Building The Lexicon

Being an aspiring and self-practicing wordsmith, I decided it might be a nice novelty this year for me to get a “Word-A-Day” calendar. I’ve missed the first 20 words for this year, so I’ve got some catching up to do. Let’s expand our respective lexicons, shall we?

1) Syncretic (adj.): characterized or brought about by the combination of different forms of belief or practice
Sentence – Dr. Portman and his partners practiced a syncretic form of medicine, borrowing from both Eastern and Western medical traditions.
2) Mash (n.): an intense and usually passing infatuation; also the object of infatuation
Sentence – I was surprised to hear that Daisy had a mash on me since we’d never even said two words to each other.
3) Ultima (n.): the last syllable of a word
Sentence – For the last line of her poem, Sheila needed a word with an ultima that rhymed with “green”, so she found a way to use “magazine”.
4) Langue (n.): language viewed abstractly as a system of forms and conventions used for communication in a community
5) Alley-oop (n.): a basketball play in which a player catches a pass above the basket and immediately dunks the ball
6) Fissiparous (adj.): tending to break up into parts; divisive
Sentence – The reorganization of management can have a fissiparous effect on the rest of the company.
7) Passel (n.): a large number or amount
Sentence – Knowing there will be a passel of phone and e-mail messages to deal with, Rob Is dreading going back to work after his two-week vacation.
8) Truculent (adj.): 1: feeling or displaying ferocity 2: deadly or destructive 3: scathingly harsh 4: aggressively self-assertive
Sentence (and this is my own) – Simon Cowell is well-known for his truculent criticism as a judge on “American Idol”.
9) Febrile (adj.): marked or caused by fever; feverish
10) Confabulate (v.): 1: to talk informally; chat 2: to hold a discussion; confer 3: to fill in gaps in memory by fabrication
11) Kinesics (n.): a systematic study of the relationship between nonlinguistic body motions (as blushes, shrugs, or eye movement) and communication, A.K.A “body language”
12) Yashmak (n.): a veil worn by Muslim women that is wrapped around the upper and lower parts of the face so that only the eyes remain exposed to public view
13) Advertent (adj.): giving attention; heedful
Sentence – Marcia listened to everything we said with an advertent expression on her face, then proceeded to tell us, point by point, exactly why she disagreed with us.
14) Quaggy (adj.): 1: marshy 2: flabby
Sentence – The alluring creeks and guts that cut through the quaggy *archipelago (ooo, another word I don’t know the meaning of) are littered with too much manmade *detritus (and yet another!).
15) Fervid (adj.): 1: very hot; burning 2: marked by often extreme intensity of feeling
Sentence – Jennie was such a fervid supporter of the proposed law that she drove all the way to Washington to demonstrate in favor of its passage.
16) Whelm (v.): 1: to cover or engulf completely with usually disastrous effect 2: to overwhelm 3: to pass or go over something so as to bury or submerge it
Sentence – The avalanche whelmed everything in its path.
17) Convivial (adj.): relating to , occupied with, or fond of feasting, drinking and good company
Sentence – After the wedding ceremony, the families and friends of the bride and groom enjoyed a convivial evening at the yacht club.
18) Perspicuous (adj.): plain to the understanding especially because of clarity and precision of presentation
Sentence – His language is very pure, perspicuous, and to the point.
19) Bird-dog (v.): 1: to watch closely 2: to seek out; follow or detect
20) Exclave (n.): a portion of a country separated from the main part and constituting an enclave in respect to the surrounding territory
Sentence – Technically, the state of Alaska is an exclave of the United States, bordering only Canadian territory.

And now for today’s word, which is “infinitesimal”, an adjective which means either 1) taking on values arbitrarily close to but greater than zero or 2) immeasurably or incalculably small. The example sentence is “The days get longer in seemingly infinitesimal increments, but by the end of February we’ll have gained two whole hours of sunlight since the winter solstice”.

Now this might bore the pants off someone else but for me it’s utterly fascinating. Each of these word-of-the-day cards contains a “Did You Know…?” section on the back that talks about the etymology of the word and how its usage has evolved through time. Being the language enthusiast that I am (I want to teach myself Latin and relearn French), this is the kicker that makes this particular calendar (made by Page-A-Day) a winner with me. Just call me a “word nerd”.

On to other matters. Just started reading “The Stay-At-Home Survival Guide: Field-Tested Strategies For Staying Smart, Sane And Connected While Caring For Your Kids” by Melissa Stanton (Long subtitle? No doubt.) Ms. Stanton is a former editor who used to work for the likes of People and Life magazines before deciding to trade career for full-time motherhood. I am only 40 pages in but I can’t tell you what a relief it is to read quotes that Stanton has collected from other mothers who admit how mind-numbing this job can be.

Says Jessa, a mother to two preschool-age children: “Everyone celebrates motherhood, but we mothers feel guilty for not loving every second of motherhood, and no one really wants to hear us say we actually do not like it all the time. How blasphemous, huh??!!! Just today I was playing with my kids outside to stay sane, and I was thinking how fricking bored I was. How much I love them to death but how bored I was playing on the swings, bikes, etc.”

Expounding upon the monotony and routine of staying at home all day with your kids is a quote from Cindy, a former lawyer and mother of two: “Many days I live the movie “Groundhog Day”. It’s the same day over and over. It’s also the ultimate catch-22. I adore my children, but my twelve-hour-plus days with them are brutal. I find it hard to be around anyone for more than twelve hours a day. I wind up yelling a lot more than I would like to admit.” Boy do I know how she feels. Review forthcoming on this book.