News from Ruth

Apologies to my regular readers for messing about with my blogs.

For logistical reasons I've created a separate blog site for 'Quote of the Day' http://quoteofthedayr.blogspot.com.au/ .

You'll find the 'Word of the Day' here :-

http://wordoftday.blogspot.com.au/

The next module, and last module, in the Fiction Writers Workbook is almost completed. It's called Writing for Children, Stage and Screen and Haiku Poetry. Very long-winded I know but I can't think of anything else that covers what's in it. I had the leave out Radio. This book is only suitable for people who have completed the other modules as everything is genre specific and doesn't cover the actual story writing.

I shall put the Haiku part up as a separate small eBook in the next few days and it will be FREE.

I shall keep you advised.

Todays Quote 30 Jan

Only in our dreams are we free; the rest of the time we need wages.
Terry Pratchett

http://writingthestorypruthpunton.blogspot.com.au/

Obstreperous - Word of the Day January 29

Pronunciation   \ub-STREP-uh-rus\

Adjective

Definition

 1:  marked by unruly or aggressive noisiness: clamorous

 2:  stubbornly resistant to control: unruly

Examples

 After two months at sea with dwindling food supplies and declining confidence in the captain, the ship's crew became obstreperous and began to plot a mutiny.                               

"It is Rob she calls for when crankily refusing to go to bed, and when Alan attempts to calm her she grows only more obstreperous." — Charles Isherwood, The New York Times, 9 Nov. 2015

About

The handy Latin prefix ob-, meaning "in the way," "against," or "toward," occurs in many Latin and English words, often in alternate forms. Obstreperous comes from ob- plus strepere, a verb meaning "to make a noise," so someone who is obstreperous is literally making noise to rebel against something, much like a protesting crowd or an unruly child. The word has been used in English since around the beginning of the 17th century. Strepere has not played a role in the formation of any other notable English words, but ob- words abound; these include obese, obnoxious, occasion, offend, omit, oppress, and oust.

  

Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of obstreperous: vo _ if _ _ ant.

Webster- Merriam

Quote for 29 January 2016

'Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off.'

Terry Pratchett

pedantic  - Word for 29 January

adjective

Pronunciation: 

/pɪˈdantɪk/

Meaning:

 - disapproving.

 -  stodgily, and often ostentatiously learned.

 - Too worried about small details or rules.

         A pedantic insistence on the correct way of doing things

 - Excessively concerned with minor details or rules; overscrupulou

          His analyses are careful and even painstaking, but never pedantic

Related Words

pedantically

Pronunciation: /pɪˈdantɪkli/ 

adverb

pedant

Noun

 - One who makes a show of knowledge.

 - One who is unimaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge.

 - A formalist or precisionist in teaching.

Words that rhyme with pedantic

Antic, Atlantic, transatlantic

Origin of pedant

Middle French, from Italian pedante

Fugue - Word of the Day

Quote of the Day

 'I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging  thinking  outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.'

Terry Pratchett

fugue - Word of the Day

\ˈfyüg\

noun

Definitions

:- A piece of music in which tunes are repeated in complex patterns

:- a musical composition in which one or two themes are repeated or imitated by successively entering voices and contrapuntally developed in a continuous interweaving of the voice parts

:- Something that resembles a fugue especially in interweaving repetitive elements

:- A disturbed state of consciousness in which the one affected seems to perform acts in full awareness but upon recovery cannot recollect the acts performed

Origin of fugue

Probably from Italian fuga flight, fugue, from Latin, flight, from fugere

First Known Use: 1597

Merriam-Webster

Quote of the Day  

'Stupid men are often capable of things the clever would not dare to contemplate.'

Terry Pratchett

Word of the Day  

horde

Noun

Pronunciation: /hɔːd/

board, fraud, rhyme with horde

Definitions

 - Chiefly derogatory - A large group of people:

 - A horde of beery rugby fans

 - An army or tribe of nomadic warriors:

 - Tartar hordes

Usage

The words hoard and horde are quite distinct; see hoard (usage).

Origin

Mid 16th century (originally denoting a tribe or troop of Tartar or other nomads): from Polish horda, from Turkish ordu '(royal) camp'.

Oxford Dictionaries

January 26 Australia Day

Quote of the Day

Early to rise, early to bed, makes a man healthy, wealthy and dead.

