I learn something new every day

I get 10 or 11 daily ezines from my favorite ezine site, ArcaMax, including trivia, comics, quotable quotes and a vocabulary word of the day (see yesterday's post). On Saturdays, the Vocabulary ezine features The Word Guy, Rob Kyff, who is a writer and a teacher.

As a writer I enjoy Rob's weekly column, because sometimes he'll throw things at me that I didn't know. Like today's article, entitled "Call the SWAT Team in for These Pests". See how many of these you know:

As the season of summer picnics and barbecues approaches, one pesky question constantly buzzes around my head: Is it "coldslaw" or "coleslaw"? This is just one of many annoying pests. Now it's your turn to take a swat at some others:

1. Does "nonplussed" mean calm or perplexed?
2. Is it "vicious circle" or "vicious cycle"?
3. Is it "nerve-racking" or "nerve-wracking"?
4. Is it "to the manner born" or "to the manor born"?
5. Is a publicist a "flack" or a "flak"?
6. Do you "cue up" or "queue up" videotape?
7. Is the Southernism spelled "y'all" or "ya'll"?
8. Do we "while" away the hours or "wile" away the hours?
9. Do we eat a "hardy" meal or a "hearty" meal?
10. Do you "scarf" up food or "scoff up" food?

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It's "coleslaw." It may be served cold, but the name for this salad made of raw cabbage comes from the Dutch "kool" (cabbage) and "sla" (salad).

1. "Nonplussed" doesn't mean calm or nonchalant; it means perplexed, baffled, at a loss for what to say.
2. It's "vicious circle," a term first used in the field of logic to describe a fallacious form of circular argument.
3. It's "nerve-racking." "Rack" means to stretch and strain to the breaking point, while "wrack" means to utterly ruin, wreck.
4. It's "to the manner born," meaning trained or bred to do something in a certain way.
5. A publicist is a "flack," a term of unknown origin that first appeared during the 1930s. "Flak," a shortening of the German "FliegerAbwehrKanonen" (flyer defense cannons), also appeared in the 1930s, but denotes antiaircraft guns or the bursting shells fired from such cannons, or, by extension, criticism.
6. You "cue up" videotape (set it to begin at a certain point), but people "queue up" (line up) to buy a popular video or DVD.
7. It's properly spelled "y'all." Only the "you" is contracted, and it always refers to two people or more.
8. It's "while away" the hours; "while" means to spend time idly.
9. We eat a "hearty" (nourishing, satisfying) meal. "Hardy" means bold, vigorous, robust.
10. You "scoff" it up; "scoff" is an alteration of the dialectical word "scaff," to eat greedily, as in "scoff up coleslaw."

Copyright 2006 Creators Syndicate Inc.

Now that I've had my first helping of brain fortification for the day, I'm going to spend some quality time with the old WIP and see if I can't get something accomplished.

Music of the Moment: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331 "Alla Turca" (Allegretto), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Read a book. Learn something new today. It's good for you.

=) JB