Wordy Wednesday

Wordy Wednesday

~ my word (s) ~ 17 Comments

For today’s word, I decided to open a page of The New Oxford Dictionary of English and look for a word I’d never heard of before. On my quick scan of the pages from Madeira to magic lantern, I found the word ‘madrilene’. Spell check attempted to push me toward mandrill and mad riding; I held my ground.

Madrilene is, I discovered, a clear soup that is usually served cold. It comes from the French ‘consommé à la madrilene’ – the literal translation being ‘soup in the Madrid style’.

As the saying goes, you learn something new every day.

Have you any words to share? I’d love to hear from you.

I’ve (hopefully temporarily) lost image playground for my usual images – apologies and grr!

Clear soup

Wordy Wednesday

~ my word (s) ~ 13 Comments

I’m on holiday this week and my word of the week is holiday. There’s nothing like time away from home, exploring new things and being away from the usual commitments.

The origin of the word is from Old English hāligdæg, which is literally holy day. (Collins English Dictionary)

I am blessed to be in Scotland, a place I love deeply and have been visiting all my life. I’m in Perthshire and I remember my dad always extolling the virtues of the clean air here.

Where’s your favourite place to holiday?

Wordy Wednesday

~ my word (s) ~ 7 Comments

It’s been a very hot few days here so, for today’s word, I’m turning to The Doric. This is the dialect spoken in the North East of Scotland. My dad was originally from Aberdeen so many Doric words are familiar to me.

I’ve heard the phrases, ‘ower hot’ meaning too hot and ‘bilein hot, meaning boiling hot. Glancing through Doric for Beginners by Karen Barrett-Ayres, I found a word I’d never heard of to describe the heat. ‘Plottin’ means unusually hot, which it’s certainly been this week. On the news last night, one of the presenters reminded us it’s still spring, not summer.

What words do you use to describe hot weather? I look forward to hearing from you.

Wordy Wednesday

~ my word (s) ~ 6 Comments

My word this Wednesday is blurb. I’ve always thought it seemed a very informal word to describe the short description that appears on the back of a book, or to describe a film.

An early 20th century word, it was coined by Gelett Burgess, an American humorist. He is said to have invented the word for the promotional cover of his own book.

It is, of course, a term now widely used and recognised by publishers and authors. That small word, though, holds great importance. The blurb on the back of a book is, for many of us, the difference between buying or not buying. I wonder if that’s true for you?

To buy, or not to buy …

Wordy Wednesday

~ my word (s) ~ 6 Comments

With the many dialects around Scotland and England, it’s no surprise that there’s an unique word in the different parts of the countries to describe the passage between buildings. I hadn’t realised, before delving deeper into this, quite how many there are.

In Scotland and the North East, we have vennel, wynd, chare and close. I knew of wynd from my travels in Scotland but had never come across chare, which seems to be specific to Newcastle and the surrounding area.

In Northern England we have the ginnel, snicket, entry and tenfoot – a new one for me. Tenfoot is the term from Hull and relates to the specific width of an alley. Brilliant.

Heading to The Midlands we have jitty, twitchel and shut. In Shropshire the ‘ends’ were shut at night, hence shut.

In Southern England twitten, ope and alley or alleyway are used. Ope comes from Cornwall and is short for opening.

Living most of my adult life in The Midlands, I tend to use jitty. What’s your word for an alleyway? Maybe you have one not on my list; I’d love to know. And if anyone’s from Northern Ireland, Wales or further afield I’d be interested to know the word you use to describe an alleyway.

Just strolling down the jitty

Wordy Wednesday

~ my word (s) ~ 8 Comments

Last weekend we went over to Birmingham to drop off my daughter’s birthday presents and go out for a pre-birthday lunch. She wanted to try a Colombian café in Bearwood that she’d heard about called Colombian Picada Mix. As well as wanting to try the café, my daughter was keen to practise her Spanish, which she’s been learning for a while.

As we perused the menu, all in Spanish, we got to discussing burritos – even though they were not on the menu as they’re more associated with Mexico. What piqued my interest was discovering that the direct translation of burritos is little donkey. Curious; how did a little donkey become a food wrap?

My son-in-law, speculated that it might refer to the bags carried by donkeys on their backs. Turns out he’s probably right. Though there are a number of possible explanations for the word burrito, one is that it refers to the resemblance of a burrito wrap to the rolled up packs carried by donkeys.

What a wonderful time we had immersing ourselves in language and meanings. This is why I love words; there’s always something new to discover.

We also had a fantastic meal with exceptional hospitality at https://columbiapicadamix.co.uk

Wordy Wednesday

~ my word (s) ~ 3 Comments

We are all familiar with the use of a ‘smith’ meaning a craftsperson, for example a blacksmith or silversmith. My word for today is wordsmith, simply meaning ‘a skilled user of words’ (New Oxford English Dictionary of English).

It is a very timely word, my debut children’s book, The Clocker, having been published yesterday. I like the idea of being a wordsmith. It is a craft shared by many around the world, in different languages, styles and genres. Where would we be without wordsmiths?

A special shoutout to all my fellow bloggers and to the Let’s Write group at The Writers Bureau.

https://www.writersbureaucourse.com/courses/let-us-write

Wordy Wednesday

~ my word (s) ~ 5 Comments

To pootle or to poodle, that is the question. It’s been an ongoing debate between my partner and myself for some time now, whose family used to go for a poodle in the car at the weekend. My family, however, went for a pootle, definitely not a poodle.

I finally decided to settle this friendly feud and looked it up. What I discovered is that pootle is a variant of poodle, although, of course, poodle also refers to a breed of dog. To pootle, or poodle, means to travel or go around in a relaxed manner, as in, “I think I’ll have a pootle round the shops”.

Debate settled, now we’ll have to find another word to disagree on.

Just having a pootle, or a poodle, round the local shops

Do you poodle or pootle, or do you have an entirely different word for a leisurely stroll or run out in the car?

Wordy Wednesday

~ my word (s) ~ 4 Comments

It’s Wordy Wednesday again and I have a Dutch word for you today. Last week I went to Bruges for five days, also hopping over the border to Sluis in The Netherlands. While perusing the menu in the windmill restaurant, a word caught my attention.

Slagroom?

I guessed this menu option was something sweet, knowing what a madeleine is; also guessing ‘met een’ was likely to be ‘with’. But what did ‘slagroom’ mean? This is what I find so fascinating about words and language. On looking it up, I was right about the madeleines and with; the sentence translated into English means “madeleines with a dollop of whipped cream”. Slagroom means cream in English. It is, of course, not pronounced slag room, more slaackroam.

What a great word. Do you have an unusual, quirky or favourite word to share? I’d love to hear from you.

Cream!

Wordy Wednesday

~ my word (s) ~ 2 Comments

I really enjoy reading a book series and have especially liked the gentle flow of Harriet Steel’s Inspector de Silva stories. Set in Sri Lanka in the 1930s, and in the imaginary town of Nuala, Inspector de Silva (often with his wife, Jane’s, help) solves the many murders and mysteries.

It was exciting to discover a new book in the series: A Curse in Nuala. I was happily reading when I came upon a word that was new to me. In describing a room, we’re told; “the colour was echoed in the drugget carpet …”

I quickly looked up ‘drugget’ and discovered that it’s a word from the 16th century. It comes from the French, ‘droguet’ meaning poor quality article.

To discover the wonderful book series visit https://harrietsteel.comhttps://harrietsteel.com

Do you enjoy reading books in a series? What’s your favourite?