Terry Pratchett

Word of the Day

harry    \HAIR-ee\

verb

Definition

 1:  to make a pillaging or destructive raid on : assault

 2:  to force to move along by harassing

 3:  to torment by or as if by constant attack

 Examples

 The young boy harried the kitten until it swiped him with its claws.

 "Coming off a Thursday schedule packed with practice, a Pearl Harbor visit and a luau, the Aggies shot 54 percent on Friday and harried the Rainbow Wahine basketball team into turnovers that fueled an 82-41 rout at the Cannon Activities Center in Laie." — Jason Kaneshiro, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 6 Dec. 2015

Was there once a warlike man named Harry who is the source for today's word? One particularly belligerent Harry does come to mind: Shakespeare once described how "famine, sword, and fire" accompanied "the warlike Harry," England's King Henry the Fifth. But neither this king nor any of his namesakes are the source for the verb harry. Rather, harry (or a word resembling it) has been a part of English for as long as there has been anything that could be called English. It took the form hergian in Old English and harien in Middle English, passing through numerous variations before finally settling into its modern spelling. The word's Old English ancestors are related to the Old High German words heriōn ("to lay waste") and heri ("army").

Name That Synonym

 Fill in the blanks to create a synonym of harry: f _ r _ _ t. 

25January Word and Quote of the Day

Today's Quote

'Darkness isn't the opposite of light, it is simply its absence.'

Terry Pratchett

http://grammarandpunctuationmodule4.blogspot.com.au/

Word of the Day

pundit

Pronunciation: /ˈpʌndɪt/

Noun

Definition

An expert in a particular subject or field who is frequently called upon to give their opinions to the public:

Political pundits were tipping him for promotion.

Origin

From Sanskrit paṇḍita 'learned'.

 The original pundits were highly respected teachers and leaders in India. Their title was taken from the Hindi word paṇḍit, a term of respect for a wise person that itself derives from the Sanskrit paṇḍita, meaning "learned." English speakers began using the form pundit specifically to refer to those Hindu sages as long ago as the 1600s. By the 1800s, they had also extended the term to refer to other sagacious individuals, and now pundit is often used with a hint of sarcasm to refer to informed opinion makers (such as political commentators, financial analysts, and newspaper columnists) who boldly share their views (sometimes at great length) on just about any subject that lies within their areas of expertise.

What 5-letter word beginning with "s" can refer to a Hindu religious teacher or a pundit?

Merriam Webster

Oxford Dictionary 

24 January Word and Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

'The pen is mightier than the sword ... if the sword is very short, and the pen is very sharp.' - The Light Fantastic
Terry Pratchett

http://grammarandpunctuationmodule4.blogspot.com.au/

 Word of the Day

GRAVITATE

Pronunciation: /ˈɡravɪteɪt/ 

Meaning

- Move towards or be attracted to a person or thing:

            Young western Europeans will gravitate to Berlin

 - Physics  - Move, or tend to move, towards a centre of gravity or other attractive force:

            The electron does not gravitate towards the nucleus

Archaic 

 - Descend or sink by the force of gravity:

Origin

Mid 17th century: from modern Latin gravitat-, from the verb gravitare, from Latin gravitas 'weight'.

Gravity, gravitation, and gravitate descend from the Latin gravitas, meaning "weight." The first to arrive on the scene was gravity, which appeared in the early 16th century. (Originally meaning "dignity or sobriety of bearing," it quickly came to mean "weight" as well.) Next came gravitation (used to describe the force of gravity) and gravitate—both mid-17th century arrivals. Gravitate once meant "to apply weight or pressure," but that use is now obsolete. In the late 17th century, it was recorded in the sense "to move under the effect of gravitation." It then acquired a more general sense of "to move toward something" (such as toward a specific location), and finally a metaphorical sense of "to be attracted" (as toward a person or a vocation).

