It is my belief, completely unfounded, that writers should love words, and not just to use in poetry and prose, but also know how they are used in relationship to their work. And so I thought I would, for a little while, post some words I came upon that may not be particularly useful to you now, but I found interesting. And I encourage anyone else who has a favorite word or phrase to add to the list. I never mean these things to be an entertainment for myself, though it seems often to turn out that way.

Attached Link: http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/P/paralipsis.htm

noun; rhetorical device of emphasizing a thing by pretending not to mention it; a kind of irony. "It would be unseemly for me to dwell on Senator Kennedy's drinking problem, and too many have already sensationalized his womanizing..." "We will not speak of all Queequeg's peculiarities here; how he eschewed coffee and hot rolls, and applied his undivided attention to beefsteaks, done rare." Melville, Moby Dick

jiggery-pokery (n.) Underhand scheming or behavior; Verbal misrepresentation intended to take advantage of you in some way. In my head, I hear it in the voice of Daniel Day Lewis in "Gangs of New York". A nice oldy-timey word.

disquietude Pronunciation: (")dis-'kwI-&-"t(y) Function: noun : ANXIETY, AGITATION I love this word... always have. I have lots more, I'll have to find them all!

How about the word Troglodyte troglodyte NOUN: A member of a fabulous or prehistoric race of people that lived in caves, dens, or holes. A person considered to be reclusive, reactionary, out of date, or brutish. An anthropoid ape, such as a gorilla or chimpanzee. An animal that lives underground, as an ant or a worm. My definition:- A writer whose words are coming together nicely and doesn't want to be disturbed.....

phrontistery
FRON-tis-te-ri
noun :- a thinking-place

[Gr phrontisterion from phrontistes a thinker, from phroneein to think; applied by Aristophanes to the school of Socrates]
An interesting website I found for unusual words is http://phrontistery.info/

Also for a complete page of "A Loquacious Location of Lipograms" Go to
http://phrontistery.info/lipogram.html

Message edited on: 06/03/2005 02:01

Attached Link: A Glossary of Rhetorical Terms with Examples

The rhetorical repetition of one or several words; specifically, repetition of a word that ends one clause at the beginning of the next. "Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame; and servants of business." Francis Bacon "They call for you: the general who became a slave; the slave who became a gladiator; the gladiator who defied an Emperor." -- delivered by Joaquin Phoenix (from the movie Gladiator)

Attached Link: McGraw-Hill Learning Center - Glossary of Fiction Terms

French for "an untying." The denouement of a novel or story follows the climax; it represents the unraveling of the complexities of a plot, and the clarifying of the story's details and misunderstandings. For example, the "... denouement of Hamlet takes place after the catastrophe, with the stage littered with corpses. During the denouement Fortinbras makes an entrance and a speech, and Horatio speaks his sweet lines in praise of Hamlet."

Attached Link: Wikipedia

A change of fortune or a reversal of circumstances. In literary works, occurs between the climax (the point of highest tension or drama) and denounement.

adj. - Full of keen anticipation or excitement; eager

Attached Link: http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=345730

"A tittle is originally a small mark either on or in a letter, i.e. it may be part of the letter or it may be a diacritic (accent) near it."

It is also the "... tiniest bit; an iota," per the American Heritage Dictionary.

The little dot over a lower case "i" is sometimes referred to as a tittle, and sometimes as a dot. Go figure.

Tittle-tattle is not related: "Tittle-tattle is a varied reduplication of tattle, which derives from Medieval Dutch tatelen, to babble." (at least according to Dictionary.com).

Message edited on: 06/07/2005 11:14

Attached Link: http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/E/enantiosis.htm

"Using opposing or contrary descriptions together, typically in a somewhat paradoxical manner. "Examples: "Money is an excellent servant but a cruel master. "I could neither continue listening nor turn away. "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Psalm 1:1"

Attached Link: Wikipedia by way of a9

"....one of the three original liberal arts or trivium (the other members are dialectic and grammar). While it has meant many different things during its 2500-year history, it is generally described today as the art of persuasion through language. Rhetoric can describe a persuasive way in which one relates a theme or idea in an effort to convince."

Attached Link: http://www.awpi.com/Combs/Shaggy/738.html

paranomasia Punning, playing with words. [Gk. "word-shunting"] paronomasia (păr'ə-nō-mā'zhə, -zhē-ə) n. Word play; punning. A pun. [Latin, from Greek paronomasiā, from paronomazein, to call by a different name : para-, beside; see para1 + onomazein, to name; see onomastic.] (Both spellings are found.) Not only the Greeks, but the writers of the Bible and the ancient Syriacs and Romans and everybody else who scratched out text played with their words with giddy delight. This form of pun relies upon words having the same sound. (Yes, there are other types of puns.) I don't think it is possible to pun in hieroglyphics... but given their love of games, I wouldn't be surprised if the spoken language wasn't full of the richness of mangled meanings. Carolly

Attached Link: From Merriam-Webster's word of the day

1. A concise poem dealing pointedly and often satirically with a single thought or event and often ending with an ingenious turn of thought 2. A terse, sage, or witty and often paradoxical saying 3. Epigrammatic expression

An example from Oscar Wilde: "In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it."

