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.