Oxford Dictionary & Merriam Webster

January 23 2016

Quote of the Day

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Equal Rites

Terry Pratchett

Word of the Day

miasma

Pronunciation: /mɪˈazmə/  /mʌɪˈazmə/

noun (plural miasmas)

Definition of miasma

1 - An unpleasant or unhealthy smell or vapour:

A miasma of stale alcohol hung around him

2 -  An oppressive or unpleasant atmosphere which surrounds or emanates from something:

A miasma of despair rose from the black workshops

Derivatives

miasmal

Pronunciation: /mɪˈazm(ə)l/  /mʌɪˈazm(ə)l/

adjective

miasmatic

Pronunciation: /mɪəzˈmatɪk/

adjective

Origin

Mid 17th century: from Greek, literally 'defilement', from miainein 'pollute'.

Words that rhyme with miasma

plasma

Oxford Dictionary

Quote and Word for 22 January 2016

January 22 2016

Quote of the Day

“Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out.” –The Light Fantastic

Terry Pratchett

Word of the Day

effete 

pron   \ih-FEET\

adjective

Definition

no longer fertile

having lost character, vitality, or strength

marked by weakness or decadence

soft or delicate from or as if from a pampered existence

having feminine qualities untypical of a man : not manly in appearance or manner

Examples

The authority of an effete aristocracy began to dwindle.

He chatted away, exercising his rather effete charm.

Effete derives from Latin effetus, meaning "no longer fruitful," and for a brief time in English it was used to describe an animal no longer capable of producing offspring. For most of its existence in English, however, the use of effete has been entirely figurative. The usual figurative sense of the word was for many years "exhausted" or "worn out." But since at least the beginning of the 20th century, effete has also been used to suggest overrefinement, weakness of character, snobbery, and effeminacy. It's these meanings you're most likely to encounter today.

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of effete: ANTREEEV. 

Merriman Webster

Quote and Word for January 21 2016

January 21 2016

Quote of the Day

“People don't alter history any more than birds alter the sky, they just make brief patterns in it.” - Mort

Terry Pratchett

Word of the Day

thew

pron   \THOO\

Definition

 noun

 muscular power or development

 strength, vitality

 muscle, sinew — usually used in plural

Examples

 "In Rocco's melodramatically murky illustrations, men and women alike display rippling thews and plenty of skin as they battle ravening monsters." — Kirkus Reviews, 22 July 2015

 "As soon as his right arm received thew and sinew he learned to draw the long bow and speed a true arrow." — J. Walker McSpadden, Robin Hood and His Merry Outlaws, 1923

Did You Know?

 Thew has had a long, difficult past during which it discovered its strengths and weaknesses. In Middle English it carried a number of meanings, referring to a custom, habit, personal quality, or virtue. The word began to tire in the 16th century but was soon revitalized with a new meaning: it began to be used specifically for the quality of physical strength and later for the muscles demonstrating that quality. In time, the word buddied up with sinew in both literal and figurative turns of phrase, as in "the thews and sinews of my body ached" and "their love affair was the thew and sinew of the story."

Merriam-Webster

Quote of the Day

Sometimes it is better to light a flamethrower than curse  the darkness.

Terry Pratchett

Word of the Day

expatiate 

 pronounced  \ek-SPAY-shee-ayt\

verb

Definition

to move about freely or at will : wander

to speak or write at length or in detail

 Examples

"Humboldt … decided to deliver a series of lectures on the theme of, well, everything. He expatiated on meteorology, geology, plant geography, and ocean currents, as well as on fossils, magnetism, astronomy, human migration, and poetry." — Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2015

The Latin antecedent of expatiate is exspatiari, which combines the prefix ex- ("out of") with spatiari ("to take a walk"), itself from spatium ("space" or "course"). Exspatiari means "to wander from a course" and, in a figurative sense, "to digress." But when English speakers began using expatiate in the mid-16th century, we took "wander" to mean simply "to move about freely." In a similar digression from the original Latin, we began using expatiate in a figurative sense of "to speak at length." That's the sense of the word most often used these days, usually in combination with on or upon.

Name That Synonym

 What 6-letter synonym of expatiate begins with "d" and can mean "to become wide" as well as "to comment at length"?

