MY SITE
  • Blog
  • Audiobooks
  • Publications
  • Contact
Picture

Dog idioms

10/18/2019

4 Comments

 
Picture
Dog idioms -- the English language is rife with ‘em. Reading any list of idioms simply makes me laugh. I hope this list gives you a giggle.

dog & pony show
shaggy dog story
as sick as a dog
like a dog with a bone
call off the dogs
dirty dog
dog eats dog
dog-tired
dog-eared
every dog has its day
raining cats & dogs
go to see a man about a dog
hot diggety-dog!
a dog’s life
let sleeping dogs lie
meaner than a junkyard dog
put on the dog
tail wagging the dog
hair of the dog that bit you
life in the old dog yet
you can’t teach an old dog new tricks
in the dog house

I had a bit of a milquetoast upbringing & had always heard one of the above terms, yet really hadn’t constructed much meaning for it. Then, in my twenties I had a character of a roommate named Mick. He kept me laughing with his Irish accent, colorful terms & his drinking ways. Nearly every Saturday morning I’d get up to see Mick sitting on our lumpy, brown floral sofa, his eyes at halfmast & a beer in his hand. “Hair o’ the dog what bit ya,” he’d say, wincing between swigs.

Followers, please add something in the comments section:
1.    What dog idioms did I leave out?
2.    Tell your tale about one of the idioms above.



My thanks go out to this week’s sources The OED & Etymonline. The Free Dictionary, Cesar’s Way

4 Comments

Succinct & wordy

10/17/2019

5 Comments

 
We use all sorts of words to describe writing. Here’s a look at some:

The synonyms wordy & verbose both come from the Proto-Indo-European word were- that meant, not surprisingly, word. Were-made its way through Latin (verbum) to become the English word verbose, while another branch of the were- family tree made its way through Germanic languages (Old Saxon, Frisian, Dutch and Old High German) to become word. Wordy. At some point the Scots generously donated that final –y to wordy, as they did to many English words. 

A writer who is wordy might be referred to as prolix, which showed up in English in the 1400s, through Old French, originally from Latin, prolixus, where it meant extended, with a literal translation of flow forth or flowing liquid, a metaphor that works just fine for any of us who’ve spent time on the listening end of a prolix speech or lecture.

In the 1580s, concise came to the language from the Latin word concisus, meaning cut off or brief. Concise is constructed of two bits, con- or com-, meaning with, & -cise or -cide, to cut. This means the word concise translates to something like with cutting, & cutting is exactly what we have to do when our language needs to be more concise.

A synonym of concise is succinct. It’s modern meaning, brief or concise showed up in the 1500s, but its initial meaning in English was “having one’s belt fastened tightly,” & that’s exactly what those of us who tend toward wordiness feel when we’re told we need to be more succinct. The word was born of a Middle French word, which came from the Latin succinctus, which originated in a word meaning to gird from below, arguably referring to an early “support garment” – one that likely felt a bit constricting -- which at least offers imaginative evidence that it was our wordier ancestors who moved succinct into its present meaning.

Fellow writers & readers, what do you have to say about verbosity or succinctness? When writing, do you naturally tend toward one or the other? When speaking?


My thanks go out to this week’s sources: the OED, Etymonline. & Wordnik
​
5 Comments

Hug

10/16/2019

0 Comments

 
Mid-embrace, a friend recently said, "I used to not be a hugger. Now I am. " So, in honor of that friend, here are some thoughts on the word hug.

The verb hug first showed up in written English in 1560 – four years before Shakespeare’s birth – as hugge. Etymologists aren’t 100% certain where it came from, but some possibilities include:

Old Norse – hugga – to comfort (from hugr which interestingly meant courage)
German – hegen – to foster or cherish (from a term meaning to enclose with a hedge)
Proto-Germanic – hugjan – to think or consider
Gothic – hugs (adj) – of the mind, soul, or thought

Hug didn’t venture into its identity as a noun until 1610, when it applied to a hold in the sport of wrestling. By 1650, wrestlers shared it with the rest of the English-speaking world & hug came to mean an affectionate embrace.
Translations of the word hug are also somewhat intriguing. The English word embrace is evident in the Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, & Romanian words for hug: abrazo, abraccio, abraço & îmbrăţişare. In French the word is étreinte, in Finnish, hali, & in German, umarmung. In Samoan the word is opoopo. In Swedish & Danish, it’s kram. 

