Tips and Tools for Writing

Tips and Tools for Writing

A good vocabulary is a critical component in every writer’s toolkit. Every so often I like to spend some time preparing posts that provide words that you might not be familiar with. Words like defenestrate make me smile. In fact I’d like to defenestrate more than a few people for no reason other than it would feel good to see them reap what they have sown, but I digress.

• adjunct– Noun: A thing added to something else as a supplementary rather than an essential part. Adjective: Connected or added to something, typically in an auxiliary way: “alternative or adjunct therapies”
• augur– : an official diviner of ancient Rome 2: one held to foretell events by omens
• bete noire– a person or thing strongly detested or avoided
• ecumenical– 1: worldwide or general in extent, influence, or application 2 a : of, relating to, or representing the whole of a body of churches
• fait accompli– a thing accomplished and presumably irreversible
• inveigle– to win over by wiles : entice 2: to acquire by ingenuity or flattery : wangle <inveigled her way into a promotion>
• lagniappe– a small gift given a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase; broadly : something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure
• poltroon– a spiritless coward
• truckle– to act in a subservient manner
• vacuous– : emptied of or lacking content 2: marked by lack of ideas or intelligence : stupid, inane <a vacuous mind> <a vacuous movie> 3: devoid of serious occupation
• vagary– an erratic, unpredictable, or extravagant manifestation, action, or notion.

Here is part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part 6, part seven, part eight, part nine, part 10, part 11 and 12.

