yesterday

Yestern,

that is to say,

yestreen,

the hills of ye-olde pastoral Palouse

were looking mighty lush and green …

Photo by Bala via Wikimedia Commons

Hear ye:

“Yestern” is an old English word that refers to yesterday.

“Yestreen,” on the other hand, is much more specific, meaning yesterday evening.

Yessiree.

Or, should I say, yessireen?

 

 

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    I like those old English words and wonder why they have fallen from use. There is no doubt that the Palouse is one big green lush carpet these days. The view from that wall tent where the stove is must be breathtaking. All the more reason to have coffe there in the morning and take it all in!!

  2. Cindi says:

    That looks like the earth draped in velvet. Yessiree 🙂

  3. terry steinmetz says:

    This is lovely. I hope to someday see your lovely area!

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Say what?

Mispronounced words?

Where? (aka, Who me?)

You might be surprised.

To-MAH-to, po-TAH-to.

Don’t you wanna know?

Seriously, though …

There’s quite a queue of words that we’re likely to mispronounce on any given day.

(A sandwich spread or a prodigal poet—you might mispronounce and not even know it.)

Persnickety, you say?

Perhaps.

Chinchilla_cat_(5833713404)

Photo by allen watkin via Wikimedia Commons

Although you should know that it’s technically pernickety.

Well, it is.

Anyway, if you want to feel just a little bit smarter than you did when you woke up this morning, here’s an easy means to that end:

Affluent

Don’t say: a-FLU-ent

Do say: AFF-lu-ent


Either (Neither)?

Well, just watch:


Mayonnaise

Don’t say: mannaize

Do say: MAY-o-naize

 

Miniature

Don’t say: minichur

Do say: miniachur (yup – the short “a” sound should be heard)

 

Potable

Don’t say: pottable

Do say: potable (long “o” is the way to go)

 

Prestigious

Don’t say: pre-STEE-jus

Do say: pre-STI-jus (short “i”)

 

Respite

Don’t say: respite (rhymes with despite)

Do say: respit

 

Seuss (as in, the good doctor of children’s literature)

Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, adopted his pen name from his German mother’s maiden name, which was properly pronounced in the native tongue as “Soice” (rhymes with voice). But, the American inclination to say “Soose” stuck, and Geisel gave in, realizing that it was potentially profitable to rhyme with another famous name in children’s lit—Mother Goose.


Silicone

Don’t say: silicone

Do say: silicon

 

The (nope, not kidding)

Technically speaking, there are some instances when one should say “thuh” and others when this word’s pronunciation should be “thee.” According to Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty, pronunciation of “the” depends on how you pronounce the word that follows it. If the following word begins with a consonant sound, you say “thuh” (as in, “thuh” farmhouse). But if the following word starts with a vowel sound, you say “thee” (as in, “thee” egg).

Thee egg and me, prestigious. Pass the mayo please.

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    This is all very interesting. I would add that regional location has a lot to do with how we learn to pronounce words too. When everyone speaks a certain way, you just grow up not knowing anything different. Here in the South, we have a lot of “alternative” ways words are pronounced. For that matter, it differs from state to state with certain words. When I was in New Orleans, with it’s Cajun overtones, I had a hard time understanding the locals at times. The cadence also gets tricky in some areas too. I understand that in Britain, some of the local dialects and pronunciation makes it almost non-English sounding. So, what is the correct way to say something? Mignon Fogerty’s recommendations or the local interpretation? LOL!!!

  2. Darlene Ricotta says:

    Well that was really interesting and I learned a lot from that today.

    Thanks.

    Have a good Sunday.

  3. Cindi says:

    First off, I am completely astounded that this is the subject for the day ~ since earlier this morning I was bemoaning the loss of my pronunciation guide to advancements in technology that rendered my old program useless. To Winnie’s comment about growing up not knowing anything different ~ I completely agree, often wondering how I knew to change the way I pronounce “the” depending on the following word. I don’t remember ever being taught to do that. Then we come to mayonnaise. A word of many wonders! Ugh. Defying the regional location theory, my oldest daughter says “mannaize”. How can that happen?! I raised her! I think. But then… she also says “am-blee-anz” instead of ambulance. I hang my head in dismay 🙂 🙂

    • MaryJane says:

      My kids had fun saying pasketti instead of spaghetti, si-LA-ble instead of syllable. My mother said liar instead of lawyer:), chimley instead of chimney and in Utah where I grew up they go to great effort to get their tenses wrong–I tense wrong, therefore I belong. “We was just getting ready to leave.” “She weren’t aiming high enough.”

