Little Things, LOLcats, and Words of the Day

Little things bother me.

Like a fly buzzing around the room. That really  bothers me. Or water dripping. That constant plink, plink, plink. It's SO irritating. Or the people next door, blasting jazz. That makes irritation more of a slow smolder.

What do you do when something is driving you crazy? I do one of several things. I either: 1.) Go to Pinterest or Amazon (or both) and browse for awhile, 2.) Browse Google Images for my (current) favourite movie actors, or shows, or 3.) Look up weird and random facts, words, or slides of LOLcats.

I looked up LOLcats. I liked these best:

Afterward, I looked up the word of today. It's abstergent (ab-STUR-juhnt)

As an adjective;
1. Cleansing.
2. Purgative

As a noun:

1. A cleansing agent, as a detergent or soap.

It comes from the Latin word abstergēre, which means "to wipe off."

So, there you go. Maybe after you crawl under the sink to fix whatever's causing the tap to drip, break your pipe, flood your house, and call a real plumber, you might want to call forth your abstergent nature and take a shower. Good luck.

Word of the Day, and things I'm loving right now.

This is a great word! Like, really, really great. I can't wait to use it in a book!

Cicatrix \ SIK-uh-triks

noun;
1. New tissue that forms over a wound.
2. Botany. A scar left by a fallen leaf, seed, etc.

This word is taken directly from the Latin word cicatrix, which means scar. There is no clear origin of where the word cicatrix actually came from, however.

I am currently loving this book.

It's High Fantasy...

by Patricia McKillip...

It's beautifully written....

I LOVE MORGON!!

I am really loving this soundtrack!

All these themes that keep appearing...

all the dramatic music for the different Avengers...

all the pretty little interludes that occur...

the super-cool way the "Avengers theme" mixes with

the separate themes for the different Avengers.

The way my imagination seems to get a workout

from listening to this kind of music. It inspires heroes.

I am really loving these characters right now:

IRON MAN! HAWKEYE! CAPTAIN AMERICA! (AGENT COULSON!)

THOR! HULK! NICK FURY! BLACK WIDOW! RAH, RAH, RAH!

Okay, that's all for now... except I think my WIP is going to have The Avengers Theme music as its background. All I can say is, how inspiring!

God bless!

Cat

Kowtow!

kowtow\ KOU-TOU

verb;
1.To act in an obsequious manner; show servile deference.
2.To touch the forehead to the ground while kneeling, as an act of worship, reverence, apology, etc.,especially in former Chinese custom.

noun:
1.The act of kowtowing.

Didn't you want to know that? I love words, finding out word origins, where terms originally came from. For today's word, it originated from the Chinese practice of touching one's forehead to the ground when greeting someone. It is a sign of respect. Called k'o t'ou, it literally means "to knock the head."

When I was taking Aikido (briefly), before each fight you would kowtow to each other. Kneeling on the floor, hands crossed and flat in front of you, you'd bow to the person you wanted to practice with. Kind of interesting, hey?

It's one of those little traditional-type things that just begs to be put into a book!

Wednesday Word of the Day

Today's word has to be one of my more favourite words in the history of words. That word is:

conniption \kuh-NIP-shuhn, noun:
A fit of hysterical excitement or anger

"Wah!" says Stella-Rondo. I knew she'd cry. She had a conniption fit right there in the kitchen.
-- Eudora Welty, "Why I Live at the P.O." The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty

When they came home, everybody was having a conniption about a big giant fight in the village over who got whose share of their horrid meat.
-- Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible

A day or two later I was going about my business when a voice from above bellowed, ALL HAPPY FAMILIES RESEMBLE ONE ANOTHER, nearly giving me aconniption.
-- Nicole Krauss, The History of Love: A Novel

Did you know? Conniption is an invented word! It first appeared in 1833 in the good old U.S. of A., and is thought to be related to the word corruption, which was used in the sense of "anger" in the early 1800s. Neat, eh?

Also, for your enjoyment, watch these videos. Next time you think you're somethin' else, think of these two geniuses (geniusi?) and know you're not.

Word of the Day

Today's word is a great word for writers. As writers we tend to get wordy. There are so many great words to choose from, why not use them all? We've learned, time and again, to use only one solid, concrete word instead of hundreds of "it was like" words. It's awfully hard, but it definitely makes a manuscript flow better.

So, today's word:

ad rem ad REM \ adverb, adjective;
1. Without digressing; in a straightforward manner. (adjective)
2. Relevant; pertinent.

Ad rem is a useful Latin phrase that literally means "at thing" from the roots ad and rēs.

"Jacki found it hard to write ad rem when there were so many words to choose from."

Just for fun, take the Word Dynamo quiz... how many words do you REALLY know?