Here's your chance to spread around some heartfelt umarmungs, opoopos and krams. Mid-hug, focus on comforting, considering, & cherishing. Afterward, keep that consideration in your mind, soul, & thought.

Any comments about hugs, hug's grandmother words or the distant cousins from other languages? Please comment (the comment link is at the top of the post).


​
My thanks go out to this week’s sources, etymonline.com, askdefine.com, the OED, & GB Milner’s Samoan Dictionary, published jointly but the governments of Western & American Samoa, 1966.
0 Comments

Mentor

10/10/2019

2 Comments

 
They say it's not easy to find a good mentor, but my experience suggests otherwise. In my writing life alone, I've run into bunches of superb mentors. They include Alexis O’Neill, Kathi Appelt, Andrew Karre, Kathleen Duey, Anne R. Allen, Nick Thomas, the inimitable Patti Gauch & heaps more. 

Mentor is defined as a wise & trusted teacher. ​These folks certainly fit that bill.

The Greek name, Mentor first appeared in Homer’s Odyssey, Mentor was the name of a friend and advisor who just happened to be the goddess Athena in disguise. There’s nothing like advice from a deity. It’s likely that Homer based his character’s name on the Greek word mentos, which meant intent, purpose, spirit or passion. Mentos traces its roots back to Proto-Indo-European & Sanskrit, & was used to mean one who thinks & one who admonishes.

Thoughtfulness, intent, purpose, spirit, & passion (& admonishment when necessary) still figure highly in the role of a mentor. Even the goddess/god connection fits at times. Writerly friends, jump on any chance you have to work with any of the folks listed above.

Good followers, what qualities do you look for in a mentor? What mentors have helped you along your path & what qualities do you most appreciate in them? 

​
My thanks go out to this week’s sources, etymonline.com, dictionary.com, & the OED.
2 Comments

Fiction & bread making

10/9/2019

1 Comment

 
At first, the etymology of the word fiction doesn’t seem to hold any surprises. The word showed up in English in the 1300s meaning something invented. It came from the French word ficcion, which meant ruse, invention or dissimulation. Ficcion came from the Latin word fictio, a fashioning or feigning.

Nothing particularly unexpected there.

But wait. The Latin word fictio’s source is the Latin verb, fingere, to devise, form or shape, It comes from a Proto-Indo-European verb meaning to knead, to build, to form;
all the things one might do with dough.

In fact, through a long series of side-by-side mutations, the word fiction and the word dough come from the same root (as do the words lady & paradise).

It’s the rare writer who’s rolling in the dough (that meaning kicked in about 1851), but the literal side of the breadmaking connection offers some intriguing ways to think about writing fiction:

Bread baking involves simple, everyday ingredients, mixed into something new. 

Without leavening, it’s not bread. 

It needs to be proofed. 

It needs a bunch of manhandling.

It has to rest between stages.

It’s best when shared with others.

Dear followers, what connections have I missed?

​
My thanks go out to this week’s sources, etymonline.com, take our word, & the OED.
1 Comment

Return of the ladies

10/8/2019

0 Comments

 
Last week’s post dealt with the etymology of the word lady. But if lady originally referred to the gal who made the bread, when and how did lady get a promotion to become the gal who watched the servant bake the bread while the lady nibbled bonbons? 

In terms of written English, I can’t find evidence of lady referring to a woman who was likely to get her hands mussed in such things as dough. In the year 1000, the word was used to mean both a mistress in charge of servants or slaves & a woman who rules over subjects, to whom feudal homage is due. However (as noted in the previous post), lady was constructed of parts that meant one who kneads bread. Interestingly, lord literally translates to he who guards the loaves. These two etymologies together suggest that bread may have metaphorically represented home (being the staff of life & all).

