The working vocabulary of the average 14-year-old has declined in the last 50 years from 25,000 words to 10,000. Language reflects the depth of our human experience. Because we think in words, are we losing the capacity to say what we feel?
Like, whatever.
Quiz time, girls!
This is a fun one.
We’re all familiar with common collective nouns that describe groups of animals.
Examples: pride of lions, herd of horses, flock of birds.
Photo by Kumon via Wikimedia Commons
But, there are dozens more descriptors out there that most of us have never heard.
A congress of baboons?
Well, now …
if the shoe fits!
Animated image by Edward James Muggeridge via Wikimedia Commons
Seriously, though, I wonder how many of the following you can match up. I’ll list the group names first and the animals below. In some cases, you’ll find that the group name stems from a species’ behavior; in others, alliteration is at work. Of course, some seem to make no sense at all.
Photo by Steven Straiton via Wikimedia Commons
The answers are at the bottom of this post, so don’t peek until you’re sufficiently stumped!
Group Names:
Winnie Nielsen says: These are great and I have never heard the terms used before. My favorites are a sneak of weasels and a knot of toads! This was fun to try and figure out and quite interesting to learn for an early morning lesson over coffee.
Karlyne says: Too funny! The only one I was positive about was the kine of cattle!
Daniele says: That’s pretty cool- I’ve never half of those before now…
CATHY L ROHLOFF says: I thought I had a good grasp of the English language until this quiz!
Adrienne Kristine says: My favorite is a raft of otters. I adopt a sea otter every year to support the Marine Mammal Center in northern California.
Deborah Brazil says: I had never heard of most of these however, my history told me it was a “murder of crows” instead of a ‘storytelling’. I did know a congress of baboons though. As you say, If the shoe fits.
J Bailey says: I give ! And I thought I was smart. Haha thanks for making me more humble. Grr, it hurts to say it.
Brenda Wheeler says: I never would have figured this one out. Thanks for increasing our knowledge!
Winnie Nielsen says: That crinoline hanging in the background reminds me of the ones that used to hang in my sister’s closet for those poodle skirts! I remember having one for an Easter dress one year too.
I went looking for a word I’ve shared here before. A word I can say when my lips are pursed (it’s been one of those days), when I have that LOOK on my face; when my leg is being pulled or my arm twisted.
Piffle.
For those of you who think this is just nonsense, you couldn’t be more right. Piffle as a noun is trivial nonsense. As a verb it means to talk or act in a trivial, inept, or ineffective way. Piffled and piffling are acceptable variations.
Piffle is not only a word to know and to write, it’s also good to SAY. Put your nose slightly in the air and say it with me. Piffle.
“The chickens are hungry? Piffle! They’ve been scratching in the wheat field all morning.”
When speaking to recalcitrant teenagers one could say, “Stop piffling; the cow will not milk itself.”
Piffle is a ton-of-fun to say and is the reason TVs get turned off and politicians get tuned out.
I encourage you to know your piffle, to call out, Piffle! and share your piffle with me if you’d care to. Let me know what you find to be … piffle!
Faith perrino-DuBois says: Using shopping as entertainment is Piffle with a capital “P” in the World According to Faith. Thanks for the vocabulary expansion!
Terry Steinmetz says: I need to go for a walk in the rain? Piffle! I’ll walk in the comfort of my warm home on my treadmill & get the same results.
Winnie Nielsen says: Having to have a perfectly clean house is just PIFFLE! I love this new addition to my vocabulary.
My mom used to say “piffle” a lot but it was more out of frustration with something. And, because of that I have used it the same way. It’s been used in our family for decades.
CJ
bobbie calgaro says: Most tv is piffle, trendy fashion is piffle, and today’s education system especially Common Core is piffle. What is not piffle is good common sense, organic farming, family togetherness, and individuality.
Karlyne says: Not finishing my book because there are clothes to fold and dinner to remember? Piffle!!!
Balter: To dance without particular skill or grace, but with extreme joy.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
In the above advertisement, dating from the late 1800s, English dancer Lottie Collins sings her renowned vaudeville hit “Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-De-Ay!” after being healed by Bromo-Seltzer.
While Lottie doesn’t look particularly graceful in the ad, she was actually a beautiful woman who was known for her high-spirited and uninhibited skirt dance with high kicks that exposed stockings held up by sparkling garters.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
For the rest of us, who may not be able to kick up to our ears, there’s always baltering.
To balter, oh yes, that would be me!! My mother was a trained ballerina and wanted me to be the next Pavlova, but alas I was a chubby and ungainly child. But I did dance with much joy ! I was always dancing around and never got any better but never stopped. I still dance – badly- and I don’t care. Like the line in the song says: ” dance like no one is watching …”
Sharon D. says: I believe I fall into the Baltering category myself, and that is why my name is not Grace 🙂
Karlyne says: She was beautiful! But in the ad she looks demented; some of those Victorians had the weirdest taste…
Mary - Old Mother Rupert says: What a delightful word! I believe that boisterous baltering is what I do when I dance with our three grandsons, who leap into wild dance whenever we play some festive fiddling. They dance gracefully and with abandon – not quite so with me – but all of us with extreme joy. A fun word to share with them…perhaps in a game of Scrabble… (And I think Gram needs a pair of sparkling garters…)
Aaahhhh…baltering! What I do on every occasion that has a band/dj! In fact I balter so well, my oldest daughter sent me a message with this definition. You know, the silly e-cards you get on facebook? Yeah, she sent me one and gently suggested that it ‘is totally you, mom!’ I told her heck yeah! It is me and if she has a hard time watching me, well…Piffle!
