Wow! ABUNDANCE!

WOW! I got 11 VIEWS for this blog a few days ago.

What will bring more readers?

Bad words?

I've got one: vile.

I like this word. One syllable, but so very distasteful. Just saying it, twists your face and lips into a snarl, or maybe an expression of pure disgust. The facial expression actually gives you the meaning. I'm not sure if there are many other words like this....

Please comment if you know of one. Thanks!

Quench or Quell

Quench your thirst. You don't hear that word in any other context. It means to satisfy with water. It means to extinguish. One synonym would be "quell."

Quell means to 1 put an end to something, usually in a forceful way. 2. pacify or suppress bad feeling: to allay a disturbing feeling or thought in a reassuring way.

Question: where do these "QU" words come from? Apparently they come from Middle or Old English from Old High German.

Another interesting synonym: squelch.

Squelch!

I hope I have been able to quench, quell, and squelch your curiosity about these words!

If you want to Quell the Hot Flash, I have a video coming soon!

Cantankerous Cacophony

I'm feeling cantankerous today. What cacophony! I's a word which is not too common, but so relevant.

Cantankerous means cranky, irritable, irascible. It is from Latin, I predict. Wait, the origin of this word is much more interesting than I thot. It comes from some alteration or mispronunciation of a Middle English word for troublemaker, which probably came from a French word for contrarian. The opposite of cantankerous is easy-going.

Cacophony means harsh disharmonious (unharmonious?) noise, as opposed to a symphony which is harmonious music. It comes from Greek, caco means bad and phone means noise.

May all you encounters today be harmonious and non-cantankerous!

Do you have the Gumption?

gumption - n. 1. bold, energetic initiative. 2. shrewd common sense. From English dialect (Scot.)

So initiative and shrewdness would be synonyms...

shrewd - adj. 1. sharp or wise; sagacious. 2. artful, sly. Middle English.

I think boldness would be a better synonym.

But I chose this word because gumption is such a weird-sounding word. Most words that end with tion are words on their own. For example, invention and action. But gump is not. Gump is a very harsh-sounding syllable, and is not in the dictionary.

It also does not have an adjective associated with it. May I suggest gumptuous? Rhymes with sumptuous. Now that is a horse of a different color. That one letter, which makes the initial sound, G or S, makes a BIG difference!

Small glitch

Glitch. I just like the sound of it. "Glitch" is just a very harsh monosyllabic word. I think it was probably rare before personal computers came into vogue. But now "computer glitch" is a very common expression. Especially around here. I blame everything on the computer glitch!


It's derived from German! I should have known!

It means mishap, malfunction.