Diary of a Word Nerd

Vocab From Go Set a Watchman: Gulosity

Posted on April 13, 2016 by Julia Tomiak / 5 Comments

I’m still enjoying Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. Just last night, I read the hilarious passage in which Scout recalls how she first learned about her “monthly curse” and planned to throw herself off the Maycomb water tower because she thought she was pregnant. Ah, the naivety of youth. 😉

Harper Lee certainly had a rich vocabulary. If you want to build up your word repertoire, join the Wondrous Words Wednesday fun with Kathy at Bermuda Onion. Bloggers share new words from their reading or ones that interest them.

Last night, Ms. Lee stumped me with gulosity. Have you heard of it before? Here’s a fun passage that shows some of the personality of the main characters of Watchman:

In spite of herself, Jean Louise [Scout] grinned. [Aunt] Alexandra could be relied upon to produce a malapropism on occasions, the most notable being her comment on the gulosity displayed by the youngest member of a Mobile Jewish family upon completing his thirteenth year: Alexandra declared that Aaron Stein was the greediest boy she had ever seen, that he ate fourteen ears of corn at his Menopause.

gulosity \g(y)ü-ˈlä-sə-tē\ noun from the Latin gulosus gluttonous, from gula gullet

excessive appetite; greediness

According to Merriam-Webster, gulosity is a word for gluttony that is rarely used anymore.

Word Nerd Note: Were you stumped by malapropism? It means: an amusing error that happens when someone uses a word that sounds like another word but has a very different meaning. It’s derived from Mrs. Malaprop, a character prone to such verbal mishaps in the 1775 play The Rivals. The author, Richard Sheridan, got her name from the French term mal à propos, which means “inappropriate.” [Merriam-Webster] Often, young children are susceptible to such mix-ups. My youngest likes to call his comforter his “comfortable”. 😉

Word Nerd Workout

Can you think of a synonym for gulosity or a character from books or movies that demonstrates gulosity? How about Smaug the dragon’s gulosity over the treasure he hoarded in The Lonely Mountain in Tolkien’s The Hobbit? Or, please share a malapropism you’ve heard.

Thanks for getting nerdy with me.

Appreciating Poetry

Seven Ways to Celebrate Poetry

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Julia Tomiak / 9 Comments

Perhaps it’s because I’m worried my kids spend too much time with screens and not enough time creating. Perhaps it’s because I could use an imagination boost myself. Perhaps it’s John Green and his short poems on the Dear Hank and John podcast. Whatever it is, I’m dusting off the college English anthologies and leaving poems on my kids’ beds.

April 2016 marks the 20th anniversary of National Poetry Month, the world’s largest literary celebration. Every year, schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets encourage appreciation for this art form that condenses meaning, rhythm, and sometimes whimsy into short lines of words. Good poetry raises questions, communicates emotion, and inspires us. It’s a worthwhile literary form that deserves our attention.

To get a little more poetry savvy this spring, check out the Poets.org list of 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month. If you’re short on time (who isn’t?) check out my list. I took the most interesting and viable tips from Poets.org and added a few of my own Word Nerdy ideas:

Encourage everyone in your house to memorize at least one poem this month. Humorous poems get the most traction with my younger kids. I’m hoping my teens will embrace something more meaningful, maybe even angst ridden, this year, like Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”. (Wait, that’s like 20 pages long. Maybe just parts “1 and 2”?)
Sign up to receive a Poem-A-Day via email for the month of April. Then actually READ the poems, preferably out loud, to anyone who will listen. (e.g. children trapped in the car with you.) Even better, have a child read the poem. I just printed off “Blind Boone’s Apparitions” by Tyehimba Jess for my daughter, the pianist.
Read a poem to yourself/roommate/spouse/ kids before bed. I know evening time is precious. Pick a short poem!
Chalk a poem on the sidewalk. This will be a new activity for me this year. I’d like to chalk poetry graffiti near the schools and parks in town. Of course, I’ll ask for permission first, and I’ll let you know how it goes.
Participate in Poem In Your Pocket Day. On April 21, copy a poem (here are some ideas) and keep it in your pocket to share with friends, family, coworkers, and students. I’ll be on a field trip to Washington D.C. with a bus full of 8th graders; this should be interesting. 🙂 Daughter will LOVE ME.
Print up a famous poem plus critical analysis and discuss it with your kids/coworkers, etc. Inspired by The Fault in Our Stars, I’ve picked “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot.
Get ready for Mother’s Day by choosing a line of poetry to use in a Mother’s Day card. Or, if you’re a mother, give your kids some poetic suggestions and see what they pick.

Do you like these ideas, but need to find great poems? Look here:

Which of these activities will you use to celebrate poetry this month? Can you offer any other suggestions?

Thanks for getting poetic with me!