The word lady takes up nearly three pages of the print version of The Oxford English Dictionary, offering eighteen shades of meaning for the noun & two for the verb (to make a lady of, & to render lady-like or feminine). Some notable first sightings of various meanings of lady include:

900 – Lady in reference to the Virgin Mary
1205 – lady recognized as a more courteous term than woman
1206 – lady as a synonym for wife or consort (though “yeah, she’s my old lady,” didn’t kick in until the late 60s)
1489 – lady as the queen in chess
1611 – lady as a kind of butterfly (later to become the painted lady)
1704 – lady as the calcerous structure in the stomach of a lobster (I don’t make this stuff up)

& the list goes on.

Trusty followers, what thoughts have you regarding lady, its checkered history & various permutations?


My thanks go out to this week’s sources, etymonline.com, OxfordDictionaries.com, The Chicago Tribune & the OED.
0 Comments

Redundant ladies & paradise

10/7/2019

0 Comments

 
Who would imagine the words dough, lady, & paradise would have a common root?

The connection hearkens back some 6000 years to the Proto-Indo-European word dheigh, dough. In a mere sixty centuries, dheigh morphed into the following words in the following ways:

Lady – At some level, the word lady is redundant. It certainly is breadworthy, It was constructed of the Old English term for one who kneads dough, dage, plus the Old English word for loaf, hlaf. A hlafdage was originally one who made loaves of bread. Over time, the pronunciation and spelling morphed to lady.

Paradise – Half this word started as the Greek combining form peri-, meaning around. We modern English speakers know this bit of Greek from the words perimeter, periscope, period, & periphery. The second part of paradise is our old Proto-Indo-European friend, dheigh, which may have started out meaning dough, but in time added the meaning to form or to build. History suggests the word paradise (form or build around) refers to a wall formed around such a garden or treasured place. 

A bonus thought – in another branch of this twisted linguistic tree, the term dheigh or dough, also came to be spelled dey & referred to the servant who made the dough. We still see vestiges of dey in the modern name Doubleday, servant of the twin. 

Of course, Proto-Indo-European was never written down. It’s a language reconstructed by linguists, “believed to have been spoken well before 4000 B.C. in a region somewhere to the north or south of the Black Sea” (OxfordDictionaries.com). Though hard-working forensic linguists would disagree, the very existence of Proto-Indo-European as a language adds up to well-researched conjecture…

My fellow junior etymologists, what comments do you have regarding bread-making servants, or redundant ladies, or the wall around paradise? Offer up some well-researched (or completely non-researched) conjecture.


My thanks go out to this week’s sources, etymonline.com, OxfordDictionaries.com, take our word, & the OED.
0 Comments

Understanding substance

10/6/2019

0 Comments

 
It occurred to me the other day that based on their word parts, substance & understand could almost be synonyms, or might at least work in concert to tell an interesting story. Doesn’t sub-mean under? Don’t stand & stance mean pretty much the same thing?

The word understand takes up a page and a half in the Oxford English Dictionary with its fourteen shades of meaning. Understand comes from the Old English word, understandan. Stand means exactly what one might expect, to stand, but under - in Old English - meant something other than the under we Modern English speakers know today. Instead, it meant in the midst of. So to understand something is to stand in its midst. 

Substance takes about two full pages in the Oxford English Dictionary. Like understand, it has fourteen shades of meaning. Substance comes from the Latin substare, literally, to stand firm. Its primary meaning now is essential nature or essence. 

Understand & substance aren’t synonyms at all, but together, they inspire some pondering.

To understand something’s substance, one must stand in the midst of its essence. When we really want to grasp something, isn’t that exactly what we do? Don’t we surround ourselves as much as possible with whatever it is, then stand there, & breathe it all in? 

Some of the substance I’m working on understanding this year includes (but isn’t limited to):

            -baking a loaf of bread with those nifty, sourdough-ish 
                holes in it,
            -stepping up my guitar-playing skills, &
            -improving my methods of novel revision.
     

