Ten Words I'm Surprised are Real

The English language is very rich and diverse, receiving a heritage from many languages.Which is probably why it is such a mess. The grammar is convoluted, the spelling arbitrary at best. Why do we say better instead of gooder? Why is it alright to say faster, but not funner? Why is it i before e, except after c, unless there's an a as in neighbor and weigh? Weird, no? Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who who is obsessive about being correct in her grammar, but unlike most grammar Nazis I understand that one must approach the English language with caution and the understanding of the flexible nature of the language. (Spelling can just rot though.)

That brings me to the topic of this post. There are words in the English language that quite frankly don't make sense. Why would we even have that word? As well as the words that seem like they shouldn't be real, that sound made up. Here is a list of ten words I'm surprised are real. This isn't an official list of the ten most bazaar words, just ten words that made me do a double take. Some are fairly common words, some  are obscure, and others are weird slang. 

Splutter-a confused noise (as of hasty speaking)

Now this may be a surprising word to be in the list, but as embarrassing it is to admit, I only realized it was a real word in the last couple years. For the longest time I merely thought it was a deliberate and comical mispronunciation of the word "sputter."

Hooliganism-rowdy, violent, or destructive behavior. 

I knew hooligan was a word, but hooliganism sounds like someone was too lazy to find a different word, so they just slapped an ism at the end of the word hooligan.

Chillax-to calm down

I totally thought I made up this word. I don't remember having ever heard it, and when I first used it, it was after I thought I was being clever for combining the words chill and relax together. I was surprised (and slightly embarrassed) when I finally learned it had been a common slang since the late 90's.

Defenestration-the act of throwing someone or something out a window

Do we really need a word for this? I mean, in what context would you use this word, or even want to? It's like using antidisestablishmentarianism in a sentence. The few times you could use it, there is probably an easier way to say the same thing. 

Finnimbrun-a nick knack* 

An entirely superfluous word, but fun to say. 

Wallah-a person who is associated with a particular work or who performs a specific duty or service. 

It is a common enough word that I have known the meaning of a long time, but I can never take it seriously. 

Nocular-a word which can substitute any word.^ 

Now this word is basically slang, you can't even find it in any reputable dictionaries. The only place I could find  it was the Urban Dictionary There is a weird story behind this word being among the chosen. Many of you will recall a strange ice-cream (sort of) treat called dip an' dots. The containers they came in were roughly shaped like binoculars, and I said as much. Katy, my older sister, misheard me and thought I said the containers were nocular. From then on it became a thing in my family to call something nocular if we weren't sure how else to describe it, more as a joke than anything else. One day I actually looked it up, curious to see if it was a real word. It may only be found in the urban dictionary, but I was surprised to see that the way we had been using the word was a way that others had been using it as well. 

Tyrotoxism-to be poisoned with cheese*

I feel this word speaks for itself. 

Inimitable-not capable of being imitated

This was actually the word of the day at Marriam Webster and when I saw the definition it seemed to break every single assumption I had made about the word. I guess I just though that it should mean the opposite of what it actually does. In is a very strange prefix, at times it mean in the positive, such as the word inflammable  and invaluable. But apparently it can also negate the meaning of something as well. 

She'd've-she would have

Seriously? I admit, I use contractions, but a double contraction seems a little excessive. Unless you're using 'tisn't, but only because it sound Shakespearean.

Even though not everyone will be surprised at this collection of words, it can not be doubted that at least of few of them are truly weird, 

* Definition reworded from my own brain. ``

^Definition from Urban Dictionary ``

``All other definitions from Marriam Webster.  

Words, words, words

As you have probably assumed, today's Writer's Block is all about words. It probably won't be the last post about words, as I have a deep affection for words, and most of the Writer's Blocks are based on writing exercise. I have two today that I would like to share.

First, find five words you did not know the definition of, them use them to write a few paragraphs.

