Word of the Week: Plenishing

Welcome back, after a much-longer-than-intended hiatus, to....

This week's word is Plenishing.

Plen·ish·ing (plenˈishˌing), noun*
Household furniture; stock.

Used in a sentence:

"My father's plenishings are on a moving van, somewhere between California and Wisconsin," said Mrs. M.

Most recently seen or heard in:

Anne of Avonlea, by L.M Montgomery:

"In a week's time Mrs. Rachel Lynde would move to Green Gables .... she had sold all her superfluous household plenishings by auction...."

Why I like this word:

It has a soft and generous sound, delightfully suggestive of cushiony sofas in firelit rooms, or long curtains gently billowing in a warm breeze. Based on the Latin root plenus, meaning "full", the word plenishing gives me a pleasing sense of comfort and plenty.

I see Plenishing as a softly-rounded lady, middle-aged, but still youthful at heart. She wears a ruffled apron stitched by herself, and trots busily between the kitchen and sitting room, carrying plates of freshly-baked cookies to a gate-legged table where sits a steaming teapot. Plenishing is a generous soul who pours cream with abandon and presses you to have another slice of cake. Her sitting room is light and airy, furnished with taste and simplicity, and adorned with embroidered cushions and crocheted throws (also stitched by herself). Wouldn't you like to have tea with her?

Plenishing.

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*Plenishing is also the present participle of the verb "to plenish", itself a lovely word meaning "equip, fill up, or stock".

Have you plenished anything lately?

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Words of the Week: Grateful ... and Giveaway

And now, a special Thanksgiving installment of Mrs. M's Word of the Week, with not one, but two featured words.

This week's words are Grateful and Giveaway.

grate·ful (ˈgrātfəl/), adjective
Feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness; thankful.

give·a·way (ˈgivəˌwā/), informal noun
1. A thing that is given free.
2. An outburst of generosity in the blogging world.

Used in a sentence:

"I am so grateful for all of you," said Mrs. M to her readers, "that I would like to hold a giveaway."

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(Here we depart from our usual format to talk about some rather astonishing statistics.)

Somewhere back in July, I passed the million-pageview mark. (I know! Can you believe it?) As of this writing, that number has climbed to 1,260,520. Good grief. More statistics: 608 posts, 618 followers, 8563 comments. (Of course some of those are my replies to your comments, but still!)

What can I say but "Thank you"? I so appreciate all of you who visit, and read, and comment, and email, and share bits of your lives and thoughts with me. I am truly grateful for you.

On to the giveaway:

I'm a big fan of Interweave Press. They publish some of the finest fiber and craft magazines around, and I would love to send out one of their special issues to a lucky winner. So I'm offering you a choice of ONE of these:

Interweave Crochet Accessories - chock-full of wonderful accessory patterns (including a hat by yours truly):

OR, Interweave Stitch Gifts - containing dozens of cute and useful stitch projects, sure to be appreciated by my sewing friends:

OR, Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts - for the knitters out there, lots of lovely projects suitable for gift-giving:

(Click on any of the magazine names above to preview the exciting contents.)

And what's a giveaway without chocolate? As usual, I'll be throwing in some Green & Black's organic chocolate bars. And perhaps a small surprise or two. :)

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How to enter:

1. Leave a comment telling me which special issue you'd like to win. (Be sure there's a way for me to reach you.)

OR

2. If you can't leave a comment because you don't have an online profile, then send me an e-mail (see my profile for the address), and include your chosen magazine in the subject line.

That's it!

This giveaway is international.

The deadline for entries is Sunday, December 8, 2013 (midnight, US Central Standard Time).

The winner will be announced on Monday, December 9th.

And again, thank you all. :)

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Word of the Week: Inexorable

My, how the days do fly. Here we are again with yet another (kettle drum goes BOM-bom-BOM-bom-BOM-bom-BOM-bom-BOMMMMM)...

This week's word is Inexorable.

in·ex·o·ra·ble (inˈeksərəbəl)
adjective
1. Impossible to stop or prevent.
2. (of a person) Impossible to persuade by request or entreaty.
synonyms: relentless, unstoppable, inescapable, inevitable, unavoidable, irrevocable, unalterable; persistent, continuous, nonstop, steady, interminable, incessant, unceasing, unremitting, unrelenting

Used in a sentence:

"In the howl of the wind, in the bitterness of the air, I sense the inexorable approach of Winter," said Mrs. M as she put the flannel sheets on the bed.

(No, I don't really talk like that. Or not usually.)

Most recently seen or heard in:

"The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis

Why I like this word:

Sternly grand and rather mysterious, it rolls around the mouth like organ chords in some vast cathedral. Inexorable is an austere and dignified word - I can feel my back straightening when I say it.

