Tuesday, 27 September 2011
So you think you're self-centred
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
A helping hand
Monday, 30 May 2011
Stinginess
Friday, 27 May 2011
Finding new words
Monday, 23 May 2011
Your own experiments
Friday, 20 May 2011
I don't like you
Friday, 13 May 2011
Does it sound nice?
My previous post has got me thinking, what is the difference between something sounding nice and something that sounds nice. Rather sounds like a riddle doesn't it, what I mean is the difference between something sweet sounding and something sweet to hear. Still not with me, well to reference earlier posts mellifluous is something sweet sounding but encompasses both things that are sonorous, like music, and things that are ment to ameliorate or ego stroke.
So, this leads me all in all to sweet nothings and empty words. Are sweet nothings just a gentle kiss to the ear with no meaning or is the meaning in the pleasure we take from hearing them. This is where I fall down unknowing . . .
My personal propensity is for seeing worth in you getting, or giving, pleasure whatever the scenario. Like telling a random person that they look nice, it means nothing and leads no where but it will make them feel good and lets you walk away thinking that you have brightened someone's day. Try it, always makes me feel good. Don't say you smell nice though, that doesn't go down as well.
What do you think? Do you see mellifluous words as sonorous nothings or sweet somethings? I hope you have enjoined reading this, as then to me, although it lacks content, it has meaning.
Ed
Monday, 9 May 2011
Ooo, that sounds nice
One of my main reasons for enjoying words, apart form those which give me an excuse to used z's and x's, is the sound they make when saying them. Something perfectly sonorous is a delight to the ear, almost like a Brahms symphony. With that in mind I give you:
mellifluous
As I have already alluded to, as well as sounding nice, this word actually means to be sweet sounding. This comes through an alternate meaning to be sweet with honey, inspecting deeper still following the etymology of the word it would be directly 'to flow with honey'. Personally I love the imagery of something sounding so nice that it flows like honey, sweet and nonchalant. The mellifluous qualities of a word I believe can be worth more than the insipid nature of them. Although, many things can be said about empty words, if they are sweet on the ear I see them as beyond reproach. However, this could dive you into the question of what is sweet to hear? Is it something as I suggest above 'music to one's ear' or is it something more personal like an ego stroking.
With this thought I leave you in order to find your own mellifluous things.
Ed
Friday, 15 April 2011
What a mistake
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Is that a rhetorical question?
Normally I use this blog to talk about words that can be used to invigorate your language to the point of making conversations and writing fun by using a bit of flare.
However, today I am going to take a different tack. This is somewhat inspired by the book I'm reading at the moment (eats shoots and leaves by Lynne Trust).
Interrobang
This is a rather fun word to say yet I can not think of a time to use it. An interrobang is the punctuation mark which is half way between a question mark and an exclamation mark, to be used when you want to evoke a mixture of query and intersection. Such as at the end of a rhetorical question, hence the title.
So your question is most likely, 'what does it look like?'. Unfortunately my current type set stops me from displaying it here, but imagine a question mark and exclamation mark written ontop of each other such that they share the point and you have a interrobang. For a good picture try this
So a little divergence here from words to punctuation but then it was once said by Edgar Allen Poe 'The writer who neglects punctuation, or mispunctuates, is liable to be misunderstood. For the want of a comma, it often occurs that an axiom appears a paradox, or that a sarcasm is converted into a sermonoid'.
With that thought I will leave you, until next time.
Ed