Nonpariel

I know this word from baking. It amuses me that it also means person or thing having no equal . . .

nonpareil

\non-puh-REL\ noun 1. a person or thing having no equal. 2. a small pellet of colored sugar for decorating candy, cake, and cookies.

I'll See You

Type-O

I love a good pun, even, as George Takei says, "It's in vein."

Alliaceous

I love words . . . I will be using this on my husband in the future.

alliaceous

\al-ee-EY-shuh s\ adjective 1. having the odor or taste of garlic, onion, etc. 2. Botany. belonging to the genus Allium (formerly the family Alliaceae).

Book Dress

Vexillology

And here I thought it meant the study of vexing others . . .

vexillology

\vek-suh-LOL-uh-jee\

noun 1. the study of flags.

Gerunds

I'm fairly sure gerunds are one of the reasons English is so hard for non-English speakers to learn the language. We'll use any noun as a gerund . . .

A little lesson from Braingle:

A verbal is a verb that is used as a noun, adjective or adverb. For example, the verb sing can be turned into a noun by adding -ing as in, "People enjoy my singing". There are three types of verbals.

Gerunds
We have just seen this type of verbal. These are constructed by adding -ing to a verb to turn it into a noun. Here are some more examples:

"I went fishing."
"I love reading what you write"

Participles
A participle is a verb that is used as an adjective. A present participle always ends in -ing but a past participle can have different endings (-ed, -en, -d, -t, -n). Here are a few examples:

"The crying baby was hungry."
"Bob crawled away from the broken toy."

Infinitives

An infinitive is an unconjugated verb with the word "to" in front of it. These can be used as nouns, adjectives or adverbs. Some examples:

"I waited for the weekend to arrive."
"He wants to fly."

Now, all that seems perfectly reasonable.

What we do as Americans, possibly all English-speaking nations, and really, maybe other languages do this too:

My husband prefers porching when reading, i.e., he likes to go out and sit on the porch to read his books.

I have a friend who goes mushrooming, not as inane as some gerunds, she's going to pick mushrooms.

Zeitgeber

Sometimes I look at a word and I just go WTF!?!?!?!!

zeitgeber

\TSAHYT-gey-ber\ noun 1. an environmental cue, as the length of daylight or the degree of temperature, that helps to regulate the cycles of an organism's biological clock. In case you don't know, I get most of my words from dictionary.com. Sign up for the word of the day. You too can open your e-mail and say, "What the &#^&* is this doing in the dictionary?"

Time to Trim the Hedges

Color the Classics

Yeah, this exists . . . I assume it's because adult coloring books are the craze right now. Found these on Amazon.

I'll Read Anything

Bookmarks vs. Dog Ears

I definitely come down on the side of the bookmark, but it's not always a good thing. Take my copy of Queen of the Damned. My all-time favorite book. I started bookmarking my favorite parts so I could easily find them when I want to read them again. Uh-hem, OK, so not so easy to find . . . The shoelace is to hold the book together, because I've broken the spine and chunks of it fall out.

In college my roommate asked me why I didn't just dog ear the pages.

"Because I didn't want to damage the book."

Paid to Read

This is a good idea, but . . . I've been paid to read. I've actually been paid quite well to read. The things you're reading will hurt your head. You won't be paid to read anything you'd enjoy reading.

I'm Reading

The Difference One Letter Makes

And we saw the Anal Museum a few days ago . . .

Grammar Nazi Hunters

Pierian

Pierian

\pahy-EER-ee-uh n\ adjective 1. of or relating to poetry or poetic inspiration. 2. of or relating to the Muses.

I'd like you better if . . .

Onomatopoeia

The word no one could spell in English class . . . My solution, just stick all the vowels in that bad boy.

onomatopoeia

\on-uh-mat-uh-PEE-uh, -mah-tuh-\ noun 1. the formation of a word, as cuckoo, meow, honk, or boom, by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent. 2. a word so formed.

One man's doughnut

Is another man's . .

olykoek \OL-i-koo k\ noun 1. Hudson Valley: Older Use. doughnut.

Wedding Words

A couple of lesbian friends are getting married next month . . . I'm gonna use this one.

Paranymph

[par-uh-nimf] 

 a unisex term meaning a groomsman or a bridesmaid.




I was this one for a lllllooooooooonnnnnngggggg time, I was 38 when I got married.

Agamy

[ag-uh-mee]

the state or quality of being unmarried.  

This one is so close to Deuteronomy . . .

Deuterogamy

[doo-tuh-rog-uh-mee, dyoo-] 

 a second marriage after the death or divorce of the first husband or wife. 

Also known as digamy.

Epithalamion

[ep-uh-thuh-ley-mee-on, -uhn] 

a song or poem in honor of a bride and bridegroom.

Natatorium

A good summer word, but really? This is another word that's overly complicated . . .

natatorium

\ney-tuh-TAWR-ee-uh m, -TOHR-, nat-uh-\ noun 1. a swimming pool, especially one that is indoors.

writ-er

Grapes of Wrath

Twenty Words that Mean Something Else

Words that are Different in Other Languages

I got looped into reading this article because the word kiss in English means . . .

When You Don't Read . . .

A bit grisly, but this is what happens when you don't read . . .

When You Don't Read

Mugwump

A good one for a political year . . .

mugwump

\MUHG-wuhmp\ noun 1. a person who is unable to make up his or her mind on an issue, especially in politics; a person who is neutral on a controversial issue. 2. a Republican who refused to support the party nominee, James G. Blaine, in the presidential campaign of 1884.

Crow's Feet

tickety-boo

When I'm running out of things to post on this blog, the dictionary never fails me. Thank you, dictionary.com for amusing me . . .

Tickey-boo
\TIK-i-tee-BOO\ adjective
1. Chiefly British Informal. fine; OK.