"[T]he literary equivalent of nipple clamps?" (Shiver runs up spine....)
My favorite word isn't even in the English language: Schadenfreude, which loosely translates to taking enjoyment from the suffering of others. I adore the word and use it whenever possible, which, sadly, isn't nearly as often as I'd like. Still, being able to work it into my writing feels like sneaking an extra cookie when Mom told me I could only have two.
Nothing comes close to schadenfreude, even as I rack my brain now trying to come up with a #2. There's nothing even close. Some of the names associated with male and female sexual anatomy give me a chuckle, not out of titillation, but because the words are just so...odd. I mean...vulva? Clitoris? Testicles? Hymen? Who comes up with this stuff, anyway??
You gotta give it up to the Germans. They have some great compound nouns. I like your favorite word.
This should amuse you. There's a place near Amelia called "Il Tempio di Clituno," and it's everything you're imagining right now. Over 1000 years old. I think they should be mandatory in the United States.
Jun 23, 2022·edited Jun 23, 2022Liked by Stacey Eskelin
Perhaps Carl Linnaeus, Swedish botanist that categorized plant species into a genus and common names. One plant in particular( a ground cover) when I was learning landscaping and species was called ‘pink pin head’ polygonum capitatum. Genus: Pink knotweed. Ouch! Now that’s a sense of humor!
I love words! My husband of going on 30 years often accuses me of making up words. To be fair, I'm an avid reader and he is an almost never reader and that makes a lot of difference in the words one is exposed to on a daily basis. I tend to gravitate toward fun sounding words that you can use regularly. I get the word of the day from my dictionary app and I enjoy learning the origins of words, too. The last few days whoever runs that aspect of the app has been doing their own sort of protesting. Today's word...choice. But here's the fun one, yesterday's word was opprobrious which means outrageously disgraceful or shameful.
I think someone with your formidable prefrontal cortex would be very hard to keep up with! Readers are, frankly, smarter. At least better educated. And I love the word opprobrious. One of my favorites, too!
Alfred North Whitehead (the most brilliant metaphysical thinker of the last 2300 years) was often -- and wrongly -- accused of inventing words. In point of fact, he adopted well established words, some of which had fallen into disuse, and brought them forward for his own purposes.
"Prehension" -- a pre-cognitive form of "grasping" (that's the "hension") an object or idea. When it rises to the level of conscious awareness it became APprehension.
"Concrescence" -- to become concrete.
"Atomic" -- not microscopic, but literally "uncut," an undivided and undividable whole or totality.
Entire generations of scholars have built their undeserved reputations on their resolute refusal to understand what these words mean.
Chizzledick: An inept act committed knowingly that ends up in embarrassment. Kinda like a gaffe, and exactly like Trump. I can’t believe Trump expected people to believe his sharpie drawing of where the hurricane would extend, to cover up his idiotic lie. What a Chizzledick! I thought I coined it til I saw the Urban dictionary. Something about a cheese grater and a penis. WTF! Zares: A code word for “parents”. Used in the 70’s and 80’s in the San Fernando Valley. Dude, my zares found my stash. Two silly colloquialisms past and present.🤪
MY GOD. I'd forgotten that particular embarrassment amid the avalanche of similar and in some cases worse embarrassments. It was SO HARD to be an American in Europe those four years. Chizzledick indeed!
"[T]he literary equivalent of nipple clamps?" (Shiver runs up spine....)
My favorite word isn't even in the English language: Schadenfreude, which loosely translates to taking enjoyment from the suffering of others. I adore the word and use it whenever possible, which, sadly, isn't nearly as often as I'd like. Still, being able to work it into my writing feels like sneaking an extra cookie when Mom told me I could only have two.
Nothing comes close to schadenfreude, even as I rack my brain now trying to come up with a #2. There's nothing even close. Some of the names associated with male and female sexual anatomy give me a chuckle, not out of titillation, but because the words are just so...odd. I mean...vulva? Clitoris? Testicles? Hymen? Who comes up with this stuff, anyway??
You gotta give it up to the Germans. They have some great compound nouns. I like your favorite word.
This should amuse you. There's a place near Amelia called "Il Tempio di Clituno," and it's everything you're imagining right now. Over 1000 years old. I think they should be mandatory in the United States.
Ah…never underestimate the Italian capacity for a sly sense of humor, eh?? 😝
Perhaps Carl Linnaeus, Swedish botanist that categorized plant species into a genus and common names. One plant in particular( a ground cover) when I was learning landscaping and species was called ‘pink pin head’ polygonum capitatum. Genus: Pink knotweed. Ouch! Now that’s a sense of humor!
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!
I love words! My husband of going on 30 years often accuses me of making up words. To be fair, I'm an avid reader and he is an almost never reader and that makes a lot of difference in the words one is exposed to on a daily basis. I tend to gravitate toward fun sounding words that you can use regularly. I get the word of the day from my dictionary app and I enjoy learning the origins of words, too. The last few days whoever runs that aspect of the app has been doing their own sort of protesting. Today's word...choice. But here's the fun one, yesterday's word was opprobrious which means outrageously disgraceful or shameful.
I think someone with your formidable prefrontal cortex would be very hard to keep up with! Readers are, frankly, smarter. At least better educated. And I love the word opprobrious. One of my favorites, too!
Alfred North Whitehead (the most brilliant metaphysical thinker of the last 2300 years) was often -- and wrongly -- accused of inventing words. In point of fact, he adopted well established words, some of which had fallen into disuse, and brought them forward for his own purposes.
"Prehension" -- a pre-cognitive form of "grasping" (that's the "hension") an object or idea. When it rises to the level of conscious awareness it became APprehension.
"Concrescence" -- to become concrete.
"Atomic" -- not microscopic, but literally "uncut," an undivided and undividable whole or totality.
Entire generations of scholars have built their undeserved reputations on their resolute refusal to understand what these words mean.
Those are GREAT words.
This brought a smile to my face!
Then my work here is done!
Chizzledick: An inept act committed knowingly that ends up in embarrassment. Kinda like a gaffe, and exactly like Trump. I can’t believe Trump expected people to believe his sharpie drawing of where the hurricane would extend, to cover up his idiotic lie. What a Chizzledick! I thought I coined it til I saw the Urban dictionary. Something about a cheese grater and a penis. WTF! Zares: A code word for “parents”. Used in the 70’s and 80’s in the San Fernando Valley. Dude, my zares found my stash. Two silly colloquialisms past and present.🤪
MY GOD. I'd forgotten that particular embarrassment amid the avalanche of similar and in some cases worse embarrassments. It was SO HARD to be an American in Europe those four years. Chizzledick indeed!