April 2, 2013
Ten Favorite Words–Part II
I love reading, but I’m particularly drawn to books that use beautiful words. Eliabeth Goerge is one of those authors. I’ll forgive a lot of literay mistakes to learn a new word or two.
I have 468 books on my Goodreads list–only a small portion of what I’ve read. I cover 1-2 books a week, including many for my Amazon Vine gig. Here are ten more of the beautiful words I’ve collected (see the first ten here):
- eolian–borne, deposited, eroded by wind. Gives you the sense of timelessness, of Nature’s power.
- feral–wild, unchained. A look, a scent, a scense. When you run into something ‘feral’, you’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.
- Heteroscedasticity–different variance in statistics. Doesn’t it sound smart? One word and you’ve convinced you’re readers the character is brilliant.
- Hobson’s choice–choice without alternative; thing offered or nothing. This is the resolution to every crisis in writing
- neologism: the use or creation of new words or expressions. I use them. Geeks (see ‘Ten Favorite Geek Words) create them. A synonym for ‘fun’.
- pablum–dumbed-down language or ideas, i.e., for the ‘masses’. None of the words on this list qualify
- philistine–smug or or hostile to artistic and cultural values. The opposite of Renaissance Man
- precarious purchase. Doesn’t that sound frightening? Like hanging one-handed from a crumbling cliff?
- presbyopia–blindness. Worse than myopia. Applies to sight and ability to see the solutions to problems.
- schadenfreude–malicious satisfaction from the misfortunes of others. Use this, most of your readers won’t get it. Maybe that’s the plan…
More?
- Beautiful Words
- Ten Favorite Words (Part I)
- Ten Favorite Words (Part II)
- Eight Favorite Words (Part III)
- Ten Favorite Geek Words (Part I)
- Ten Favorite Geek Words (Part II)
- Seven More Favorite Geek Words
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog,Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-monthly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, she is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