Followers, what substance are you throwing yourself into the midst of? What essence has got your attention? 

​
My thanks go out to this week’s sources, etymonline.com, OxfordDictionaries.com, & the OED.
0 Comments

Guys & dudes

10/5/2019

0 Comments

 
Like a good teaching friend of mine, I find myself cringing when someone addresses women or a mixed group of people as, guys or dudes. Language changes & grows, & I find its growth fascinating. Still, I cringe. So why not dive into guys & dudes.

This particular change seems to have started on this side of the pond. The American-based Merriam-Webster's entry on guy lists guy's first meaning as man or fellow, & its second as person, while England-based Collins Dictionary waits until the  third definition to note that Americans sometimes address a group of people, whether male or female, as guys.

Dude first appeared in print in New York in 1883, meaning a fastidious man & member of “an aesthetic craze” that was popular at the time. By 1921, dude had lost any hint of luster, and was being used in the country in a derogatory fashion to label city slickers ignorant of country ways. Dudes showed up to work the cattle, their faces shaved, hair oiled, in comically exaggerated hats and chaps. By the 1940s, dude was given a positive shine by zoot suiters acknowledging one another’s trendiness. In the 1960s dude became cool on three fronts: the African American scene, the jazz scene, & the surfing scene. Since then, dude has grown from a mere noun to both noun & interjection meaning nearly anything the speaker intends. Part of this recent change is dude's loss of gender specificity. Dude! Look at Travis & Edna run. Those dudes are fast.

Guy hit the printed page much earlier in 1350, meaning guide or leader. It’s related to the English word guide & the Italian name, Guido. Guy established its nautical meaning by 1603, a rope used to guide a load being raised or lowered. Another meaning of guy was inspired by the infamous Guy Fawkes, instigator of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot (a plan to explode not only the King, but the entire Parliament). This meaning referred to the burning effigies of Guy Fawkes paraded through the streets of London once the plot was revealed. Guy reached the New World in 1836, meaning a grotesquely or poorly dressed man, believed to have been born of all those shabbily constructed effigies. It wasn’t until 1898 that guy simply meant a man or fellow. Today, there are those who argue it maintains that meaning, yet modern American usage has removed any sense of gender. Hey guys, check out that shabby, flaming effigy. Dude!

So followers, what are your thoughts on whether guy has maintained its original gender association, or whether dude is mostly complimentary? Or if you’d like to open up a true can of worms, what do you have to say about guys & dudes?

​
My thanks go out to this week’s sources, etymonline.com, urbandictionary.com,  OxfordDictionaries.com, & the OED.
0 Comments

A wirdbalk

10/3/2019

5 Comments

 
This week it’s time for a birdwalk inspired by a conversation with fellow writer Dennis Miller - a little wordplay – the spoonerism.

Spoonerisms are named after the Reverend William A. Spooner, who suffered from a speech disorder involving involuntary transposition of sounds in words, typically initial sounds. Though historians question the authenticity of many gaffes attributed to Reverend Spooner, lists of his gaffes typically include this bungled tribute to Queen Victoria, “Three cheers for our queer old dean!” 

In tribute to Reverend Spooner, those who enjoy playing with language have mercilessly tweaked any number of perfectly fine stories, many of which can be found on Matthew Goldman’s Goonerisms Spalore, the most well known being the many versions of Indercella (in which our unhortunate feroine attends a bancy fall and slops her dripper). 
For something a bit different, here’s Goldman’s take on the climax and denouement of another old fairy tale: 

“May I come in, and hee your sitty prome?" 

"Tho, Tho, a nousand times, Tho, " pied the crig, "Not by the chair of my hinny hin, hin!" 

"Then I'll huff, and I'll duff, and I'll hoe your blouse down," growled the wolf. 

And with that, the wolf chuffed up his peeks, blew the smith to housereens, and sat down to a dine finner of roast sau and pigerkraut.