Ancient Greeks and Romans used the word "epigramma" (from Greek "epigraphein," meaning "to write on") to refer to a concise, witty, and often satirical verse.

Attached Link: http://www.writersmarket.com

From Merriam-Webster: Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French

1. • Confused unintelligible language

• A strange, outlandish, or barbarous language or dialect
• hybrid language or dialect simplified in vocabulary and grammar and used for communication between peoples of different speech

2. The technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity or group
3. Obscure and often pretentious language marked by circumlocutions and long words

From the Writer's Market: Words used primarily by members of a particular social, professional or other group. For example, medical jargonwords that are used to describe anatomy, disorders and various diagnostic, laboratory or other proceduresis generally unfamiliar to laypeople. Similarly, writers' jargon includes words and abbreviations such as kill fee, on spec and SASE. Like any dialect, jargon evolves within a subgroup of a larger culture to aid communication about the subgroup's specialized needs; the problem with jargon arises when members of the subgroup, in speaking with (or writing for) the general public, either consciously or unconsciously use jargon to confuse, exclude or exploit the nonmemberas when a doctor, for instance, neglects to explain a painful or risky treatment to a patient in terms he can grasp.

Attached Link: http://www.acronymfinder.com/

SASE is a common acronymn that means "Self-Addressed, Stamped Envelope." If you see this in relationship to a publisher or a contest, it means you will not get your work back unless you include an envelope with an address and adequate postage for its return. And that's no guarantee, by the way. Never send your only copy of your work. But always send a good looking original to a publisher. You want to make a good impression so if your manuscript is starting to looking dog-eared and stained, replace pages so it looks fresh.

And if you have had prints made of your work, sometimes it is a good investment to leave a print rather than a photocopy. If your art is good enough to hang on the wall of their office, it will serve as a daily reminder of the quality you offer.

From the Writer's Market Encyclopedia:

This term describes printed copy in its original typeset form. The type size and column width match the book's or article's format, but pages are not cut to size, and so copy appears on long, narrow sheets.

Galley proof was so named when type was composed by hand in a tray called a galley. Today, even though photocomposition is often the typesetting method, both the terms galley proof and galley refer to the long sheets of typeset copy used for proofreading.

A book editor sends galley proofs to the author for review and corrections.

Attached Link: http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Figures/M/macrologia.htm

Longwindedness. Using more words than are necessary in an attempt to appear eloquent. Polonius exemplifies macrologia in the following speech from Hamlet. My liege, and madam, to expostulate What majesty should be, what duty is, Why day is day, night night, and time is time, Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time; Therefore, [since] brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief. Your noble son is mad: Mad call I it, for to define true madness, What is't but to be nothing else but mad? Shakespeare, Hamlet 2.2.86-94

A journey especially when undertaken to escape from a dangerous or undesirable situation; exodus. To escape the lowering clouds of impending war, Grandmother's family embarked on a hegira that would carry them far from their native soil. Did you know? "A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country." By the year A.D. 622, the prophet Muhammad had learned that painful lesson. In that year, he was forced to flee his native city, Mecca, to escape persecution from those who rejected his message. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, with a number of his followers migrated to Medina, where they were guaranteed protection by local clans. This event, which traditionally marks the beginning of the Islamic era, is known in Arabic as the "Hijra" literally, "departure." That Arabic term passed into Medieval Latin (where it was modified to "Hegira") and from there it eventually made its way into English. By the mid 18th century, English speakers were using "hegira" for other journeys, too especially arduous ones. Merriam-Webster, Inc. Word-of-the-Day ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As related to writing, one can look on many stories (and poems) as being a journey, which can be the result of the need to escape or the wish to go on a quest. The more difficult the journey, internal (of the mind) or external (actual travel), the more interesting it is to the reader.

Attached Link: Writer's Market Encyclopedia

A typeset line considerably short of the standard copy width, standing by itself at the top of a column or page. Unsightly widowsthose less than two-thirds or half the standard line measureare typically fixed in the editing process.

1 : the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (as buzz, hiss) 2 : the use of words whose sound suggests the sense ... Onomatopoeia came into English via Late Latin, but the word "onomatopoeia" traces back to the Greek "onoma," meaning "name," and "poiein," meaning "to make." ("Onoma" can be found in such terms as "onomastics," which refers to the study of proper names and their origins, while "poiein" gave us such words as "poem" and "poet.") English speakers have only used the word "onomatopoeia" since the late 1500s, but people have been creating words from the sounds heard around them for much longer. In fact, the presence of so many imitative words in language spawned the linguistic bowwow theory, which postulates that language originated in imitation of natural sounds. Merriam-Webster, Inc. Word-of-the-Day