Winnie Nielsen says: The absolute BEST!!! ***swoon***
I recently used this saying in a e-mail and realized afterward that I had no idea if I used the correct term: “bear” or “bare.” I then realized that was because I have no idea of the meaning behind this saying.
As it turns out, it’s much easier to remember which spelling to use if you know the whole story. (As is often the case in life in general.) 🙂
Winnie Nielsen says: It is no wonder that foreigners have so much trouble learning English. This is the perfect example of how difficult it can be to understand how words that sound alike are used, and how one must know the difference between the sound and the written word use in writing. Of course the thought of learning all of the Chinese characters seems way more overwhelming to me!
Elizabeth says: If I had a dime for every time I’ve done this~put it in the bank~earned interest on it from the time I was old enough to speak…well, I think those dimes would have created a nice little “nest egg” (hope I used that correctly;-) by now.
Can you imagine how difficult it must be for many immigrants to learn English? We have so many words that sound exactly the same but are spelled differently & can mean a multitude of things. But it is fun hearing/reading a word or phrase in a new light. Kids seem especially gifted at turning a phrase on its ear. I’m sure it something I never grew out of, so to speak:-)
Ready to gab about some positively fab vocab?
By “fab” I mean fabric, which is, of course, fabulous.
What I have in mind is a little quiz.
Come on, you know you love it when I tease your brain.
Here’s how it works:
I’ll show you a photo of fabric, complete with a quick description, and then you’ll guess what it is. This may be super easy for some of you, but you never know when you might learn something new.
The answers are posted at the bottom of this entry, so don’t peek until you’re finished!
1. A reversible figured fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers with a pattern formed by weaving:
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia; Brian0918
2. A heavy cotton fabric that is woven and then sheared to create a short, soft pile on one side:
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia; deviantART Subscriber Beatminister
3. A form of lace that may be described as “decorated net” formed by a pattern at the bottom that is covered with machine-made net and then fine muslin, through which the pattern can be seen:
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia; Socialambulator
4. A soft woven fabric of various fineness that was originally made from carded wool or worsted yarn but is now often made from either wool, cotton, or synthetic fiber (hint: I wrote about union suits made from this fabric):
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia; Sg829100
5. A fabric with loops that can absorb large amounts of water (that’s a giveaway for sure!):
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia; MatthiasKabel
6. A medium-weight, balanced, plain-woven fabric made from dyed cotton or cotton-blend yarn:
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia; Flickr: Kent Wang
7. A class of richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics often made in colored silks with gold and silver thread:
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia; Yelkrokoyade
Answers:
Winnie Nielsen says: Damask and Carrickmacross Lace are the most intriguing to me. How do they make that happen?
This was a fun morning exercise with my coffee in hand!
Tell me, have you ever been in this situation?
There’s a car coming up the drive …
Psyche Opening the Door into Cupid’s Garden by John William Waterhouse (1904) via Wikimedia Commons
A quick peek reveals a guest arriving,
and your house is—let’s be honest—a mess.
Dishes undone,
socks on the stairway,
ongoing projects laid out hither and yon.
Photo by Luca Masters via Wikimedia Commons
The scramble begins—grab and stash! Spritz lavender in the air. Break out a box of biscotti.
Within a minute and a half, your Potemkin village is perfect,
well—let’s be honest AGAIN—as perfect as it’s going to get.
Utter a hasty prayer that the closet door stays shut
and then fling open the door and declare,
“Welcome! You’re just in time for tea!”
Potemkin village?
You caught that, didn’t you?
Our word-of-the-week refers to a “pretentiously showy or imposing façade intended to mask or divert attention from an embarrassing or shabby fact or condition,” says Dictionary.com.
The term took root, according to legend, when Russian military leader Grigory Potemkin erected fake settlements, full of fanfare, in order to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787.
Painting of fireworks during the visit of Catherine II of Russia in Crimea, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Winnie Nielsen says: What an elaborate word for a common condition of humanity! It sort of makes the argument that your mess is honorable or something like that! Ha! Speaking of messes, I am reminded of the virtue of the Shaker way of simple living. For me, mess equals chaos and I am not very good when I spend a lot of time in chaos. When I see my house in some sort of state of mess, I am tempted to just get a shovel and trashcan and get rid of it all for good! Do you ever feel that way?
Karlyne says: I hate clutter, not just for the look, although excess stuff does make me twitch, but because of the maintenance involved, too. There’s a big difference between where I live now (in the Dust Bowl, I swear) and the mountains I used to live in. My tea cup collection and open shelving used to get dusted, oh, once a quarter or so, but I can write proverbs in the dust on the book shelves here every day! I need glass to put everything behind and then I can just dust it…
And, I am soooo going to use “Potemkin” in a conversation as soon as possible. “Excuse me, please, while I Potemkin a bit.”
Kim Platt says: It gives it a whole new meaning to tidying up!!
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
Cute birdhouse! Do birds really nest in it for you? I love how it is made from rustic pieces.
They do next in this bird house. We have about 40 of these around the farm. It’s adorable when you walk by and a little head pokes out.
That is the best! So fun to know you are providing needed safe housing for our feathered friends!!