Turns out my local power company is about to turn out my electricity for two hours — the price of living right next to an electrical substation, I guess!!! (Or is “price” the wrong word? Because isn’t a price something you pay in exchange for something that might have worth? Ah, words…)
Anyway, due to prices or costs or random electron-associated proximities, this will be a quick post.
WORD SWORD: a metaphorical sword which one can use to divide the words (and phrases and usages and spellings) which one likes from those one does not.
So…my word sword chops down, and when the dust clears, I see:
ON THE GOOD SIDE…i.e. words and phrases I particularly like today:
iconography
happenstance
altruistic
minimalist
butterfly
miscellany
concatenation
paucity
surfeit
plethora
biscuit tin
And pretty much anything Oscar Wilde ever said.
ON THE BAD SIDE…i.e. words/phrases/spellings that I don’t much care for (or hate passionately) today:
atall
alot
alright
walla
impact (as a verb)
Left Coast
all intensive purposes
venerable
ichthyology
executive
chick flick
condominium rentals
So….what does your word sword show today?
All answers welcome!
And remember: the first Tuesday of October, our Jane Austen Movie Club will be discussing BRIDE AND PREJUDICE!
Cara
Cara King, who has a paucity of butterflies and a plethora of biscuit tins in her West Coast home, where ichthyologists dine with her (or come in the evening, at any rate)
On the negative side, I hate the names George and Susan, but that’s every day.
Well, I’m probably so missing the point of the whole post today, but there is one phrase I hate, and it’s having your cake and eatting it too. Because in actuality, it’s incorrect. When you have your cake, you can eat it – nothing impossible there. However, when people say it, they mean an impossibility, or being able to have all worlds — so it really should be eatting your cake and having it too. Because when you eat it, you no longer have it.
I never thought much about it until I saw it on tv once upon a time, and when I thought about it, realized, yeah, that’s right. So, that’s my annoyance in words. 🙂
Lois
I came across ‘gallimaufry’
this morning and it definitely has to go on my good list!
Right now, the only word on the bad side is ‘hapless.’
Debora
I’m in a fairly irritation-free zone this morning, so “Autumn,” “sunshine,” and “coffee” are on my good list.
My daughter’s home sick from school today, so if pressed I could add “mucus,” to the bad list, and “kittens,” because they are currently banned from my office.
Cara, then you’d downright hate the type of onions from Washington known as “Walawala.” 🙂
The Good:
High Notes
Singing
Loreena McKennit
Music (‘z’ and ‘k’)
Books (the sibilant ‘s’ following the hard ‘k’)
Ardent
The Bad:
Hold Me (the way Norah Jones sings it)
The Ugly:
Sore
Throat
Sniffles
Common Cold (nothing common about it, merely achy, bah, grr)
Today I like the word “opalescent.” I have no idea why. I guess it’s just pretty. 🙂
And I dislike the word “values.” Mainly because everyone means something different by it.
I will speak up in defense of the word “executive,” but only in the phrase “executive trouser press.”
Todd-whose-cat-can-see-Russia-from-his-house
On the negative side, I hate the names George and Susan, but that’s every day.
Linda, I’ve never much cared for the name George either, even though it was my grandfather’s name. (Then again, I never called him “George,” so maybe that has something to do with it.) Susan, though? Hmm. I generally think of it as a fairly nondescript name (it seemed very common when I was a kid), but the Narnia Susan might taint it a bit!
Do you know why you dislike those names? Or is it just the sound?
Lois, I’ve heard the cake argument, and it makes a lot of sense… But I suspect it’s dealing with a somewhat older meaning of “have,” which might mean something more like “keep” … But in modern English, it doesn’t seem to mean much. (Then again, no one knows what “the whole nine yards” literally means, so I guess it may not matter…) 🙂
“Hapless…” Interesting, Debora. It certainly can be part of trite writing! Or is it the sound that you dislike?
As to gallimaufry…I’ve come across it before, but still had to go look it up…and I agree, I like it! It sort of sounds like what it is.
Jane, I agree — “mucus” is just an ugly word. “Kittens” is a very cute word, though — so cute it lulls us into getting them, despite the insane destruction they cause. (Typical Cara monologue: “get out of the trash! Hey, stop it! Why are you eating that? Hey, don’t chew on me! No, that’s mine!”)
Are you sick, Keira? 🙁 I agree, colds can be SO nasty.
Todd wrote: I will speak up in defense of the word “executive,” but only in the phrase “executive trouser press.”
I will concede the point. I suspect it’s more the sudden popularity of the phrase “executive experience” that has me annoyed at “executive.” 😉
Cara
I love ‘happenstance’! Have never managed to work it into a MS though. And I still don’t understand how ‘left coast’ happened. Makes my brain hurt. I can’t use ‘plethora’ anymore because I associate it so strongly with the villain in ‘Three Amigos’, but I love ‘ubiquitous’, which I learned after a political science professor included it in an exam essay question and then chastised the class at large for answering the question without knowing the meaning of the word!
Funny, M! I took Latin in high school, so I knew ubiquitous from that…
(I still recall my mnemonic for the difference in meaning between the two Latin words for “where”: “quo are you going, ubi are you now”…) 😉
Cara
I can’t think of any words I like or dislike. Can’t remember anything on demand.
I like hapless! Is it trite?
Keira, poor baby. get better.
What is “walla?” Is it a bad spelling of voila?
And Kiera, there’s a local fast food chain that does seasonal foods. You can’t imagine how good Walla Walla onion rings are. They’re now on to fresh blackberry shakes and sweet potato fries. Yum.
What is “walla?” Is it a bad spelling of voila?
Yup.
Walla walla onion rings sound great, Rob. (Of course, most onion rings sound great!) And fresh blackberry shakes…mmm…
Diane, I’m not arguing that “hapless” is trite — but that I can picture it being used in trite writing. If that makes sense. 🙂
Cara
Diane & Cara: Something about these school bugs and parents. We violently disagree. I’ve been having a long-running 2+ weeks of an argument with the ENT bug(s).
I even missed Project Runway last week and both days of Dancing with the Stars. Yes, now you all can be properly sympathetic towards me. 🙂
Rob, I like how sweet those Walla Walla onions are, especially in baked dishes. Yum. And your fast food chain’s on an upscale remake. Sweet potato fries? Blackberry shakes? I wanna visit!!