Crunch!

Yes! Onomatopoeia. I've got to look up the spelling, because I am into orthography, as well as philology and etymology. If you keep reading, I will explain what all these things are. You won't have to pick up a dictionary, although it might be good exercise (and a good habit to pick up, as well).

Onomatopoeia is a fun word which is difficult to look up in the dictionary, unless you know Greek. I have studied Greek for more that 2 years. I’m sorry to report that I cannot carry on an intelligent conversation, but I can spell onomatopoeia and other big words! When I was looking this up a few days ago, I realized that onoma means name in Greek, so I went past o-n-a towards o-n-o to find it. And I even remembered that poe, pronounced “pee” means to write poetry, so it’s related to poem, poet, and poetry! They just pronounce it differently. So onomatopoeia is a word that says its own name, or a word that sounds like what it is. Think snap, crackle and pop! These are words that sound like the sounds they describe! Other examples: Babbling, as in babbling brook, Tinkle like a bell, Chirp like a bird, and Ding dong, also like a bell. There are many more, but I don’t like to show off, that would be pedantic.

Orthography comes from 2 Greek words: orthos meaning correct and grapho meaning to write or draw. So it means correct writing or spelling.

Philology also comes from Greek. It means the study of literature or language.

Etymology means the origin or history of words. It comes from Greek, of course.

High Falutin'

Is that short for high faluting? I've never seen it written out like that. That's weird. I guess it's a colloquialism. It isn't in my dictionary. But I know I've seen it in print. Maybe it was in the comics...

Please let me know if you have more information on this expression! This is the kind of thing that can drive me to distraction!

Euphemisms

Euphemisms.

What an ugly word! And it means a nice way to say something negative or unpleasant. Like when we say someone has "passed on" instead of died. Some better examples:
"barf" instead of puke;
"eccentric" instead of insane;
"went away" instead of committed to an institution;
"put to sleep" instead of euthanize.

Wait! Euthanize is a nice way to say kill, and it's related to the word euphemism.

Eu phe mis (u)m is definitely from the Greek language.

Con or Sen?

I just discovered a new word, and it happens to describe me, sententious. What does sententious mean? Terse, aphoristic, or pithy. That means I use brief meaningful statements. Origin: Latin.

I had gotten this confused with contentious, which means argumentative (which I never am). Contentious means argumentative, belligerant. From Latin also.

Exuberant Soliloquy

There are some interesting words in the newspaper today. Discombobulate is one of them of course. And sententious, copious and soliloquy.

I always liked discombobulate and its cousin discombuberated. I think one is just a mispronunciation of the other. Why would we need 2 words so closely related in sound and meaning?

Sententious I think means argumentative, or is that contentious? See next article (above).

I think copious is wordy or unnecessarily long. It also means abundant, full. My dictionary actually says one of the meanings is "profuse or exuberant in words, expression, or style."

Is soliloquy a monologue? Yes. It means talking to oneself, or a dramatic monologue that gives the illusion of being a series of unspoken reflections. That means that this blog is a soliloquy. Oooh, I like the way that sounds!

I love words! But I'll end now, because I don't want to be copious in the sense of wordy. However, I do want to be copious in the sense of exuberant.

Paradigm shift

I think I heard it in a song on the radio. "Paradigm shift" was used to indicate a transition. It's a nice way to say it. I think most people realize how difficult transition can be. I tell my clients, it's not easy to make a change, but people do it every day. For example, It's not easy to quit smoking, but people do it every day. How many people do you know who have quit smoking? It seems everyone knows people who have. So it opens up a discussion of how to make the paradigm shift easier for them to become a fresh air breather. The smokers who come to me become "fresh air breathers." Not "non-smokers."

Regurgitate

Seems like I've been gone a long time. I did get to check my email in an Internet Cafe in Cyprus twice in the past 3 weeks.

I actually regurgitated on the way home on the plane during landing. Thank goodness, they still have airsickness bags on the planes. An odd thing to provide for every flyer, since I doubt they are used very often. I guess it used to be common when air travel was new and novel to the general public and many people experienced fear and anxiety. But now we know how safe air travel is compared to other modes of transportation. And if logic doesn't influence the emotional response, hypnosis can be used to reduce anxiety and eliminate fear of flying.

Re gur gi tate-- repeat, throw back, throw up. Re means again, I think gurgi must be Latin. Yes! Gurgitare means to engulf, and gurgit- means whirlpool.