A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 1207

A.Word.A.Day

Home

AWADmail Issue 1207

A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day and Other Tidbits about Words and Language

Sponsor’s message: ONEUPMANSHIP 2.0 is more wicked smart money board game fun for the whole family. “The components are better. The mechanics are better. The game is just monumentally better in every way.” -- KamSandwich. A fabulous gift. Shop now.

From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: Interesting stories from the Net

Take Away Our Language and We Will Forget Who We Are: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and the Language of Conquest
The Guardian
Permalink

Legislating Pronouns
The Web of Language
Permalink

From: Court Gettel (cgettel yahoo.com)
Subject: Apostrophe’s

“Coffee’s for sale” could also be read as a contraction: “Coffee is for sale”. With apostrophe’s a’s in all thing’s, it i’s probably better not to jump to conclusion’s.

Court Gettel, Rutland, Vermont

From: Mark Adler (markadler orange.fr)
Subject: exempli gratia

I didn’t know until this morning what e.g. stood for but smiled when I thought of exempli gratia as “free sample”.

Mark Adler, Béziers, France

Email of the Week -- Brought to you buy ONEUPMANSHIP -- Are you a winner?

From: Karl Hickerson (hickersonkarl gmail.com)
Subject: Correct and Proper

In 1975 when I submitted my tediously typed and successfully defended dissertation to the Washington State University Library, it was rejected by a watchful library editor. I had used the word “data” as singular -- the data was ...” So back to the typewriter and the Wite-Out.

For decades since, I have cringed every time I see that common “error”. AWAD has helped me get over that emotional reaction. This week is another step for me in my recovery process.

Karl Hickerson, Iowa City, Iowa

From: Beth McNamara (bmcnamara bbns.org)
Subject: Fruiterer

In honor of The Great Gatsby’s publication 100 years ago, here’s an early part of Chapter 3 that my English class often enjoys analyzing!

Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York -- every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves. There was a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred oranges in half an hour if a little button was pressed two hundred times by a butler’s thumb.

Beth McNamara, Cambridge, Massachusetts

From: JR Rothschild (jlroths13 gmail.com)
Subject: Fruiterer

In Baltimore, they are supposedly called arabbers. In 40+ years of living near there, I have only heard the phrase once, and that was on a TV show. 🤷🏽

JR Rothschild, Columbia, Maryland

From: David Streiner (streiner mcmaster.ca)
Subject: Innumerate

As a statistician, I have long maintained that lotteries are a tax on the statistically disabled.

David L. Streiner, PhD, FCAHS, C.Psych. (Ret.), Hamilton, Canada

From: Mark Tilley (mark.tilley83 gmail.com)
Subject: Innumerate

I have a strong antipathy to lotteries, mostly on account of their primary function being diametrically opposite to the usual social goal of reducing excessive inequality: they create obscene wealth by taking it from those least able to contribute. Additionally they are a tax on the innumerate. One can then question their legitimacy by asking the hypothetical “Consider what uproar there would be if there were a tax on the illiterate?”

Mark Tilley, CPA (retired), Newbury, Canada

From: Roberta Eisenberg (bobbi alumni.nd.edu)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--innumerate

I strongly recommend John Allen Paulos’s 1988 book, Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences. By the way, he always uses his middle name so as not to cause confusion with Pope John Paul II, who was alive when the book was published.

Roberta M. Eisenberg, Douglaston, New York

From: Liliana Hoton (liliana.hoton cra-arc.gc.ca)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--innumerate

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought -- that is to be educated. -Edith Hamilton, educator and writer (12 Aug 1867-1963)

Today’s quote (on the pleasure of becoming an educated person) is very well illustrated in the novel Martin Eden, by Jack London.

Martin Eden struggles to rise above his condition through an intense and passionate pursuit of self-education, hoping to achieve a place among the literary elite. His motivation is his love for Ruth Morse, as he is a rough, uneducated sailor from the working class whereas the Morses are a bourgeois family. Becoming educated brings him a lot of pleasure, but also a lot of sadness when he starts understanding a few things.

Liliana Hoton, Ottawa, Canada

From: Ken Hines (kshrink gmail.com)
Subject: Agent Orange exfoliation

Exfoliate makes me think of Agent Orange, a chemical that was sprayed in Vietnam and South Korea with the naive idea that it would knock the leaves off trees making it harder for enemy soldiers to hide, without causing harm to anyone who happened to breathe it in. It did exfoliate but also harmed soldiers, civilians, and animals. There are many disabled veterans still suffering the aftermath of Agent Orange.

Ken Hines, Saint Joseph, Missouri

From: Ron Macnaughton (macnaughton rogers.com)
Subject: Exfoliate

I remember reading when lasers were invented that they are interesting, but didn’t have a use. Now six decades later they are ubiquitous with eye surgery, measuring the distance to the moon within millimeters, and carrying this email via fibre optics as I listen to a CD playing -- the music on which is read by a laser and converted to sound.

I think a similar situation will happen with graphene, which was first made by taking graphite such as pencil lead and exfoliating graphene off with scotch tape then chemically removing the tape. Once lower price methods of making it are found it will similarly go everywhere such as stronger (hence smaller) concrete, faster charging batteries, and maybe a space elevator. If I were in my 20s I would make that my career.

Ron Macnaughton, Bolton, Canada

From: Bruce Barnbaum (barnbaum aol.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--exfoliate

Another place where the word “exfoliate” applies is the “exfoliated granite” on the great cliffs lining Yosemite Valley. Periodically a layer of such granite breaks off, generally a foot or two thick, falls several thousand feet, crashing down into the valley floor below, and filling the entire valley with dust that can take several days to dissipate. One such event occurred just a few years ago, killing at least one unlucky visitor who was in line with the rockfall.

