All posts with the tag: words...
Adj. Relating to birds distinguished by feet that are adapted for perching. Includes all songbirds.
- “An interpreter of sacred mysteries and arcane principles.”
- Freedom from worry. A good thing? Or a bland emotional whitewash?
Adj. Showing the cunning or ingenuity or wickedness typical of a devil; “devilish schemes”; “the cold calculation and diabolic art of some statesmen”; “the diabolical expression on his face”; “a mephistophelian glint in his eye”.
-(of light) flash or sparkle : the light coruscated from the crystal glass
Capitol Words displays the word most used in the U.S. Congress for any given day, generated by a program going through the Congressional Record.
Imbozzimare
Medieval Italian term meaning “to size or soften the warp with dressing paste (usually done by the warper, but sometimes by the weaver, before laying the warp).” Taken from Glossary of Mediaeval Terms of Business: Italian Series 1200-1600 by Florence Edler. A fascinating book, chock full of gorgeous sounding Italian words.
Meaning the “fear of empty space,” when applied to art this term relates to the filling of empty space with ornamental detail. For some reason, I love this kind of ornate geometric patterning, it reminds me of shapes I see if I’m tripping on mushrooms or suchlike. I’ve always been attracted to artwork like this for some reason – particularly Hiberno-Saxon style patterning, and the arabesque embellishment like that I saw in the Alhambra when I visited Granada.
This is a beautiful plant that resembles a fairy wand. Prairie Blazingstar can be readily distinguished from most other blazingstars by the sharply recurved bracts subtending the flowerheads. Other species usually have smooth, straight bracts that vary in their shape or hairiness. The size and showiness of the flowers can depend on the local ecotype. There are some wild populations of plants with white flowers, although they are rare. This plant blooms after Liatris cylindrica (Cylindrical Blazingstar), but before Liatris aspera (Rough Blazingstar).
Note to self: buy The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow in the near future. Written by a 7-year-old girl growing up in Oregon in the early 1900s, the language sounds gorgeous:
Today the folks are gone away from the house we do live in. They are gone a little way away, to the ranch house where the grandpa does live. I sit on our step, and I do print. I like it, this house we do live in, being at the edge of the near woods. So many little people do live in the near woods. I do have conversations with them. I found a near woods first day I did go explores. That was the next day after we were come here.
An excellent article on the use of obscure words in fiction, brought to my attention by brtom on the wordie page for albedo.
A secret, or mystery.
Open the till, and give me the change you said would do me good
-Gang of Four, Damaged Goods
I like the word “indolence.” It makes my laziness seem classy.
Wordie: Defenestration: the act of throwing someone or something from a window. What a great word! Some examples of it on Wikipedia:
Historically, the word defenestration was used to refer to an act of political dissent. Notably, the Defenestrations of Prague in 1419 and 1618 helped to trigger prolonged conflict within Bohemia and beyond. It is said that some Catholics ascribed the survival of those defenestrated at Prague Castle in 1618 to divine intervention, while it is said that some Protestants claimed that it was due to their landing in a large pile of manure.
I’m collecting a list of interesting architectural terms, to aid in descriptions of a fictional city for a novel which I will probably never write. The list can be found on Wordie, a site for word lovers (it calls itself “like Flickr, but without the photos”). Among my favourites:
Powered by WordPress, the ltlblg theme and the written word.