If you haven’t indulged yourself in this manner before, take the hull by the borns & spoonerize the following list of random well-known names:

William Shakespeare
Judy Garland
Ella Fitzgerald
Trevor Noah
Marie Curie
Groucho Marx
Benito Mussolini
Virginia Woolf

Thanks for putting up with this week’s wirdbalk. Please comment with any favorite spoonerized names, or a spoonerization of your own name.


My thanks go out to this week’s sources, etymonline.com, Spoonerisms Galore, & the OED.
5 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>
    Picture
    I write for teens, narrate audio books, bake bread, play music, and ponder the wonder of words in a foggy little town on California's central coast.

    Archives

    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019

    Categories

    All
    Aardvark
    Accident
    Accoutrement
    Achoo
    Adam
    Addlepated
    Adolescent
    Adult
    Adultery
    Aha
    Ain't
    Alexis O'Neill
    All Choked Up
    Alloy
    Ambrose Bierce
    Anagram
    Andrew Karre
    Anne R Allen
    Anoint
    Aposiopesis
    Apron
    Arbor
    Archidioms
    Armistice
    Artichoke
    Asparagus
    Assessment
    Assist
    Audiobook
    Auspicious
    Authenticate
    Awe
    Awesome
    Axe
    Babble
    Babel
    Backronym
    Bad Boys
    Ballot
    Balm
    Baloney
    Bamboozle
    Bandy
    Barnacle Goose
    Barracuda
    Bash
    Bauble
    Beard
    Beautiful
    Bedlam
    Beef
    Bees
    Bellow
    Benevolence
    Beret
    Beriberi
    Beth Kephart
    Bias
    Big Fish In A Small Pond
    Bigger Fish To Fry
    Bison
    Blab
    Blarney
    Blather
    Blatherskite
    Blighter
    Bloodthirsty
    Blowout
    Blubbermouth
    Blurb
    Blush
    Boggle
    Bogie
    Bogus
    Bogy
    Bologna
    Bonbon
    Bonk
    Boo-boo
    Boogie Woogie
    Boondocks
    Boonies
    Bosh
    Boss
    Bottoms Up
    Bowler
    Breakfast
    Breedbate
    Brilliant
    Brisk
    Browbeat
    Brunch
    Buckle Up
    Buck Up
    Buddy-duddy
    Bug-eyed
    Bundling
    Bunk
    Bunkum
    Burgundy
    Buss
    Buy
    By
    Bye
    Bye-bye
    Calm
    Camomile
    Camouflage
    Canine
    Can't Hold A Candle To
    Canvas
    Cap
    Capo
    Caprice
    Capricious
    Carp
    Carpet
    Carrion
    Carry On
    Carry-on
    Casbah
    Caterpillar
    Catherine Ryan Hyde
    Cetacean
    Chameleon
    Champ
    Chanukah
    Chatter
    Chaw
    Cheek
    Cheerful
    Cheer Up
    Cheese It
    Chew
    Chichi
    Chilly
    Chipmunk
    Choir
    Chops
    Chorus
    Chow
    Chowder
    Christmas
    Chronicle Books
    Cisgender
    Claptrap
    Clerk
    Cognate
    Cohort
    Coincide
    Cold
    Cold Idioms
    Collective Nouns
    Comedy
    Compete
    Compose
    Concise
    Confab
    Confirm
    Conscience
    Consist
    Cooking Idioms
    Cool
    Corduroy
    Corny
    Corroborate
    Court
    Courteious
    Courtyard
    Coverdale
    Coverdale Words
    Coverslut
    Coverup
    Cow
    Cowboy
    Cow Idioms
    Cow Pie
    Cow Slang
    Crab
    Crass Lost Words
    Cretin
    Crusades
    Curiosioty
    Curmudgeon
    Dawdle
    Decadent
    Decay
    Deciduous
    Declutter