      • Cindi says:

        Ahh hahaha! My sister-in-law gets her tenses wrong, as well as using the most irritating “and I says…”

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Urge to Nest

Need a little vernal vocab to impress your friends?

Tweet this:

nidificate (NID-u-fi-cate)

Meaning: to build a nest

As in:

Photo courtesy GiantBirdsNest.com

It’s REAL.

Designed by OGE CreativeGroup as “a fusion of furniture and playground,” the Giant Birdsnest is pure farmgirl fantasy.

Photo courtesy GiantBirdsNest.com

“The wooden nest is filled with highly comfortable egg-shaped sitting poofs, which allow ergonomic sitting positions and various configurations for informal meetings and social exchange,” explain creators Merav Eitan and Gaston Zahr. “The nest comes in various sizes, from a small and intimate nest for one, up to a big version, which can host 16 people at once. The soft space is a perfectly comfortable and inspiring place for resting, browsing the Web, reading, relaxing, loving, talking, briefing, discussing … Simply jump in and enjoy.”

Wondering about DIY, aren’t you.

 

  1. Cindi says:

    THAT is cool! Everybody would always want to come to my house if I made one of those (yes, DIY!). As for the word… my poor tongue is getting all tangled up with my brain practicing that one. Perhaps it is best that this word stays quietly in my notebook ~ where it can nidificate. (oh it is fun to type ~ spell check does not like it!)

  2. Winnie Nielsen says:

    Now, that is cool and very artistic! It goes way beyond the old original bean bag craze of the 1960s. My only wonder is if you can get yourself up easily, as in old bones and old age get up easy. I can sort of see myself stuck in there like a beached whale!

  3. Virginia Meyer says:

    I think it would be fun just to have one or two eggs in my living room or on my bed. I have a reading corner in my room where I have all sorts of pillows piled up, with a small canopy over head, where I like to do my reading while relaxing. I could put one or two of them, (egg pillows), in my reading corner! How fun would that be!

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a bit of razzle-dazzle

It was fun to hear someone use the term “higgledy-piggledy” the other day.

Say what?

You know, higgledy–piggledy, hodge-podge, hurly-burly. These words have more in common than their shared meaning: confusion or disorder. They’re formally called “reduplicative compounds,” meaning paired words that usually differ only in a vowel or consonant. Commonly, they’re called “ricochet words.” Think nitty-gritty, lovey-dovey, tick-tock. Just saying them seems to make the sound ricochet around the room.

Or how about exact reduplications, like bye-bye, boo-boo, or twenty-twenty? Or comparative reduplications like “It’s getting hotter and hotter” or “My cow is getting gentler and gentler.”

One interesting thing about reduplications is that they seem to enter the language at times in history when people are feeling lighthearted and playful. For example, the 1920s (immediately following World War I) spawned reduplicative terms like the bee’s knees, heebie-jeebies, and boogie-woogie.

Louisiana Five Jazz Band, 1919, Courtesy of Nunez family collection via Wikimedia Commons

My favorite reduplication?

Shilly-shally.

While its first meaning, when introduced way back in 1703 in Sir Richard Steele’s The Tender Husband, or The Accomplish’d Fools, a Comedy, was to be indecisive,

“I’m for marrying her at once. Why should I stand shilly-shally, like a country bumpkin?”

It’s come to mean, for me at least, an all-purpose piece of cloth for glamping adventures … and you can see how it all started with a bit of indecision. Here’s the explanation from my Ideabook:

“What’s a ShillyShally? I came up with this name for a three-foot-square piece of pure cotton fabric when I once tried to describe my attachment to this versatile piece of cloth. ‘Shill I be a bandanna? Shall I be a bath towel? Shill I be a tablecloth? Shall I be a boa? Shill I be a bathing suit top? Shall I be a hankie? Shill I be a dishtowel?’ It’s all those things and more, and when I’m camping, it becomes my faithful companion as well. Dishtowel fabric, maybe colored, works best, and I prefer one with a bit of embroidery; it just seems more special that way. It has to be thin so it dries out fast and knots easily. Sometimes, I choose pure white, especially when I’m camping in the desert—white just seems to speak ‘reflect’ better. When I’m backpacking, it becomes my ‘blankie’ of sorts, a source of comfort and security.”

