Hornswoggling the Illecebrous Gobemouche

So, back to our alphabetical look at interesting words; and today we are starting with the letter “G”. Funnily enough there are a few very interesting words to choose from. First I wondered about gambol, meaning to skip or leap about joyfully. Just somehow seems an appropriate word for April, when the sun starts shining and baby lambs are gambolling in the fields. Then I thought perhaps I am being a bit too fanciful lets think of something more unusual, and came up with gobemouche, pronounced gob- u- mush. When looking at the spelling of the word it probably won’t be any surprise to you to discover this word is of French origin and literally translates as fly swallower. But how would we use this word today? Gobemouche describes a person who keeps their mouth open; a silly or naive person, who believes everything he or she hears, no matter how absurd. As a test to see if someone is a gobemouche, you can always tell them that the word gullible is not in the dictionary and see if they believe you!

Okay so how about another unusual word, hornswoggle, I really like the sound of this one although its meaning is not funny! Hornswoggle is a slang term meaning to cheat, bamboozle, hoodwink or deceive. You may also use the terms hornswoggled or hornswoggling.  This word has its origins in 19^th Century American West and its first written use can be traced back to 1829. I have tried to discover the etymology of this word, but unfortunately most dictionaries claim that the origin is unknown. However I have heard one story that suggests it was used to describe cowboys who allowed a lassoed cow to wriggle and escape – thus these cowboys were said to have been hornswoggled. I have no idea if there is any truth in this explanation, but I still like it!

Again with the letter “i” I found it difficult to choose just one word. I wanted to share with you impignorate, meaning to place in pawn or to pledge or to mortgage. Although this word is seldom heard in modern times it just has a certain ring to it. Historically it is believed to have been used mostly in Scotland. There is even evidence of Robert Louis Stevenson using it in a letter to a friend in 1899. However, to complete our look at unusual words for this week I wanted to leave you with pleasant thoughts, so how about Illecebrous. Thus lovely adjective means pretty, attractive, alluring and enticing. Now I think this is a word that is worth slipping into a conversation over the weekend. Best of luck.

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A Capital Idea

As I have been asked so many times, today I thought we would look at when to use capital letters when writing in English. The correct use of capitals is important in any formal writing, so let’s try and demystify their use!

Every sentence must start with a capital letter. This is an always rule and there are no exceptions. Also if you writing a direct quote from someone the speech should start with a capital. Let me show you an example to explain; Jane asked “Will it rain today?”  As you can see the first word of Jane’s sentence also starts with a capital.  Another always, always rule is the capitalisation of the pronoun “I”, such as in the phrase; where shall I sit?

Remember to use capitals when you are writing proper names. These are the name of people, places, institutions or individual events, such as William Shakespeare, Winter Olympics and New York.  This is also the case when using abbreviations, where the first letter of the abbreviated words should be capitalised. Confused? Let me show you a couple of examples. The British Broadcasting Corporation is most commonly known as the BBC, whilst the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is often referred to as NATO. Words that identify nationality or ethnic groups should also start with a capital, such as Bulgarians, Serbs and English.   

Here is one that might catch you out! The names of the days of the week and the months of the year are written with a capital letter; however the names of the seasons are not.  Therefore, it is correct to write that your birthday falls on the second Wednesday of May. However, you would write that you have a summer birthday.

Remember to capitalise the names of languages such as English and French. This often causes confusion as the title of other school subjects should not be capitalised. In this way you may write that you enjoy maths, science and French.

The names of festivals, holy days and many religious terms are also capitalised. So we might write that Christians are preparing for Christmas, or that during Ramadan Muslims may not eat before sundown. As a general rule the names of religions, their followers and sacred books connected to the religion should start with a capital letter.

When looking at the titles or names of books, films, plays, poems, newspapers and magazines it is correct to capitalise the first letter of every significant word, but not the connecting words. In this way if we were writing about the great novel written by Margaret Mitchell and published in 1936, it would be correct to write “Gone with the Wind”.

Lastly, let’s think about Roman numerals. Generally, when we see them written in text we would expect to see them capitalised. However, this is one major exception to this – look at any book and you will discover that Roman numerals are often used to number pages – but these will be in lower case.  Just something to leave you wondering about!                             