    Deer
    Defiantly
    Definitely
    Delegate
    Delight
    Delirious
    Demon
    Denim
    Derby
    Desert
    Desert Island
    Desist
    Dessert
    Devil
    Dial
    Dialects
    Diatribe
    Dice
    Dictionary Nerd
    Didgeridoo
    Dik-dik
    Dingus
    Dinkum
    Dinner
    Dirt
    Discourse Particles
    Dish
    Dish Idioms
    Dog
    Dog Idioms
    Dogs
    Doily
    Dollar
    Dollop
    Dolphin
    Doodad
    Doohickey
    Dorothy Parker
    Dotty
    Dough
    Dream
    Dreary
    Dreidel
    Dribble
    Drinking Euphemisms
    Dr. King
    Dual
    Dude
    Dull As Dishwater
    Dumbledore
    Duo
    Dustup
    Dystopia
    Earworm
    Eating Idioms
    Eavesdrop
    Education
    Election
    Elite
    Emmet
    Energy Drink
    Enjoyment
    Equivocate
    Erica Jong
    Etymnologies
    Etymology
    Etymosheeple
    Euphemisms
    Exclaim
    Exist
    Eye
    Eyebrow
    Eye Idioms
    Eyeteeth
    Fainéant
    Fall
    Fastidious
    Feckless
    Fedora
    Felicitous
    Festive
    Few
    Fib
    Fiction
    Fictionalize
    Fictitious Disorder Syndrome
    Fiddle
    Filibuster
    Filly
    Fish Idioms
    Fish Out Of Water
    Flag
    Flagellant
    Flagship
    Flagstaff
    Flap
    Flerd
    Fleshpot
    Flibbertigibbet
    Flip-flop
    Flop
    Flopperoo
    Floppy
    Flopsy
    Flutterpated
    Foal
    Fogey
    Food
    Fool
    Fopdoodle
    Fork
    Form
    Fortunate
    Foster
    Freak
    Frequentatives
    Frog
    From
    Frou-frou
    Frown
    Frump
    Fud
    Funky
    Funny-bone
    Gag
    Gaga
    Gander
    Garden
    Gather
    Geezer
    Genocide
    George Sands
    Get Out Of Dodge
    Getting One's Goat
    Getup
    Gewgaw
    Ghost
    Gig
    Girdle
    Give
    Gizmo
    Glad
    Gloomy
    Goat
    Goatee
    Going Over
    Good Books
    Goody-two-shoes
    Goose
    Gopher
    Gorp
    Gossamer
    Gossip
    Grim
    Grin
    Groovy
    Groups Of People
    Grow Up
    Guff
    Guffaw
    Guidler
    Gulp
    Guy
    Half-assed
    Hamster
    Hang Up
    Hanker
    Happiness
    Happy
    Happy As A Clam
    Harangue
    Harmonious
    Hart
    Hash
    Hat
    Hazard
    Head
    Head Idioms
    Hebetude
    Hedgehog
    Heebie-jeebies
    Hefty-tufty
    Hiff
    High-brow
    Hike
    Hinder
    Hinterlands
    Hip Hop
    Hippopotamus
    Hiss
    Hobnob
    Hog
    Homocide
    Homonyms
    Hoodlum
    Hooligan
    Hoosegow
    Hootenanny
    Hound
    Hovel
    Howl
    Hug
    Human
    Humane
    Humanitarian
    Humanity
    Humankind
    Humble
    Humbug
    Humdrum
    Humiliate
    Humus
    Hush
    Hussy
    Ibex
    Idea
    I'd Give My Eyeteeth
    Idioms
    Idioms About Dirt
    Ilk
    Imitative Words
    Immanent
    Imminent
    Impala
    Impedimenta
    Informative
    Inhuman
    Inhumane
    Innate
    Insist
    Inspiration
    Intelligent
    Iota
    Isaac Bashevis Singer
    Jam
    Jamboree
    Jam Session
    Janus
    Janus Words
    Jargon
    Jarhead
    Javelina
    Jibber Jabber
    Jitters
    Jolly
    Jot
    Jowl
    Joy
    Joyous
    Juke
    Junk
    Justice
    Kaput
    Kathi Appelt
    Kathleen Duey
    Keister
