Pam Webb

a writer's journey as a reader

Word Nerd Confessions: January

I really like the time around New Year’s. Turning the calendar page, fresh start, anticipating what’s ahead, knowing that the midpoint of the school year has arrived and I’m ready to return for second semester.

It’s also a time I feel the need to tidy up: closets, projects, pantry, and my email gets a sound once over. This month’s feature of Word Nerd gets an extra dose of cleaning up. Some of these words have been lingering in the queue for over two years. Time to dust them off and send them out in the bright new year of 2019.

*This became the word one year in my AP Lit class. It found its way merrily into many an essay.

*I do so like this one. However, I feel a bit snooty when I insert it in a sentence.

*A personal favorite. I do so cringe when people say “a small, little”–it’s small or little. And don’t say “very unique” around me either. Yes, real estate blurbs are the worst offenders.

*footle and gleek must be pals

*As a child I remember a comic strip called “The Katzenjammer Kid’s”–they were naughty little trouble makers. Ah, they obviously caused their parents distress.

This word is supposedly obsolete, yet I think it could catch on once again. Bumper sticker stuff: Experience Esperance.

Well, my word closet is a bit less crowded. I hope you picked up a couple or a few new words to carry you into the new year.

Any favorites from the list? As for the usual challenge of creating a sentence with all the words (20!)? Only if you are up for it.

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14 thoughts on “Word Nerd Confessions: January

  1. Ooh! I really need to use crambo at my weekly terrible poetry contest.

    I also think you already had bathos…

  2. May you experience esperance throughout an overall eximious year in 2019!

    • Thanks, Mitch! I look forward to your continued quotidian commentary that is often rollicking but rarely full of bathos or could be considered mutable since it is exemplar in content. 🤹🏻‍♀️

  3. Footle. I think I may work that into the next novel!

  4. Those Katzenjammer kids were little monsters. I loathed that strip, for their punishments never seemed to fit their crimes.

  5. I remember Katzenjammer kids. My mother taught me of them. She loved the strip. I thought it was a made up name, no idea it was a genuine word. Funny! Thanks!

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