Showing posts with label words. Show all posts
Showing posts with label words. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Let's Balter Together


This cat has an amazed expression; maybe he saw me having fun baltering. I collect words like balter that are new to me and that have a nice ring to them.
Here are some of them:
telling a tarradiddle, a trifling lie, nonsense, twaddle
moire antique curtain, fabric of silk or rayon with a watery or wavelike appearance
widdershins, in a direction contrary to the natural one
louche, dubious, shady, disreputable
a nebuly coat, edged in a deeply wavy line, intended to represent clouds
ebullition of surprise, violent outpouring as of emotion
corruscation of green light, glitter, sparkle, series of small flashes or sparks
a bimble, a ramble
cruft, leftover, redundant, getting in the way
limned "the way the light limned the edges", highlighted with light or color or to depict with painting
serried branches, pressed close together, especially in rows
infrangible, cannot be broken or violated
gallimaufry, hodgepodge, jumble
marmorean, marmoreal is smooth like marble
a stoup of holy water, a basin, a pail, a cup
balter, to dance artlessly without grace but with extreme joy

A fair number of these I found while reading Proust, Anthony Trollope and British mysteries.
Many of these are older words that it would be nice to use more often.
So friends, let's remember to dance, even if it means we balter :)

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Collywobbles, Infrangible, Widdershins and more


I collect words that are new to me, that have a fun look or sound, and/or that make me smile.
I am a writer and hope to use these words in my writing some day.
My best sources for these words are when I read British authors and also when I read Marcel Proust.
From Proust's "Swann's Way" and "Within a Budding Grove": serried, ineluctable, evanescent, infrangible, hierophants, fulminate, mendacity. Marmorean, sapient and stoup.
Thank you to Marcel Proust and his gifted translators. I prefer the edition translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin.
A few of these words I already knew but haven't used in a book or article or poem yet, including mendacity and fulminate.
Other words in my collection: twee, wrackspurt, nebuly, widdershins, ebullition and the wonderful collywobble.
These are just some of the highlights of my list.
Please leave some of your favorite words in the comments so my list will grow.