    Kettle Of Fish
    Kibitz
    Kibosh
    Killer
    Killjoy
    Kindergarten
    Kiss
    Knick-knack
    Knife
    Knowledge
    Koozie
    Kudu
    Kwame Alexander
    Lackluster
    Lady
    Language Prejudice
    Laughter
    Lay An Egg
    League
    Learn
    Learning
    Leave Idioms
    Leave No Stone Unturned
    Leave Someone High & Dry
    Leave Someone Holding The Bag
    Leave Someone In The Lurch
    Leave Someone Out In The Cold
    Lecture
    Leprechauns
    Leprosy
    Lick
    Lickspigot
    Lickspittle
    Lie
    Ligament
    Like
    Lilliputian
    Lingo
    Live It Up
    Lois-lowry
    Long-steep-path
    Looby
    Lord
    Lost Words
    Lovingkindness
    Lucky
    Lunch
    Lurid
    Macabre
    Magazine
    Magenta
    Make Trsacks
    Malaprop
    Malcontent
    Mandible
    Mange
    Map
    Marmalade
    Marmot
    Martyr
    Mary Penney
    Mascara
    Mashup
    Mask
    Masticate
    Mazel Tov
    Meanings
    Meg Wollitzer
    Meh
    Melancholy
    Mem Fox
    Memoir
    Memory
    Memory Quotes
    Menorah
    Mensch
    Mentor
    Mess
    Messenger
    Mess Up
    Middle Of Nowhere
    Minion
    Misanthrope
    Miscreant
    Mislead
    Mispronunciations
    Moose
    Mop
    Moppet
    Moron
    Morsel
    Mosey
    Mosquito
    Mossback
    Mourn
    Moxie
    Much
    Muddle
    Muddleheaded
    Mumble
    Murfles
    Murmur
    Muskrat
    Muslin
    Mustache
    Mutt
    Mwah
    Myles Coverdale
    Napkin
    Narrow- Minded
    Narwhal
    Nascent
    Natal
    Nation
    Native
    Natty
    Nature
    Naught
    Naughty
    Neanderthal
    Neat
    Nee
    Neonatal
    Nerd
    Never
    News
    New Words
    Nick Of Time
    Nick Thomas
    Nifty
    Nil
    Nippy
    No
    Noel
    Non-
    Noonday
    Nose Of Wax
    Nothing
    Null
    Oblige
    Ogle
    Okapi
    Ok Boomer
    Old Dictionaries
    Omniscient
    Onomatopoeia
    Oom-pah
    Oration
    Otiosity
    Ouija
    Out Of Sight
    Paisley
    Paper Mache
    Paradise
    Paraphernalia
    Passion
    Patient
    Patois
    Patti Gauch
    Pau
    Paucity
    Pauper
    Peace
    Peccary
    Peeping Tom
    Pee-wee
    Penguin
    Perryess
    Persist
    Pesticide
    Pillar To Post
    Pimple
    Pint Blank
    Placid
    Platypus
    Play
    Pleasure
    Plover
    Ply
    Pokey
    Political Speech
    Pompom
    Pony
    Pooch
    Pooh-pooh
    Poor
    Porpoise
    Posh
    Possession
    Potato
    Powwow
    Prattle
    Prevaricate
    Principal
    Principle
    Prolix
    Propitious
    Proto Indo European
    Proto-Indo-European
    Providential
    Public
    Public Servant
    Puddingheaded
    Pumpernickel
    Puny
    Put Downs
    Puzzle
    Quark
    Quash
    Queer Fish
    Querulous
    Query
    Question
    Quiz
    Quotations
    Quotes
    Quotes About Food
    Quotes About Questions
    Raccoon
    Rally
    Rant
    Rapscallion
    Rascal
    Read
    Record
    Red Herring
    Redstart
    Reduplication
    Regional Language
    Rejection
    Rely
    Remember
    Renaissance
    Rescue
    Resist
    Resistentialism
    Retire
    Rhinoceros
    Rich
    Riff
    Ripple
    Risk
    Roar
    Ruffian
