Category: Worth 1000 Pictures
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One Word: Crumb
Some words fascinate me on account of unusual or specialized ways they can be used. âCrumbâ is such a word. Singular, not plural. Iâm not especially interested in crumbs (plural), the little shards of bread, cake, pie crust, and the like that break off and make a mess that needs to be cleaned up so…
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One Word: Epistemology
Hereâs a word I almost never use: âepistemologyâ. And yet â I love it. That odd-sounding word represents one of the defining themes of my life. A theme that runs through all my books and writings. A theme that engages my thoughts, rivets my attention. That theme is a question: How do we know what…
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One Word: Twangled
Twangled â seriously? Yes, âtwangledâ is a real word. An odd, quirky, playful word, with a self-mocking tone that makes it fun to use (sparingly). No, I hadnât heard it before either. Hereâs how it came to my attention: Recently I posted a list of various ways my full name (âGary Leland Matthewsâ) could be…
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One Word: Turmeric
The word âturmericâ fascinates me. So, for that matter, does the actual spice — as distinct from the word. Hereâs the scoop: Turmeric powder ranges in color from bright yellow to deep orange. It has a pungent, gingery-peppery flavor and is a main component of curry. Because of its color, itâs sometimes called âIndian saffronâ.…
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One Word: Reunion
Reunion strikes me as possibly the most sublime of all English words. I love its sound. Even more, I love its meaning. Phonetically, reunion is a word that could be classified as “euphonious” or “mellifluous”. These are neat words, too: The first refers to sounds that please the ear; the second, to sounds that flow…
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One Word: Vasty
Glendower: âI can call spirits from the vasty deep.â Hotspur: âWhy, so can I, or so can any man. But will they come when you do call for them?â (Shakespeare, Kɪɴɢ Há´É´ĘĘ á´Ęá´ Fá´á´Ęá´Ę, Pá´Ęá´ I, Act 3, Scene 1) This famous passage was my introduction to the word âvastyâ. I came across it while…
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One Word: Blog
Am I the only person annoyed by the word âblogâ? It reminds me of blob, glob, bog, grog, flog, and other words none of which do much for me either. Simply stated, blog is a word I experience as grating and vaguely unpleasant. That of course is only in terms of the way it sounds.…
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One Word: Disinterested
Disinterested is a word I find most interesting. Not á´É´ĘĘ because itâs so often misused. (Although it is — like âcompriseâ and so many more.) No, âdisinterestedâ fascinates me because it expresses a subtle, absolutely indispensable concept about which we need to think and talk. And because I canât think of any equivalent word we…
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Making My Post Into a Movie?
Did Hollywood make a movie from one of my blog posts? Not really. (Sigh!) In fact, the movie predated my article by two years. But I didn’t know! When I wrote recently about Words and Pictures, I hadn’t heard of the film. Yet there it is, starring Juliette Binoche and Clive Owen, and directed by…
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One Word: Worth a Thousand Pictures
Does anyone else feel oppressed by the âtyranny of picturesâ? I do, and Iâm fighting back with a new series of posts about words I love. Words that interest, fascinate, and delight me; words that (for me) carry depths of meaning mere pictures canât duplicate. One article per word — posted á´ĄÉŞá´Ęá´á´á´ á´ÉŞá´á´á´Ęá´s. Hereâs why…