The words*

lassitude-weariness of mind/body; a condition of indifference.

indolent-having a disposition to be lazy; causing little pain/benign.

adust-scorched/burned

biblioclast-someone who destroys books.

gelid-very cold

The paragraph

 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is the story of a certain biblioclast named Guy Montage who must face what destroying books really means. At first he views what he does as most of his profession, as a favor to the world. But when he meets a young girl, Clarisse McClellan, he begins to realize that in truth the way he has been living is marked with lassitude. At first indolent, but soon growing to a dangerous proportion, Montages feelings of revulsion and disgust at what he does grows. Much like the he has burned laying in scorched heaps, he feels his living in a word adust, marked by burned out lives. As things come to a head, Montage must leave his home, and step out in an abandoned world that at first feels gelid to him, empty, and without hope. But as he finds some unexpected companions, he realizes that is the very place hopes lies.

*All definitions are paraphrases with Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary from 2006 being the original source.

Second, make up definitions for five words you did not previously know the meaning of.

kibitz-the child version of a monkey. 

The kibitz would often play rough with the others around his age.

nabe-a foolish and often mean person.

The bully was quite the nabe.

perdition-being a person/object that fills a prophecy.

In the fifth book, Percy Jackson realized it was in truth Luke who was the perdition to Delphine's prophecy.

regrate-a piece of art that only became famous after the artist has died.

As sad as it is to say, most of Van Gogh works ended up regrates.

sumac-a move in karate

John surprised his attacker by taking him down with a powerful sumac.

78 Words

So Esquire, along with Aspen Writers' Foundation are hosting a short, short fiction contest. I first saw it on KatySue's blog.  I didn't have the sense to click on this picture,

so I was in the dark, and wondered what on earth the 78 word thing was about. I follow NaNoWriMo on facebook, and later that day I saw that they had posted about the Esquire contest, so I assumed that KatySue got it from that. Little did I know she got it from a blog she followed, and not from facebook at all.

While Esquire isn't exactly the type of reading material I would choose, the challenge intrigued me. So I did it, wrote a story in 78 words. I did enter it in the contest, even though I didn't like the looks of the magazine I figured it couldn't hurt to enter. In fact, I probably would have blogged about this before, but I am paranoid and didn't want to put my short, short on the web till I had entered it into the contest, because it is just so good I know someone would try to steal my idea.

78 Words

(or When Words Appear)

The story of humanity came to a man as he sat, idly holding his pen. The story spoke of all the pain in the world, and all the joy. The man realized what he had written only after the last word had been penned. In his excitement, he accidentally spilled his glass of water onto the paper, washing the story away. He tried to capture it again, but each time he tried, only an ugly perversion would appear.

So there it is. A story in 78 words, the best I could make them. For me, it was surprisingly hard to write. (KatySue wrote and finished hers in about five minutes.) Sure, initially when I wrote it, I told myself I would not look at the word count and just write till I had finished, then work on any extra words there may happen to be. I finished in about 5 minutes, with 110 words. It took quite a while to figure out what 30 or so words to scratch so the story would still say all I wanted it to say, but not be too long. There was quite a bit of condensing, turning two sentences into one, rephrasing things so they held the same meaning, but used fewer words. For someone who is naturally long winded, it was quite a challenge.

Writing the short, short was more like writing poetry as opposed to a story. It was all about making sure the words fit together nicely while working in a certain amount of space. It was annoying having such restrictions, and I certainly felt at times that the story would be better if I could have had at least 100 words. It's not only about saying what you want to say, but knowing which words to say it with, and how to say it to make it work. It was a good exercise though, especially for someone long winded like me. The process of using fewer words to say as much, (if not more) is a good talent to learn.

Even so, I didn't write in it all that I wanted to. It was, in fact, supposed to end with the man giving up and simply writing a few words that "explained" the metaphor of the story. When I was editing it though, either I could get rid of how it sounded at the beginning, or get rid of that ending. I chose the later. The story sounded clipped and sparse other wise, and I kind of like how now it is kind of left up to the reader to see what the story means to them. One of those instances, actually, where I have said more with fewer words. Before the reader would have had to seen it the way I wrote it, but now the story may move the reader in which ever way the reader needs to be moved.