Our Coal Fire or Christmas Entertainments. Except Jack’s not a character there but instead just a colorful phrase for winter. Skip ahead to the 1800s and Jack Frost takes on some serious personality when he jumps the pond and lands in America, most notably in an1861 political cartoon by a fellow named Thomas Nast. Sound familiar? Yep, he’s the guy who gave us the first drawing of Santa Claus as we know him today. 

Oh, how I love a good story about words! And I love you, dear writers, who take the time to read my words. To paraphrase that wonderful romantic line, “You make me want to be a better writer.”

~Cathy C. Hall, wishing you happy holidays and all the best in 2021!

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3 comments Cathy C. Hall, expressions, idioms, Ralph Waldo Emerson, shakespeare, Thomas Nast, Words

The Importance of a Word

Back in the early days of writing, my mother took me to task about words.

“The words you choose are so important, Cathy,” she said. And then she went on and on about the power of a single word and how I should be careful about what I write, what I say and what I mean to say. I laughed at some point because she was so intense about the subject. Okay, Mom, enough! Who’s the writer here, anyway? I listened, but honestly, I didn’t pay attention.

Now, after ten or more years and lots more of life, I get what Mom was trying to impress upon me. Words matter.

And not just in the big issues like political or societal or economic discussions. But I think—I hope—most of us understand the importance of choosing our words carefully in those discussions. It’s the everyday use of words that I’m talking about, the things we say or write in a tweet, a status update, or maybe a blog post.

A writer friend updated her status recently with, “Writing is hard.” I’ve probably said that same thing a hundred times. I’ll bet you have, too. We don’t mean anything offensive with the expression, but still. Reading those words then, I winced.

Here are a few synonyms for hard (used as an adjective, as in the above statement.): arduous, wearying, back-breaking, grueling, exhausting. Does that sound like writing? Sure, we might consider rewriting a manuscript for the seventh time grueling, but it’s not. It’s annoying, and plenty frustrating, but it’s not really grueling or back-breaking or bone-wearying.

But single-parenting? That’s arduous work. Losing a loved one? Definitely daily, sometimes hourly bone-wearying stuff. Enduring relentless cyber-bullying? That’s hard.

There are so many life experiences that are hard. And perhaps writing about those kinds of experiences can be emotionally challenging. Even hard. But for the most part, trying to figure out a plot, track down a source, or even the umpteen rejections we might get—all facets of the writing experience—aren’t so hard.

Hard. It’s just one example of one word that we throw around casually; there are lots of other words out there, words we need to think about and how we’ll use them.

So I guess I owe Mom a late apology. She understood all those years ago about words and I didn’t take her seriously. She wanted me to think about each and every word I put out there—professionally and personally—and I just shook my head that day, because really, who has time to think about each and every word?

But maybe it's about time we did.

Cathy C. Hall is a kidlit author and humor writer. Her latest release is Great Leaders of the World, from Darakwon in South Korea. Read all about it here!)

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10 comments Cathy C. Hall, mindful writing, use of words, Words

Friday Speak Out!: Words! Words! Words!

by Lily Iona MacKenzie

I’ve been thinking about how loosely we use abstract words like love, happiness, and truth as if they had concrete, observable meaning. I tend to revolt from using love to close my email or other exchanges unless I really feel love for the person I’m corresponding with. It bothers me when people sign their correspondence “love” without considering whether or not the emotion really applies to the recipient. Maybe you feel loving towards someone on most days, but not every day. Isn’t it deceitful to say “love” if you aren’t feeling it at the moment? Wouldn’t such a response seem confusing? It leads the reader to believe that the writer actually has such strong feelings, that somehow we’re part of the writer’s inner circle. Often that isn’t true.

Or even if one is part of the writer’s inner circle, it doesn’t mean that person actually is feeling love for the recipient. It just becomes a reflexive action: Love, Lily. Love, Hilda. Love, Anyone.

My concern is that these words then become meaningless, and once words no longer match what they are supposed to express, there’s not only a breakdown in communication but also a collapse of the word’s integrity. How can one use the word love again with any sincerity if it’s been used casually, with people one doesn’t really feeling toward.