Bruce Barnbaum, Granite Falls, Washington

From: Eric Ahrendt (eric grayscaleimages.com)
Subject: Walter Scott quote

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
High though his titles, proud his name, / Boundless his wealth as wish can claim; / Despite those titles, power, and pelf, / The wretch, concentred all in self, / Living, shall forfeit fair renown, / And, doubly dying, shall go down / To the vile dust from whence he sprung, / Unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung. -Walter Scott, novelist and poet (15 Aug 1771-1832)

OMG! I immediately recognized this quote, as will all fans of the movie Groundhog Day, from this cafe scene (video, 2 min.) where Rita (Andie MacDowell) upbraids Phil (Bill Murray) for being egocentric. She quotes the last five lines and names Sir Walter Scott as the author. Smart aleck Phil replies that he thought the author was Willard Scott (Phil’s a fellow weatherman).

Eric Ahrendt, Orinda, California

From: Alex McCrae (ajmccrae277 gmail.com)
Subject: fruiterer and exfoliate

Our word “fruiterer” brought to mind my fellow Los Angelenos, who just happen to be Latino, many of the more recent arrivals working as gardeners, car-wash attendants, cooks, day-laborers, and street vendors, as depicted in this scenario. They are law-abiding, tax-paying, family-oriented folk, their only “crime” being that some may be undocumented. But for the Trump administration, they’re all dangerous criminals.

Reading our usage example for “exfoliate” describing the Vietnamese spa where small fish would nibble away at one’s feet, removing dead skin, inspired me to come up with this admittedly slightly absurd scenario. Hopefully, a picture is worth at least 999 words. Ha!

Alex McCrae, Van Nuys, California

Anagrams


	This week’s theme: Exempli gratia Fruiterer Innumerate Pule Agon Exfoliate	=	A melon retailer? Taxing math A gripe (untrue?) Effete skirmish i.e. peel, exute (ow!)
			-Shyamal Mukherji, Mumbai, India (mukherjis hotmail.com)
=	Fruit-hawker I see Anu fail math exam Emote, repine Struggle, exertion Peel it	=	I feature fruit Lame with exponents Eerie moan Struggle Peel, make hair exit
	-Julian Lofts, Auckland, New Zealand (jalofts xtra.co.nz)		-Dharam Khalsa, Burlington, North Carolina (dharamkk2 gmail.com)

Make your own anagrams and animations.

Limericks

fruiterer

The fruiterer begged people, “Please!
My peaches you never should squeeze.
The fruit’s getting bruised
And I’m not amused
With shoppers as handsy as these.”
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

“There’s nothing to eat that would suit her, sir;
We must make a trip to the fruiterer.
She’s so fussy, you know
That I usually go
Twice a day so the fruit’s not ‘pooh-pooh’ to her.”
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

To the cart of a pretty young fruiterer
Came the king of the gods, mighty Jupiter.
“Sweet, juicy, and taut
Are her melons,” he thought;
“To Olympus I think I will hoover ‘er.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

innumerate

At the checkout, innumerate teens
Stand and stare at their register screens.
I think it is strange
That these clerks can’t make change,
And they have to depend on machines.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

Although Donald’s completely innumerate
He can draw something nice -- or a lewder bit.
In a lecherous mood,
He will think of a nude
For his buddy Jeff Epstein, and doodle it.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

pule

My complaints are not melodramatic;
I believe that I’m merely emphatic.
I just have to pule
When Trump’s being cruel
And behaving in ways autocratic.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

Said Donald, “This season of Yule,
Just like always I’ll bellow and pule.
At Christmas I fully
Embody a bully;
Here’s lumps of coal, folks! Fossil fuel!”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

agon

An agon is part of the plot
In any good story you’ve got.
My teachers agreed
That’s something you need --
It’s boring indeed if there’s not!
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

Said the princess, “I’m trapped by a dragon;
Someone rescue me, please; start an agon!”
And a knight came along,
But he thought, “This is wrong;
If I free her, she’ll only start naggin’.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

exfoliate

Every fall, without fail, your heart grieves
Those fallen exfoliated leaves
That cover the ground.
But don’t mess around.
Get a rake and just roll up your sleeves!
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

At the spa they had offered a deal:
“Just half price for a chemical peel!
It exfoliates well --
With a treatment so swell,
How much younger you’ll look and you’ll feel!”
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

Now getting a facial is great.
For skin care, a scrub is first rate.
The best way to shed
Those skin cells that are dead.
Don’t deviate dears, please exfoliate!
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

Said the snake, “My old skin I’ll exfoliate;
Then I’m sure Eve with me will associate.
For I’ll look nice and shiny,
While Adam is whiny
And Yahweh does nothing but bloviate.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Puns

“I’d best ‘urry wif de princess’s fresh fruiterer ‘ighness’ll ‘ave me backside tanned,” fretted the scullery maid.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“Me have complete faith innumerate your chances very high!” called Oog to his daughter at the fire-building/wheel-carving/spear-throwing triathlon.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“If you’d just please take a si-pule soon be far less annoying,” the jailer urged Socrates.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

The Agon-y and the Ecstasy is a monumental film of Michelangelo’s life.
-Janice Power, Cleveland, Ohio (powerjanice782 gmail.com)

“Donkey, I think the dr-agon has a crush on you,” said Shrek.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

The Suss-exfoliate was so tough that the wolf moved on to nearby Surrey in search of more tender horsemeat.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The real secret is why love starts out with claws like a cat and then fades with time like a half-eaten mouse. -Herta Müller, novelist, poet, Nobel laureate (b. 17 Aug 1953)

We need your help

Help us continue to spread the magic of words to readers everywhere

Donate

Subscriber Services
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise