Word Wednesday Fun Archives - Expat In Bacolod

Disambiguate: WordWednesdayFun

Published by Stephen Bentley on August 3, 2016

Disambiguate is a word that sounds intriguing. #WordWednesdayFun is partly to do with my love of words, part to do with my love of ‘word sounds,’ partly related to increasing ‘word power,’ and hopefully helping the odd person learn a new word to add to their vocabulary. Usual format – Merriam-Webster: Definition of disambiguate disambiguated disambiguating transitive verb : to establish a single semantic or grammatical interpretation for disambiguation dis-amˌbi-gyə-ˈwā-shən, -gyü-ˈā-\ noun First Known Use of disambiguate 1963 That is all there is! How disappointing and minimalist! And ‘first use’ in 1963 – I’m older than this word 🙂 That does not do this great word justice so let’s venture into the virtual etymological world – the first site on my Google search was vocabulary.com:…

Gawp: WordWednesdayFun

Published by Stephen Bentley on July 27, 2016

Gawp! What are you gawping at? Marvelously descriptive and emotional words. Words to be said with feeling. Gawp and gawping were often heard in the North of England. An illustration of their usage is when performing a task that goes awry – imagine for example trying to hitch up your trousers in a public place. Another example is if caught committing some social indiscretion such as picking one’s nose or scratching the backside. The likely spectator reaction would be an open-mouthed stare. They would be gawping! Merriam-Webster says this: Simple Definition …

1 Comment

Gobsmacked: WordWednesdayFun

Published by Stephen Bentley on July 20, 2016

Gobsmacked is truly one of the great British words. Slight change of formula for this week’s post in the #WordWednesdayFun series. I am using Wordnik as the source*. This is what they say about this wonderful British word: Definitions from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License adj. Flabbergasted, astounded, speechless, overawed. from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. adj. utterly astounded Etymologies As if smacked (“hit”) in the gob (“mouth (Irish / Scottish gaelic)”). (Wiktionary) Examples To say I was gobsmacked is something of an understatement. My Son In Books « Tales from the Reading Room I always liked the British slang “gobsmacked” — it sounds a little violent, but sometimes you do just feel smacked by whatever’s happening around you, you…

5 Comments

Apostrophe: WordWednesdayFun

Published by Stephen Bentley on July 13, 2016

Many people know what an apostrophe looks like. In case you do not, here is Exhibit A – This is some useful information I found on how to use it – You may be wondering how on earth my brain worked to choose this word for #WordWednesdayFun? Or, maybe not? 🙂 I was reading a thread on one of my favorite Facebook writer group pages. This is an excerpt from the chatter: Ok, all you grammar fascists, please help me out. He went to the dentist’s place. ie. he went to the place belonging to the dentist. So far, ok? So the same would apply to the butcher, baker, or candlestick maker. So what if we drop the place? He went to the dentists, or,…

2 Comments

Chanticleer: WordWednesdayFun

Published by Stephen Bentley on July 6, 2016

If someone had asked me a few moments ago, “What is a chanticleer?” I would have had to give up! I enjoy learning a new word. Let Merriam-Webster enlighten you if you were as ignorant as me (or is it I?) 🙂 Lookups for ‘chanticleer’ spike after the CCU Chanticleers become the 2016 College World Series Champions But what is a ‘chanticleer’? A ‘chanticleer’ is a rooster. The word comes from the name of a rooster who appeared in various narratives. Coastal Carolina capitalized on two errors on the same play for four unearned runs in the sixth inning, and the Chanticleers won their first national championship in any sport with a 4-3 victory over Arizona in Game 3 of the College World Series finals…

3 Comments

Irascible: WordWednesdayFun

Published by Stephen Bentley on June 29, 2016

Irascible! Wow! That’s such a neat word. It’s a word that came to mind after my contretemps here with one of my readers. Maybe I should say one of my ex-readers 🙂 I believe he is also an expat. He, in my humble opinion, was trying to tell me what I should or should not write about on this blog! Yes, crazy I know. He seemed to take umbrage with me penning an article to do with Brexit. He pointed out to me that this blog is called Expat in Bacolod. His reasoning appears to be that I should confine my musings to matters connected to Bacolod. That would exclude me from writing about many things of interest to me. Liverpool Football Club, sports in…

5 Comments

Incandescent: WordWednesdayFun

Published by Stephen Bentley on June 22, 2016

Incandescent is maybe a word often used in a tired cliche – “he was incandescent with rage.” I wish I had a dollar for every time I have seen that or heard it said. I chose dollar rather than my native £ because soon it may be worth more! Blame the EU Referendum for that. On that subject, or rather the referendum and the value of the £, I received an email this morning from the TransferWise people. It informed me they were suspending international money transfers until after the referendum owing to the volatility of the £. It’s all a bit of a nuisance. Nay! It could be a problem for me seeing most of my income is paid in currency bearing H.M. The…

6 Comments

Cadence: WordWednesdayFun

Published by Stephen Bentley on June 15, 2016

Some words have a beautiful ring about the. Cadence, I think, is one of them. It was G’s last short story that inspired this week’s choice of word for #WordWednesdayFun. I think I have a fairly good vocabulary but when I read G’s use of the word, I confess I was unsure as to its meaning. Now I know. Merriam-Webster first – Popularity: Top 20% of words Simple Definition : a regular beat or rhythm : the way a person’s voice changes by gently rising and falling while he or she is speaking : an ending part of a piece of music Full Definition 1 a : a rhythmic sequence or flow of sounds in language b : the beat, time, or measure of rhythmical…

2 Comments

Wobbly: WordWednesdayFun

Published by Stephen Bentley on June 8, 2016

It’s a wobbly day today! My old friend Jack recently reminded me I was in the habit of saying that phrase when we were both young and stupid. Now that I am old and stupid, I must confess I had forgotten about it until reminded. It meant nothing. It was one of those silly sayings that friends use between themselves for a giggle. But I was surprised when I looked up the word in Merriam-Webster. I had no idea that it had another meaning: Definition plural Wobblies : a member of the Industrial Workers of the World For once I take my hat off to the Urban Dictionary (and Gwen) for enlightening me: wobbly A member of the once-powerful syndicalist union, the Industrial Workers of…

Delphic: WordWednesdayFun

Published by Stephen Bentley on June 1, 2016

Delphic is a word that was aimed at me while I was still a barrister in London. The bewigged judge said to the bewigged barrister (me), “Hmm, Mr. Bentley, it is unlike you to be delphic. There must be good reason for it so I will grant you your adjournment. We will sit again in one hour from now.” I had to look it up. I had no idea what it meant. Here is what Merriam-Webster has to say about the word: Delphic adjective Del·phic \ˈdel-fik\ Popularity: Bottom 40% of words Definition 1 : of or relating to ancient Delphi or its oracle 2 often not capitalized : ambiguous, obscure <Delphic utterances> delphically adverb Examples in a sentence <the Delphic pronouncements that are so typical…

2 Comments

Category: Word Wednesday Fun