So what’s my problem with happiness? We have a tendency to assume that if we use happy to describe someone’s feelings, we’ve said it all. That person must be happy. Therefore, there’s no need to look further or question what might actually be going on. Happiness is a nebulous state. I’m never sure when I’m happy or not because there are so many varieties of that emotional construct. One person’s happiness could be another person’s delusion or manic behavior.

When someone is really high, either from drugs or because something positive has happened in that person’s life, we generally say “that person is so happy.” Yet the individual may be in a state that has nothing to do with what I might equate with happiness—a sense of well being: all is right with my world at the moment and I need nothing else to make myself feel better. But the person we describe as “so happy” because he/she is claiming that condition could be depressed and using happiness as a cover for his/her real emotional level.

Okay, I sound like a Grinch, but I hate lies, either intentional or unintentional. I make them. My friends make them. It seems part of being human to lie at times. But the more it happens between friends and myself, the less I trust either them or me. And that’s the truth. But, again, what is truth? And how do we know it when it happens? If someone is accustomed to not telling the truth, then we’re caught up again in that dishonest web of deceit, where we claim one thing while really feeling another.

* * *

Lily Iona MacKenzie has published reviews, interviews, short fiction, poetry, travel pieces, essays, and memoir in over 140 American and Canadian venues. The recent issue of Notes Magazine featured her as the spotlight author, showcasing her poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Fling, one of her novels, will be published in July 2015. Bone Songs, another novel, will be published in 2016. Her poetry collection All This was published in 2011. She also teaches writing at the University of San Francisco, is vice-president of USF's part-time faculty union, paints, and travels widely with her husband. Visit her blog at: http://lilyionamackenzie.wordpress.com.
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!

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3 comments abstract words, Friday Speak Out, Lily Iona MacKenzie, meaning, truth, Words

Trading, Borrowing...and Learning Words

During my youth, I enjoyed completing crosswords. It is something I was certain I would continue into adulthood. But with kids and running from place to place, I'm not finding a lot of time to sit around and ponder letter and words to fit into the tiny squares. I continue to buy crossword puzzle books though. Stocking up for the days when a quiet moment--not spent on the computer--is the standard and not the exception. For a time when I don't have writing assignments or reading assignments or to help with my kids' homework assignments.
One thing is for sure, crossword puzzles helped my vocabulary when I did them frequently. They helped me think about words. Each letter leading to the next. This is probably not a news flash and should be a strong argument for me to re-engaging with a puzzle book.
When I recently read a book published decades ago, I read with pen and paper by my side. I frequently ran across and wrote down words I don't remember ever seeing before. For someone whose life revolves around words, it was a fabulous feeling to be picking up the dictionary. It was a similar feeling, for me, as when I would fill in a crossword puzzle. Using my brain for learning in a way that reached back to my youth.
I've since signed up to have a word of a day e-mailed to me to give myself a little daily vocabulary buzz.
Admittedly, I may not be able to use the words daily, but it feels good to be able to keep learning and growing vocabulary which, ultimately, will make me a stronger writer.
So, try to find a word today that is new to you. What is it?

Elizabeth King Humphrey loves to learn new words, read new books and write new blog posts.

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Leave a Comment Elizabeth King Humphrey, Power of Words, Words

Word Trivia

Most writers love words and language. Some of us have even been known to (occasionally) read the dictionary for fun! If you're a word geek too, see if you can figure out the answers to the questions below.


1. What are the only two English words to end in the letters –ngry?

2. What is the English word that, when all its letters are capitalized, comes out the same backward, forward and upside down?

3. Come up with the shortest English word that contains each of the first six letters of the alphabet.

4. What common word uses each of the five vowels, plus y, in their proper order?

5. What's the longest English word that uses only one vowel?



Answers:

1. angry and hungry

2. NOON

3. feedback

4. facetiously

5. strength

Questions selected from The Great American Bathroom Book
Photo courtesy of togr at flickr.com

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2 comments fun, Marcia Peterson, Words