If Inexorable were a person, how would he look? Definitely male, for starters: pale and upright, narrow of jaw, with steely grey eyes and a firm mouth. He may be wearing a toga and laurel wreath; whatever he wears is worn with dignity.

Once he decides on a course of action, nothing can dissuade him; his greatest fault is the lack of a sense of humour. Because of this, Inexorable gets dragged into many a dry and depressing sentence (Google "inexorable quotes" and you'll see what I mean). It takes the lighter touch of a genius like P.G. Wodehouse to give Inexorable his proper due:

It would seem to be an inexorable law of Nature that no man shall shine at both ends. If he has a high forehead and a thirst for wisdom, his fox-trotting (if any) shall be as the staggerings of the drunken; while, if he is a good dancer, he is nearly always petrified from the ears upward. --The Man With Two Left Feet

I can't find anything funny to say about Inexorable - in fact he's rather difficult to be around, and very hard to work into conversation - but I like him nonetheless. He ranks right up there with Immortal, Invisible, Invincible, and Unalterable for sheer syllabic splendour. Like them, he should be used but sparely, lest he (and the speaker) descend into the realm of bombast.

Inexorable.

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Are there any words you like that you find hard to work into conversation? Do tell.

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Word of the Week: Soporific

Welcome back to...

This week's word is Soporific.

sop·o·rif·ic (ˌsäpəˈrifik)
adjective - Tending to induce drowsiness or sleep; sleepy or drowsy; tediously boring or monotonous.
noun - a drug or other agent that induces sleep.
Some synonyms: sedative, somnolent, calmative

Used in a sentence:

"I hope readers won't find this post soporific," said Mrs. M.

Most recently seen or heard in:

"A Mixed Threesome" from Golf Without Tears by P.G. Wodehouse (you can read the story online here)

Why I like this word:

1. It's beautifully onomatopoeic (which is a fancy way of saying that it sounds like what it means). Say it slowly to yourself a few times over, and see if it doesn't set you nodding - especially when combined with a few of its synonyms. Sedative, somnolent, soporific. Sedative, somnolent, soporific. Your eyes are closing. You're getting sleepy ... very sleepy.

(There's something about that initial "s"- so soft, so seductive.)

2. Spelt a bit differently, it would make a lovely name for a retro laundry detergent. Can't you just see the breathless ads?

Tired of finding gray soap scum on your laundry? Don't use soap, use Soap-o-Riffic! Soap-o-Riffic's special ingredients will make your whites whiter and your brights brighter. Terrific for wool, terrific for silk, terrific for cotton and nylon too! For all your laundry needs, remember - It's not soap, it's Soap-o-Riffic!

(Amazing how those exclamation points dispel the drowsy effect.)

A confession:

I always thought this word was pronounced sō - porific (which explains the little advertising fantasy above). If only it were used more in everyday conversation I might have had a clue.

Soporific. (Yawn.)

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What's your favourite soporific?

(Mine is mental arithmetic, with government documents running a strong second. Either of these will send me right off to sleep.)

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Word of the Week: Nother

Welcome back to Mrs. M's Word of the Week. Today we descend from our usual linguistic heights to explore one of the seedier byways of American English. We also introduce a new speaker, the Grammar Prig.

This week's (so-called) word is Nother.

noth·er (ˈnəTHər), adjective & pronoun informal
1. Nonstandard spelling of "another".

Used in a sentence:

"Don't go away," said the radio announcer, "there's a whole nother hour of Prairie Home Companion coming up right after this break." (Heard weekly for years on Wisconsin Public Radio. Oh, the shame of it.)

Most recently seen or heard in:

This NPR interview.

Why I like this word (or not):

I don't like this word. But as a mysterious quantifier with chilling grammatical implications, it holds a certain fascination.

Just think of the dreadful possibilities: if "whole nothers" can gain such a wide acceptance, the day of partial nothers cannot be far off.

"Still hungry, sweetheart? There's a half nother sandwich left on the plate."

"We're not out of sugar - there's a third nother cup in the bag."

And it's only a matter of time before Nother crosses the pond and corrupts the metric Old World:

"I say, Basil, hadn't we better stop for petrol? We've only a tenth nother litre in the tank."

Nother wasn't always such a sinister word - it entered the language rather innocently some centuries ago, bearing on its youthful head an apostrophe which marked it out as a harmless contraction of "another". Can't you just picture it? Cute little 'Nother, freckled and barefoot, wearing ragged overalls and chewing on a straw, or swimming in the crick with its cousin 'Nuff.

But something went wrong along the way. Cute little 'Nother grew up, dropped its apostrophe, and got in with a Bad Grammar crowd. (The dropped apostrophe also went astray, and now hangs out in all the worst dive's.)