 

 

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    What a fine shilly-shally you are wearing! This was a term I have never heard of until I read your Ideas book. I also did not know it was part of the more common reduplicative compounds either. It is just fun to learn about words and I always enjoy this segment when you share something super-duper!!

    Wagons Ho in another hour! Whoop!!

  2. CJ Armstrong says:

    I have a shilly-shally and hope to get a bit more embroidered on it soon! It’s a great item for gamping, sitting on the deck in the evening, etc.
    Thanks for the inspiration!
    CJ

  3. terry steinmetz says:

    I am looking forward to making myself a shilly-shally. My grandma called her shawl–which was really a piece of material she had lying around–her babushka. She would put it over her head when the wind came up as she collected her eggs. Or she’d use it as a scarf for around my neck in the winter cold. Whatever I call it, I want make a nice one for my glamping experience!

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clerihew

MaryJane Butters was milking her cow

When Megan cried, “Hurry, Mom, follow me NOW.”

Together, they ran to the garden to see …

A beanstalk (heirloom) as big as a tree.

Photo by Tim Sackton via Flickr

That, my friends, was a clerihew.

Cleri-WHO?

No—like this:

KLER-i-hyoo.

More than mere willy-nilly rhyming verse, this type of half-pint poem has rather distinct rules. A true clerihew must contain …

  1. A bit of wit
  2. Four lines of uneven length with the rhyming scheme AABB
  3. The name of the subject within the first line

But, wait—there’s more …

According to Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956), originator of the form (at age 16!), a true clerihew will either a) position the subject’s name at the end of the first line, or b) use only the name as the first line. Why? Because the whole point of the poem, he declared, is to rhyme with awkward names.

Maybe I need to take another stab at it? Perhaps something more along these lines:

MaryJane Butters

Was stymied by stutters

When she spied a strange cat

Wearing THIS as a hat.

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    That clip of the kitty and chicken is too much! I am trying to imagine my Mr.Bump doing that and somehow I keep “seeing” a dead chick!

  2. Karlyne says:

    Thanks for the first, and probably one of the best, laughs of the day!

  3. Nice job! You are quite the poet, do you know it? And kitty is very patient! Too cute!

  4. Cindi says:

    Oh that was fun!!! The cat and the hat … 😀

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Mew

Some words are so complex and multifaceted that they deserve a day of special notoriety.

I know, I know—you’re already coming up with words like …

Floccinaucinihilipilification.

Silly girl.

While that is the longest non-technical term in the English language, it has only one meaning:

“The act of describing something as having little or no value.”

Hmmm … touché.

Anyway, a profusion of letters really isn’t the point here.

The word I’ve deemed worthy of today’s curtsy is …

(wait for it) …

Mew.

No, dear, I’m not pulling your leg.

What you may not yet know about “mew” (myoo) is that it’s a master of deceptive simplicity. With just one syllable, mew manages to function as both noun and verb, and it has eight—count ’em, EIGHT—definitions.

A master, I tell you.

See for yourself:

Kitten mewing by Ron Whisky via Wikimedia Commons

1. Perhaps the most obvious meaning of mew is the high-pitched vocalization of a kitty cat (which is interchangeable as noun and verb).

Photo by Tatyana via Wikimedia Commons

2. It also denotes the cajoling call of a seagull as well as …

Photo by Tim Rains, Denali National Park and Preserve, via Wikimedia Commons

3. the bird itself (namely, the Mew Gull).

Photo by CheepShot via Wikimedia Commons

4. A “mew” or “mews” is a cage for hawks, commonly used during molting to keep birds relaxed and secure.

Photo by Christine Matthews via Wikimedia Commons

5. It also means to molt.

Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid via Wikimedia Commons

6. In the UK, it’s used in plural form (mews) to refer to stables with living quarters or a row of apartments converted from stables.

Photo by Shravans14 via Wikimedia Commons

7. Similarly, a mew can name a place where one retires or hides.

Photo by Ian Paterson via Wikimedia Commons

8. And finally, behaving strictly as a verb, mew can mean to confine.

There’s a lot about mew that you never knew, true?

  1. Karlyne says:

    “I’m going to mew now.” I can’t wait to use that one!

