New words, for all of you:

Orstraylian
> The following are results from an OZ-words Competition
> where entrants were asked to take an Australian word,
> alter it by one letter only, and supply a witty definition.
>Clearly, you need to be an Aussie to understand, but I hope you will have a go, even without an    >Aussie background. Good luck! Am including a loose translation of colloquial words so you may all enjoy the humour.
>
> Billabonk: to make passionate love beside a waterhole

(Billabong: a water hole. Bonk: to have sex).
>
> Bludgie: a partner who doesn’t work, but is kept as a pet

(Budgie: a pet bird. Bludge: a lazy person).
>
> Dodgeridoo: a fake indigenous artefact

(Didgeridoo: an Aboriginal wind instrument. Dodgy: tricky).
>
> Fair drinkum: good-quality Aussie wine

(Dinkum: true, honest).
>
> Flatypus: a cat that has been run over by a vehicle

(Platypus: Australian, amphibious, egg-laying monotreme).
>
> Mateshit: all your flat mate’s belongings, lying strewn around the floor

(mate: friend. Shit: has many meanings, in this case, I think it speaks for itself).
>
> Yabble: the unintelligible language of Australian freshwater crustaceans

(Yabbie: Australian freshwater crustacean. Gabble: unintelligible language).
>
> Bushwanker: a pretentious drongo, who reckons he’s above average when it comes to handling himself in the scrub

(Bushwalker: someone who walks in the bush. Wanker: to maintain an illusion, deceive oneself or masturbate).
>
> Crackie-daks: ‘hipster’ tracksuit pants.

(Crack: backside fissure. Daks: tracksuit pants).

Kindness:

The WordPress suggestion today is one I responded to before, so this time I shall tell you about the kindness of a special English teacher, Miss Street. Miss Street was a dedicated teacher and inspired me to have a pencil and paper by the bed, and a dictionary. As a consequence I’m constantly coming across words that either I’ve heard and not really understood, or are totally new. Reading constantly unfolds new ideas and words. I always remember this teacher when I write the words down.

Here are a just a few recent words:

Invoilably: that must not be violated, kept free from violence, or treated as if sacred.

Peripatetic: walking or travelling about, itinerant.

Malfeasance: the doing of an unlawful act.

Wordpost: The Kindness of Strangers, by Ben Huberman

When was the last time a stranger did something particularly kind, generous, or selfless for you? Tell us what happened!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/the-kindness-of-strangers/

Going, going, gone …

Helen Carey books has written about words being omitted from the dictionary, that I think will interest a lot of you. Re-blogged in case you missed it. Thanks Helen.

helencareybooks

Regular followers of my blog will know that I am concerned about words fading out of the English language. So imagine my dismay when I read recently that the Oxford University Press has expunged several words from the Oxford Junior Dictionary. And no, the deleted words are not out of use or particularly outdated, they are just apparently not ‘relevant to a modern day childhood’. The missing words include acorn, adder, bluebell, dandelion, kingfisher, otter and even conker. And the words taking their place in the new edition include broadband, blog, bullet point and, wait for it, celebrity!

It worries me that so many of the excluded words refer to our countryside, our fauna and flora. Do we really want to educate the next generation to give priority to cut-and-paste, voicemail and chatroom, over pasture, cowslip and cygnet?

Of course it is not just the younger…

View original post 386 more words

The Color Thesaurus: Re-blogged

The Color Thesaurus. Having read this post, it reminded me of my mother-in-law, Margaret, who thought she knew everything about colour. In fact she was a very talented lady, but her knowledge was natural instinct. She liked to experiment and in the 1950s, she thought she’d like a feature wall of dark grey. Her patient husband, Eric, tried to advise her that it would be rather dark, but she insisted he paint the wall.

In the morning they came down stairs to what Eric, a sea Captain, said, ‘We’ve got the bloody HMAS Melbourne drawn up alongside!’ From then on it was called Battle Ship Grey. Margaret relented and the wall was repainted a more moderate colour.

Eric, who was a tease, sent Margaret to get the colour for the front door, and told her it was  Wagon Wheel Blue. She had the men in the paint shop diving for cover, as they knew what a pedantic woman she was. She asked for Wagon Wheel Blue, and they said there was no such colour. ‘Oh yes there is, my husband told me!’ Eventually it was discovered that the colour she wanted was Wagon Blue, with a few alterations. She came home furious with Eric, but happy to have the deep blue that she so admired. It did look magnificent on their stable door.

Nicholas C. Rossis:

An awesome resource for all authors!
Originally posted on Ingrid’s Notes:

I love to collect words. Making word lists can help to find the voice of my story, dig into the emotion of a scene, or create variety.

One of my on-going word collections is of colors. I love to stop in the paint section of a hardware store and find new names for red or white or yellow. Having a variety of color names at my fingertips helps me to create specificity in my writing. I can paint a more evocative image in my reader’s mind if I describe a character’s hair as the color of rust or carrot-squash, rather than red.

So for fun, I created this color thesaurus for your reference. Of course, there are plenty more color names in the world, so, this is just to get you started.

Fill your stories with a rainbow of images!

 

Word bumps:

Daily Post: Mouths Wide Shut: Bumps:                                                                                                              Are you a picky eater? No.

Yesterday I noticed some annoying bumps on the back of my hand.                                           My first instinct was to worry, incase it was warts.

This morning at breakfast, I looked, and the rash appeared less inflamed, it is healing. It’s probably just a result of something I’ve touched in the garden.

I said to my beloved,

‘Feel this, what do you think it is?’

‘Brail, “I Love You”, but it’s missing the comma.’

‘But I Love You, doesn’t have a comma.’

‘Then it says, “immensely and deeply”!’

How can one worry about a few bumps when they are interpreted like this?                              Words are more flavoursome than food!

 

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/mouths-wide-shut/