Improving vocabulary

Vocab from Go Set a Watchman: Abjure

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Julia Tomiak / 8 Comments

I’m finally reading Go Set a Watchman with my book club this month! For those of you who don’t know, Watchman was written by Harper Lee and features the iconic characters of To Kill A Mockingbird two decades after Mockingbird’s setting. Jean Louise, aka “Scout” Finch, visits home and learns disturbing things about her home town and the people she loves. It’s set in the 1950’s, in the tension of the Civil Rights Movement, and I can’t wait to dig in! I love books that explore racial tension and find them applicable, unfortunately, today.

Harper Lee stumped me on page 13:

He began dating her [Scout] on her annual two-week visits home, and although she still moved like a thirteen-year-old boy and abjured most feminine adornment, he found something so intensely feminine about her that he fell in love.

Abjure \ab-ˈju̇r\ verb from the Latin jurare, which means “to swear” (related to perjury and justice, also based on the root jus, meaning “law”), plus the prefix ab-, meaning “away.”

to renounce upon oath
to reject solemnly
to abstain from

According to Merriam-Webster, in the 15-16th centuries, to abjure something meant to reject something by oath and was subject to penalty of death. In modern language, the meaning isn’t as strong, as in the example above, in which Scout refrains from “feminine adornment.” No one is going to burn her at the stake for not wearing a necklace. 😉

Word Nerd Workout

Give a synonym for abjure. For Divergent fans, I’m offering “abnegate”, no deny.

If you like learning new words, please join in the Wondrous Words Wednesday meme, hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion.

Thanks for getting nerdy with me today!

Appreciating Poetry/How to encourage reading

It’s April! Find Your Inner Poet

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Julia Tomiak / 2 Comments

Things are crazy, time is scarce, so this will be brief. Today, April 1, isn’t just April Fools Day. It’s also the beginning of National Poetry Month. Next Friday, I’ll have some great ideas for getting into poetry this month. Until then, meditate on one poem (you know, song lyrics are basically poetry) and awaken your inner poet. Click the button below to help:

Thanks for getting poetic with me!

Improving vocabulary

Vocab from Orphan Train: Pusillanimous

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Julia Tomiak / 10 Comments

My book club is reading Orphan Train this month, and it’s a great novel for discussion. It also has a few words I had to look up, including pusillanimous. Whew, that’s a mouth full, isn’t it? I’ll include a pronunciation guide. 😉

If you like learning new words, join the Wondrous Words Wednesday meme, where bloggers share interesting words or new words they’ve learned from their reading.

Here’s the quote from Orphan Train:

Ralph hovers, uncertain. As always. She knows he’s caught between her and Dina, and utterly unequipped to handle either one of them. She almost feels sorry for him, the pusillanimous wretch.

Pusillanimous \pyü-sǝ-lǝ-’la-nə-məs\ adjective from Latin pusillus very small (diminutive of pusus boy) + animus spirit

lacking courage and resolution : marked by contemptible timidity

from Merriam-Webster

Word Nerd Workout

Can you think a synonym for pusillanimous or share a pusillanimous character from movies or fiction? I suggest the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz.

Photo credit: Insomnia Cured Here via Flickr CC-BY-SA

Thanks for getting nerdy with me today!

Improving grammar

When to Use Italics for Titles

Posted on March 25, 2016 by Julia Tomiak / 9 Comments

Daughter had her writing SOL last week – for those of you who don’t live in Virginia, “SOL” stands for Standards of Learning, standardized tests used to assess student competence at the end of a course. SOLs have dramatically affected the state of education in our Commonwealth, forcing teachers to link all of their instruction to SOLs and to sweat every spring in fear that their students won’t do well on the exams and, consequently, jobs might be in jeopardy. The current environment emphasizes spoon-feeding over exploration and regurgitation over problem solving.

Whoops, I got carried away. Let me step down off my box and continue with the topic of this post… Ahem.

Daughter didn’t know when to use italics and when to use quotes when using titles in an essay. My Word Nerd gut told her this: For big items, like books, movies, plays, use italics. For smaller things, like magazine articles or song titles, use quotes. I wasn’t sure about poems.

Here’s what my trusty resource, Grammatically Correct by Anne Stilman, has to say on the matter:

Italicize the following:

names of ships and space vehicles
book titles
newspapers
magazines
films
plays
operas
CDs/ albums

Use quotation marks to show:

titles of short stories
poems
book chapters
magazine or journal articles
songs

Word Nerd Note: These are conventions, not absolutes, and it is acceptable to use italics or quotes or nothing to set off the items listed above. For bibliographies, you can use a style guide (usually your teacher or publisher suggests one) to determine what rule to follow, and if you have no specifications, just be consistent with your formatting.

Word Nerd Workout

Which of these need italics and which need quotations, according to the convention above?

The Great Gatsby (a novel)
She Walks in Beauty, Like the Night (poem)
The Masque of the Red Death (short story)
The Fantasy (a cruise ship… one I’ll be riding on in May!)
Fix You (a song)
Vogue (magazine)
The Martian (film or book, take your pick!)

Thanks for getting nerdy with me!