Merriam-Webster

Quote of the Day

'If you don’t turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else’s story.' – from The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

Terry Pratchett

http://creatingcharactersforfictionwriters.blogspot.com.au/

Word of the Day January 18

eloquent  pron   \EL-uh-kwunt\

adjective

Definition

marked by forceful and fluent expression

vividly or movingly expressive or revealing

"The governor waxed eloquent about growing up just a short distance away in Queens and what this part of the world meant to him." — Fred LeBrun, The Times-Union (Albany, New York), 15 Nov. 2015

Since eloquent can have something to do with speaking, it makes sense that it comes from the Latin verb loqui, which means "to speak." Loqui is the parent of many "talkative" offspring in English. Loquacious, which means "given to fluent or excessive talk," also arose from loqui. Another loqui relative is circumlocution, a word that means someone is talking around a subject to avoid making a direct statement (circum- means "around"). And a ventriloquist is someone who makes his or her voice sound like it's coming from another source.

Merriam-Webster

Word and Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind

Terry Pratchett

http://grammarandpunctuationmodule4.blogspot.com.au/

Word of the Day

January 17

nettle     \NET-ul\

verb

Definition

  - to strike or sting with or as if with nettles

 - to arouse to sharp but transitory annoyance or anger

Examples

"He seemed to have lost interest in their conversation, and strolled away again, apparently forgetting her. His indifference nettled her, and she picked up her work, resolved not to offer him the least assistance." — Edith Wharton, Summer, 1917

If you've ever brushed against nettles, you know those weeds have stinging hairs that can leave you smarting and itching. The painful and irritating rash that nettles cause can last for days, but at least it is a rash with a linguistic silver lining. The discomfort caused by nettles can serve to remind one that the verb nettle is a synonym of irritate. Nettle originated as a plant name that we can trace to the Old English word netel. Eventually, people likened the nagging itch caused by the plant to the nagging aggravation of being annoyed, and nettle became a synonym of vex, peeve, and of course irritate.

Word and Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

'If at first you don’t succeed . . . so much for skydiving.'

 HENNY YOUNGMAN

Word of the Day

January 16

qualm 

pron   \KWAHM\

Definition

 noun

 a sudden attack of illness, faintness, or nausea

a sudden feeling of doubt, fear, or uneasiness especially in not following one's conscience or better judgment

some people have no qualms about correcting other people's grammar.

 "II have no qualms about pulling into a gas station or up to a store and asking for directions." — Ed Goldman, The Sacramento (California) Business Journal, 24 Sept. 2015

 Etymologists aren't sure where qualm originated, but they do know it entered English around 1530. Originally, it referred to a sudden sick feeling. Robert Louis Stevenson made use of this older sense in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: "A qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most deadly shuddering." Soon after qualm entered the language, it came to designate not only sudden attacks of illness, but also sudden attacks of emotion or principle. In The Sketch Book, for example, Washington Irving wrote, "Immediately after one of these fits of extravagance, he will be taken with violent qualms of economy…." Eventually, qualm took on the specific (and now most common) meaning of doubt or uneasiness, particularly in not following one's conscience or better judgment.

Merriam-Webster

Word and Quote of the Day

 limn

verb

 Definition

1 : to draw or paint on a surface

2 : to outline in clear sharp detail : delineate

3 :  describe

Examples

In his Leatherstocking tales, James Fenimore Cooper limns the frontier adventures of wilderness scout Natty Bumppo.

"More than 120 objects limn the achievements of the Andean empire in the 15th and 16th centuries." — Mark Feeney, The Boston Globe, 16 Aug. 2015

Merriam-Webster Word of the Day.

Quote of the day

An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have. 

Andy Warhol

Word of the Day

Word of the Day

brogue

pron \BROHG\
noun
A heavy shoe with a hobnailed sole
A stout oxford shoe with perforations and usually a wing tip

Quote of the Day
'We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.'
W. H. Auden

Grammar and Punctuation

 Grammar  and Punctuation is now available from most eBook retailers in many formats.

Quote of the Day

'Freedom without limits is just a word.'

Terry Pratchett

Word of the Day

Today's Word

chirography   pron   \kye-RAH-gruh-fee\
 
noun

handwriting, penmanship

calligraphy

Today's Word and Quote

Terry Pratchett quote  

'In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.'

Word of the day

procrastinate  

verb

to put off intentionally and habitually.

procrastinate means to move or act slowly so as to fall behind. It implies laziness or apathy.

Terry Pratchett - Quote of the Day.

Terry Pratchett - Quote of the Day.

"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."

Punctuation & Grammar - eBook

Punctuation & Grammar - Module  4 of Fiction Writer's Workbook series will be available later this week.