“If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?”
It’s a quiet day, no sun again, but no rain either. The air is damp as if rain is in the wings just biding its time. Yesterday I watched sports all day, soccer in the morning, baseball in the afternoon and basketball at night. It was exhausting.
A string of dark, dank days seems to sap my energy. It’s as if my solar panels have been depleted. I need to get out of the house today. My newest book and the couch are just too tempting.
I wonder sometimes how things get their names. I used to tell people an old lady from New Jersey was responsible for many. I pictured her rocking on the porch trying to decide what to call the plastic ends of her shoelaces. She rocked and rocked until one she stopped rocking and shouted aglet to the world. I did look aglet up just now out of curiosity and found the word originally came from the Latin word acus, needle, which gave birth to aguillette, the Old French word for needle, which then became aglet in English. I guess I’m impressed, but it’s just as easy to call it the end of the shoelace.
I didn’t know the belt loop which holds the end of the belt from flopping around had a name. Loop worked just fine for me, but it’s called a keeper in case you need a conversational tidbit at some cocktail party. I used to have contests with my friends to see which of us could spit cherry pits the furthest. I just found out that chanking is the word for spit out food, for those pits we left on the road. I’ll stay with pits.
My favorite new word is one I had no idea existed. Ophryon is the exactly middle spot of the forehead just above the eyes. I suspect that old lady rocked for days before she came up with that one.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
June 14, 2010 at 11:24 am
dearest kindred spirit
it is splendid to know i am not the only person who wonders about such things.
grey skies are gonna clear up………..
June 14, 2010 at 7:45 pm
My Friend,
I think it wonderful we dream and wonder. It keeps the world wonderfully interesting.
You’re right about the gray skies!
June 14, 2010 at 11:55 am
I figured the belt loop would be called a keeper. All the loops on a horse bridle are called keepers.
Don’t forget your philtrum.
June 14, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Caryn,
I wouldn’t know that about the bridle but it makes sense.
I had to look it up!!
June 14, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Great idea to tell people an old lady came up with many words 🙂 I´ll use that one over here too 🙂 🙂 But I´ll have to find a small village near by. We have a place called Fåglavik, that would be something like Birds bay. It´s a place where You never sees anyone, the only thing You´ll ever see is how the curtains move some when You drive by. I would never dare walking there 🙂 🙂 🙂
It is fun to read in dictionaries. No use trying new words at work though, they´ll just ask me to speak swdish 🙂 🙂 But i have a friend that is as much word nerd like I am 🙂 🙂
Much the same weather over here today. It just brings down my mood i feel.
Have a great day now!
Christer.
June 14, 2010 at 7:52 pm
Christer,
That is spooky, the curtains moving. I suspect they are old people hiding behind the curtain. On my street way back when I was young, old ladies always kept an eye out the window so they wouldn’t miss anything.
I’m with you-the weather brings down my mood too when it is the same day after day. Sun predicted for tomorrow.
June 14, 2010 at 10:34 pm
You’d be even more impressed with the ‘bayonet frog’.
In answer to your original question, look for the red underline in MS Word. Trust Microsoft always.
Cheers
June 15, 2010 at 10:17 am
Minicapt,
I am totally impressed with bayonet frog, once I looked it up, of course.
Kind of scary, “Trust Microsoft always.”