Some might say Nother is an innocent victim - a piteous orphan forcibly separated from its initial letter and compelled to labour in the field of shoddy grammatical construction. Others might see it as a harmless bit of linguistic whimsy, or a pleasant way to channel their inner hillbilly.

The Grammar Prig weighs in with: "Nother is no helpless victim - it's a shifty interloper with nefarious designs on the purity of the language. I hereby issue a call for its immediate banishment - though I realise the unlikelihood of such an event. This is America, after all, where grammatical horrors are daily embraced and welcomed into Common Usage. Now that Nother has infiltrated Public Radio, there's no telling where it may go. The next thing we know, it will be running for President. With a misplaced apostrophe as its running-mate."

The Grammar Prig's Better Way to Say It:

• Another whole
• Another full
• Another completely
• Another entirely

For example:

"There's another full hour of our show coming up after this message."

"That's another story entirely."

Nother. Victim or villain? You be the judge.

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Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the blogger. (But she really enjoys writing them.)

That's all for today, folks. Tune in next week, when we'll focus on a...nother (and better) word.

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How do you feel about nothers, whole or otherwise?

Do you have any pet grammatical peeves?

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Word of the Week: Irascible

Welcome back to (drumroll please)....

This week's word is Irascible.

i·ras·ci·ble (iˈrasəbəl), adjective

1. Having or showing a tendency to be easily angered.

Synonyms: irritable, quick-tempered, short-tempered, hot-tempered, testy, touchy, tetchy, edgy, crabby, petulant, waspish, dyspeptic, snappish

Used in a sentence:

As the angry client stalked away, the staff uttered a collective sigh of relief. "That was a very irascible gentleman," said Mrs. M. (She then exclaimed, "Ooh - good word! I think I'll make it the Word of the Week).

Most recently seen or heard in:

A conversation with my boss.

Why I like this word:

1. It has a raspy, peppery sound that perfectly fits its meaning. (So do many of its synonyms.)

2. It looks interesting in print. (This is very subjective and difficult to explain. Some letter combinations look better than others, to my eye - and "irascible" is visually fascinating.)

3. Consider the alternatives:

Irritable - a scratchy word, making her who says it sound irritable
Hot-tempered - too thumpity
Touchy - too much like "touchy-feely"
Tetchy - an itchy word
Edgy - rather a positive term these days, applied more to art than to temperament
Waspish - a stinging word that implies a venomous intent
Snappish - sounds too much like a fish or a turtle

Irascible is at once both softer and sharper than these. It's peppery but not poisonous. It is also, for reasons unknown to me, a word most often applied to males.

I see Irascible as a red-faced chap with a bristly mustache and steam coming out of his ears. He's impatient and demanding, often rude, and rarely lets you get a word in edgewise. But he can be strangely susceptible to acts of kindness. When apoplexy strikes (as it invariably will, given his high blood-pressure), send him a get-well card. You may find that under all the bluster he hides a tender heart.

A little kindness ... would do wonders with [him] -- Lewis Carroll

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1

Irascible.

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How do you deal with irascible people?

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Word of the Week: Dilatory

Welcome to Mrs. M's Word of the Week, a new and (I hope) weekly column in which I highlight a specific word that has lately tickled my fancy.

This week's word is Dilatory.

dil·a·to·ry (ˈdiləˌtôrē), adjective
1. Slow to act.
2. Intended to cause delay.
Synonyms: slow, tardy, unhurried, sluggish, sluggardly, snaillike, lazy

Used in a sentence:

"I have been very dilatory about writing blog posts this year," said Mrs. Micawber.

Most recently seen or heard in:

This post from Mrs. Thomasina Tittlemouse

Why I like this word:

1. It invariably reminds me of Mr. Bennett, a favourite character in Pride and Prejudice:

"...though dilatory in undertaking business, he was quick in its execution." (This could actually apply to me.)

"His family knew him to be, on all common occasions, a most dilatory and negligent correspondent...." (Oh dear. This also applies to me. Perhaps that's why I identify with Mr. B?)

2. Consider the alternatives:

Tardy - sounds too much like "nerdy"
Slow - has a rather negative intellectual implication
Sluggish and Snail-like - too slimy-sounding
Lazy - good when applied to a river, bad when applied to a person

Dilatory rolls more pleasantly off the lips, and hints at a sort of languid elegance. Dilatory dresses in cool white linen and sips cocktails on a shady veranda. "I'm not lazy," it says, in a soft, honeyed drawl. "I just have other things on my mind."

Dilatory.

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That's all for today, folks (cue sprightly theme music). Tune in next week, when we'll highlight another Word word word word of the the the Week week week week.

(Must speak to the sound man about that echo.)

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Has any word tickled your fancy lately?

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