Category Archives: Interesting words

Euphemistically Speaking

Posted on 01/03/2008 by chick

If you had visited this site just minutes ago, you would have seen a post with a “newly-minted” euphemism. I thought it was my word. Then I looked it up and though it’s not in any conventional dictionary, it is … Continue reading →

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Owl Be Back

Posted on 11/23/2007 by chick

I’m back to tell you about my recent reading adventures. Owl’s Well That Ends Well by Donna Andrews Grade: B+ This is another book in the Meg Langslow mystery series. The action takes place right after the events of Crouching … Continue reading →

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Beware the Granfalloons

Posted on 07/19/2007 by chick

Since I’ve never heard the word granfalloon outside of Cat’s Cradle, I have to assume it never caught on, which is too bad. I don’t know of any word that means quite the same thing. Vonnegut defined a granfalloon as … Continue reading →

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Word Nerd’s Delight

Posted on 07/16/2007 by chick

Mondegreen! That’s the official term for a misheard phrase or lyric. Such a thing can also be called an “aural malapropism,” or so I read, but that sounds like a term your doctor would use to describe a lump in … Continue reading →

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Loose Ends

Posted on 06/15/2007 by chick

For the last time referring to the previous post about mythical whosiewhatsits, this final addendum should leave us feeling extremely well-educated on the subject. A will-o’-the-wisp is a light that appears over marshy ground. It is thought to be caused … Continue reading →

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French Boast

Posted on 06/14/2007 by chick

Harking back to Tuesday’s strange list, the next set of unfamiliar words is the French section: follets, lutins, and magots. According to my French-English/English-French dictionary, follet is just an adjective meaning “playful,” but an esprit follet is a sprite or … Continue reading →

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The Devil, You Say!

Posted on 06/13/2007 by chick

Were you puzzled by a lot of the words in Tuesday’s post? I was, and I just can’t stand not knowing the meaning of a word. I absolutely have to look up the ones that I didn’t recognize and even … Continue reading →

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Say What?

Posted on 06/13/2007 by chick

One of my favorite lines from The Water-Babies is this one about St. Brandan. “Then he and his friends got into a hooker . . .” Now, now. Get your mind out of the gutter. A “hooker” is a boat, … Continue reading →

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Game Time

Posted on 06/12/2007 by chick

There are many lists in The Water-Babies. Let’s turn one of them into a game. Give yourself 1 point for each mythical creature that you recognize from the list below. The maximum possible score is 31. . . . who … Continue reading →

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Holy Blogiverse, Batman!

Posted on 06/08/2007 by chick

As you may recall, my blog ranking back in May was 3,193,324. Are you prepared to be amazed by the growth rate of the Blogiverse? My site has dropped in the rankings by 178,822 since then. If it were possible … Continue reading →

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