    Rug
    Ruminate
    Rutterkin
    Sackbut
    Sandwich
    Sardonic Laughter
    Scare
    School
    Science
    SCOTUS
    Scram
    Scream
    Screed
    Scruff
    Scrumptious
    Seersucker
    Serene
    Service
    Seven-up
    Shack
    Shack Up
    Shades Of Meaning
    Shambles
    Shangri La
    Shark
    Shed
    Sheeple
    Shilly-shally
    Shindy
    Shout
    Shove Off
    Shut Up
    Sideburns
    Singer
    Sip
    Sistere
    Skedddle
    Skin
    Skin Idioms
    Skosh
    Slacker
    Slang
    Slap
    Sloth
    Slug
    Slurp
    Slush Fund
    Smack
    Small Potatoes
    Smart Alec
    Smash Up
    Smellsmock
    Smidge
    Smile
    Smitten
    Smooch
    Snack
    Sneeze
    Snog
    Snooze
    Snort
    Sock
    Sockdology
    Socks
    Solstice
    Sombrero
    Somniferous
    Son
    Soporific
    So-so
    Spa
    Spat
    Spiel
    Spiffy
    Spiflicate
    Spirit
    Splurge
    Sponger
    Spook
    Spoon
    Spoonerism
    Sport
    Spree
    Springbok
    Spuds
    Squabble
    Squeamish
    Squelch
    Squib
    Squirrel
    Stagette
    Starch
    Stark
    Stark Dead
    Stark Naked
    Start-up
    Stereo
    Stooge
    Stork
    Straddle
    Strak Raving Mad
    Stretch
    Stubble
    Study
    Stuff
    Stuffing
    Stump
    Stymie
    Substance
    Substantiate
    Succinct
    Suffrage
    Suicide
    Summer
    Summertime
    Supper
    Sussuration
    Swaddling
    Swank
    Swell
    Swine
    Swivet
    Synonyms
    Tad
    Take A Break
    Tantrum
    Tapir
    Taught
    Taut
    Tchotchke
    Teach
    Tedious
    Tedium
    Teensy
    Teeny
    Test
    The Sticks
    The Well
    Thing
    Thingamajig
    Thorn
    Thug
    Thumb-twiddling
    Thump
    Thwart
    Tickled To Death
    Tidbit
    Tidy
    Tiff
    Tiny
    Tipping Point
    Tirade
    Titivil
    Toad
    Toast
    Tooth
    Tooth Idioms
    Toponyms
    Tosspots
    Tosspot Words
    Toss-up
    Tranquil
    Trappings
    Tuber
    Tump
    Turngiddy
    Turn Off
    Turn On
    Turn Up One's Nose
    Tutu
    Twain
    Twin
    Twine
    Twist
    Twitterpated
    Twizzle
    Two
    Two Kindsof People
    Ugh
    Understand
    Ungulates
    Up
    Upbeat
    Upchuck
    Upend
    Upholster
    Up Idioms
    Upload
    Uproar
    Up The River
    Up The Wall
    Up To Snuff
    Utensils
    Utopia
    Validate
    Vamoose
    Vamp
    Veil
    Verbose
    Verify
    Veto
    Vicar
    Villain
    Viol
    Viola
    Violate
    Violent
    Violet
    Violin
    Vociferate
    Vole
    Vote
    Waddle
    Waffle
    Walking
    Walking Idioms
    Wall Street
    Wallydraigle
    Wealthy
    Weasel
    Well-heeled
    Welsh Rabbit
    Weltschmerz
    Whack
    Whale
    Whatchamacallit
    Whimwhams
    Whipper-snapper
    Whisper
    Whoop It Up
    Wilderness
    Willies
    Wink-a-peeps
    Women's Quotes
    Word History
    Wordmong
    Wordmonger
    Words
    Words From The Languages
    Words We Need
    Wordy
    Wraith
    Wrap Up
    Xmas
    Yaar
    Yahoo
    Yard
    Yell
    Yodel
    Yogurt
    Yule
    Zit

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Blog
  • Audiobooks
  • Publications
  • Contact