  2. Winnie Nielsen says:

    Wow, this is the word of the day. I was only familiar with the usual Mew that comes from my Mr.Bump kitty. It is fascinating how the same words change from culture and regions. I understand that in Chinese, the same word changes depending on the tone. How confusing would that be!

  3. CJ Armstrong says:

    Very interesting! Thanks!
    CJ

  4. bonnie ellis says:

    Mary Jane, you come up with the most interesting things.

  5. Nancy Coughlin says:

    Was not familiar with the bird references- those where all new. My reading of English novels had me familiar with the other meanings. How wonderful to have all these new uses for a simple little word. I too shall mew away for the rest of the evening.

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Fun!

Here’s a fun word …

funambulist

Maybe it’s someone who has a great sense of fun?

Mardi_Gras_Cocktails_Anyone

Maybe it’s someone who makes a study of fun? (Now there’s a great job!)

Or maybe it’s someone who thinks their particular skill or hobby is just plain fun?

Chaschina_Irina_1

Irina Tchachina by Deerstop via Wikimedia Commons

I sure hope so, because a funambulist is …

a tightrope walker!

Circus poster for Sells Floto Circus showing tight-rope walker Mlle. Beeson prancing with a parasol.

Not only do funambulists have a sense of fun, they also have nerves of steel. For example, funambulist Jay Cochrane set a world record in 1998 when he walked a distance of 800 feet between the towers of the Flamingo Hilton in Las Vegas, 300 feet above the city known for fun, and he did it … blindfolded.

Get ready to be amazed by this very talented funambulist from Ukraine’s Got Talent:

 

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    What an amazing tight rope talent. I love watching everyone else watching her. We were all holding our breath!

  2. Karlyne says:

    I thought the definition was going to be: “One who walks a funicular.” Well, I was close…

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Oology

Ooooh, here’s a word for April …

oology

Sounds more like “Oh!” … not “Ooooh.”

[oh-ol-uh-jee]

Why April?

Because April is a month filled with …

spring,

new beginnings,

and Easter eggs.

Still stumped?

Maybe the shape of the word will give you a clue …

ooooooooooooooooooo

Okay, maybe a visual is better …


Eggs. It’s all about eggs.

Oology is the branch of ornithology that studies birds’ eggs.

Here’s one for the record book: A giant “elephant bird” intact fossilized egg was sold at auction in 2013 for $101,813! Elephant birds were a kind of predecessor to the ostrich, living in Madagascar between the 13th and 17th centuries. The elephant bird egg was 120 times bigger than an average chicken egg … breakfast for a crowd.

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    And then there are those chocolate eggs that have the pastel sugar coatings around them! Just sayin…..

    • Cindi says:

      Yes, Winnie ~~ I have a degree in the study of those!

      There is always that little bit of excited wonder that comes over people when the discover a nest of eggs, isn’t there. It’s a universal love.

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photo-of-the-day

farm-romance_9787

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    What a beautiful little bird. What is it? We don’t have that breed around here and I always enjoy seeing different birds in other parts of our nation. Each one has their own little niche.

  2. Cindi says:

    That is a precious picture! Don’t know why it struck me that way. Heehee, it gave me a little flutter of excitement for the spring that is right around the corner! Gotta get out and clean the winter debris out of the yard to make ready for an abundance of these beautiful little guys. Last summer’s sunflowers and birdbath put my yard on the birdie map. Well, they helped by planting most of the sunflowers for me but…

  3. Nancy Coughlin says:

    Amazing how resilient these little guys are. Received a larger feeder this past year from one of my son’s mothers-in-law, and the bird population in my backyard has increased dramatically. I am amazed they are surviving this winter. Lots of cardinals and blue-jays. Even had some crows this past week!

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photo-of-the-day

farm-romance-9716

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    Oh, the lovely Wall tents! I had wanted to come to your B&B so much but life just didn’t present an opportunity to make the trek before they closed.

  2. CJ Armstrong says:

    I’d be there in a heartbeat, if I could! 😀

  3. CJ Armstrong says:

    P.S. I’m just soooooo grateful for the opportunity my daughter, Robin, and I had the summer of 2011 to stay at your Outpost B&B for a few days! What a treat!!

  4. Nancy Coughlin says:

    How wonderful to be able to visit and stay in one of your wall tents! On my bucket list!

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