• Opsimath– N. a person who becomes a student or learner late in life.
• Climacteric– n.1 : a major turning point or critical stage
• 2 a : menopause b : a period in the life of a male corresponding to female menopause and usually occurring with less well-defined physiological and psychological changes
• 3 : the marked and sudden rise in the respiratory rate of fruit just prior to full ripening.
• Prolix-adj. 1 : unduly prolonged or drawn out : too long
• 2 : marked by or using an excess of words
• Confluence: n. 1 : a coming or flowing together, meeting, or gathering at one point
  2 a : the flowing together of two or more streams b : the place of meeting of two streams c : the combined stream formed by conjunction
• Tendentious-adj. marked by a tendency in favor of a particular point of view.
• esurient- hungry, greedy
• Nugatory–1 : of little or no consequence  2 : having no force.
• acatalepsy-Incomprehensibility of things; the doctrine held by the ancient Skeptic philosophers, that human knowledge never amounts to certainty, but only to probability.
• acephalist– One who acknowledges no head or superior.
• Raconteur-One who tells stories and anecdotes with skill and wit.
• Callipygian–adj.Having beautifully proportioned buttocks.
• Lachrymose–adj.
• Weeping or inclined to weep; tearful.
• Causing or tending to cause tears.
• Perspicacious–adj. Having or showing penetrating mental discernment; clear-sighted.
• Flibbertigibbet–n. A silly, scatterbrained, or garrulous person.
• Jejune-adj. Not interesting; dull: “and there pour forth jejune words and useless empty phrases” (Anthony Trollope).
• Lacking maturity; childish: surprised by their jejune responses to our problems.
• Lacking in nutrition: a jejune diet
• Ollendorffian– in the stilted language of foreign phrase-books.
• gerascophobia -a morbid, irrational fear of, or aversion to, growing old.
• bathysiderodrophobia -the fear of subways, undergrounds or metros.
• hormephobia-Fear of shock.
• cacoethes loquendi-the irresistible urge to speak.
• cacoethes scribendi-the irresistible urge to write
• saudade-[Port.] yearning or longing, but more than that…
• Scaturient-L. scaturiens, p. pr. of scaturire gush out, from scatere to bubble, gush.]
• Gushing forth; full to overflowing; effusive. [R.]
• Walpurgisnacht1) the eve of May Day on which witches are held to ride to an appointed rendezvous
• 2) something (as an event or situation) having a nightmarish quality
• barlafumble[fr. parley, call for truce + ?] Scot. obs.
• a call for a truce by one who has fallen in fighting or play; a request for a time out
• defalcate–intr.v., -cat·ed, -cat·ing, -cates. To misuse funds; embezzle.
• Dactylonomy–n.[Gr. da`ktylos finger + no`mos law, distribution.]
• The art of numbering or counting by the fingers.
• recrudesce–intr.v., -desced, -desc·ing, -desc·es.To break out anew or come into renewed activity, as after a period of quiescence.
• videlicet-vÄ­-dÄ•l’ĭ-sÄ•t’, vÄ«-, wÄ­-dā’lÄ­-kÄ•t’) pronunciation
• adv. (Abbr. viz.)
• That is; namely. Used to introduce examples, lists, or items.
• temerarious–adj. Presumptuously or recklessly daring
• Tentiginous-[L. tentigo, -inis, a tension, lecherousness, fr. tendere, tentum, to stretch.]
• 1. Stiff; stretched; strained. [Obs.] Johnson. 2. Lustful, or pertaining to lust. [Obs.] B. Jonson
  Urinator–n.[L., from urinari to plunge under water, to dive.]
• One who dives under water in search of something, as for pearls; a diver.
• usufruct–n.The right to use and enjoy the profits and advantages of something belonging to another as long as the property is not damaged or altered in any way.
• Jackpudding–n.A merry-andrew; a buffoon.
• Jobbernowl–n.[OE. jobbernoule, fr. jobarde a stupid fellow; cf. E. noll.]
• A blockhead.
• nikhedonia-fr. Nike, the Greek goddess of victory + hedoné, pleasure] the pleasure derived from anticipating success
• quidnunckery-[fr. L. quid nunc, what now] nonce-word curiosity, love of news or gossip (also quid-nunc-ism)
• mancinism-the condition of being left-handed
• macroverbumsciolist– 1) a person who is ignorant of large words
• 2) a person who pretends to know a word, then secretly refers to a dictionary.
• mastigophorer-obs. a fellow worthy to be whipped.
• matutolypea-getting up on the wrong side of the bed.
• xenodochiophobia -the fear of foreign hospitality (worry about foreign hotels).
• Xenodochium-n.(a) (Class. Antiq.) A house for the reception of strangers. (b) In the Middle Ages, a room in a monastery for the reception and entertainment of strangers and pilgrims, and for the relief of paupers. [Called also Xenodocheion.]
• Knobstick-n. 1. One who refuses to join, or withdraws from, a trade union. [Cant, Eng.]
• 2. A stick, cane, or club terminating in a knob; esp., such a stick or club used as a weapon or missile; a knobkerrie.
• effulgence-\i-FUL-juhn(t)s\, noun:
• The state of being bright and radiant; splendor; brilliance.
• [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
• divaricate-To diverge at a wide angle; spread apart.
• Otiant– idle; resting.
• machicolation– n. apertures in parapet or floor of gallery for firing upon persons below. machicolate, v.t. furnish with these
• Secern– To discern as separate; discriminate.
• prothalamion -A song in celebration of a wedding; an epithalamium.
• a capite ad calcem–From head to heel.
• ad internecionem– To extermination.
• Abusus non tollit usum-Wrong use does not preclude proper use.
• ad captandum vulgus-To attract or to please the rabble.
• Abligurition– n.[L. abligurito, fr. abligurire to spend in luxurious indulgence; ab + ligurire to be lickerish, dainty, fr. lingere to lick.]
• Prodigal expense for food. [Obs.] Bailey.
• Anililagnia– an attraction to older women.
• Armsaye: the armhole in clothing.
• Euneirophrenia: peace of mind after a pleasant dream.
• Suppedaneum: foot support for crucifix victims.
• Adfenestration: V. The act of entering through a window, usually surreptitiously.
• Vatic–adj.Of or characteristic of a prophet; oracular.