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Did the ebberman defenestrate the flibbertigibbet?

To continue with our list of interesting, if unusual, words let’s start today by looking at defenestration – the act of throwing someone or something out of the window. Although use of the word suggests that the glass in the window will be broken, the act of defenestration need not necessarily imply the intent to kill the person who is being thrown out, although personally I would prefer not to take the chance.  Usage of this word can be traced back to 1618, and the second “defenestration of Prague”, where two Catholic Imperial Governors and their secretary were defenestrated at Prague Castle. Amazingly all three survived, some Catholics believed their survival was due to divine intervention, whilst many Protestants claimed this was due to the men falling onto a dung heap!   Throughout history there are many examples of defenestration, including the murder of the 8^th Earl of Douglas, William Douglas, by King James 2^nd of Scotland. After murdering the Earl with his bare hands the King then threw him out of the window of Stirling Castle. Also, during the Polish January 1863 uprising, Russian troops threw Chopin’s piano out of the window of a second floor apartment.  

 

Moving on to slightly more pleasant thoughts, I have to ask are you an ebberman?  I am not being rude I promise; this simply refers to one who fishes under bridges! Now to me this conjures up a beautiful, tranquil image of a lazy summer day.  The plural of this lovely little word is ebbermen, and I’m sorry but I couldn’t find a female version but I’m happy to go with ebberwomen if you are? You may be more familiar seeing Ebberman as a surname or family name. It is difficult to ascertain the country of origin of this name as families of Ebberman can be found across the world. Oh, and just as an aside, for all you crossword or puzzle lovers, you can make 200 English words with the letters contained in ebberman, including babe, ban, mare and ream.  

On the other hand you may have no interest in fishing at all. Perhaps you are more of a flibbertigibbet?  This noun describes someone, usually a young woman, who is seen as frivolous, flighty and a bit of a gossiper.  I am sure, if we think hard enough, we can all think of someone who matches that description!  The word flibbertigibbet is an old Middle English word referring to someone flighty and whimsical. Historically the word has also been used as a name for a fiend, devil or spirit. We only need to look at Shakespeare’s King Lear to find the evidence of this.  Although in modern days it is most likely to be used to describe a silly, scatterbrained chatterbox. Use this word with caution – the person you are talking about just may know the meaning!  If you want to earn extra Brownie points you may prefer to tell them they are felicific, meaning that they cause happiness.

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Cachinnation at the asinine baltering of a cockalorum

Am I the only one who has ever wondered how many words there actually are in the English language, or have you had the same thought?  I’m hoping there are a few of you out there who have these strange thoughts crossing their minds, if not I may have to start to worry about myself!  Anyway, this week I have tried to find out the answer, with some interesting results.  It is difficult to find an exact number, but would you believe that the Oxford English Dictionary lists over 250,000 distinct words, and this does not include many technical, scientific or slang words. Wow – all those words, and yet we tend to use only a fraction of these on a daily basis. Perhaps it is time to broaden our horizons and increase our vocabulary.

With this idea in mind, I thought today we could start to look at some interesting words that may be fun to work into a conversation with someone, or into a written piece of work.  There are lots to choose from, but I will share with you my favourites. Working in a systematic way I thought we could start with words beginning with “a” and gradually work through the alphabet.  So how about starting with “asinine” – which means extremely or utterly foolish. The word dates back to the 15^th Century and is derived from the Latin “asininus” meaning ass or donkey like. We could say something like “I will choose to ignore your asinine comment”, and wait and see if there is any response.  In the past I have been asked if this is a rude word as it seems to include the word ass – but do not worry it is a real word perfectly fine to use in polite company!

Swiftly moving on let’s look at the word “balter”, which when pronounced rhymes with Walter or alter.  I love this little word which means to tumble or dance clumsily, and can also mean to tangle or stick together.  It is believed it is derived from the Middle English word “balteren”, which is similar to the Danish “baltre” or “boltre”, meaning to roll or tumble. Just as an aside, Balter is also found as a surname. Perhaps, one of the most famous is Sam Balter who was part of the American basketball team which won the gold medal in the 1936 Olympic Games.

Sorry, but when it comes to words beginning with “C” I have had to cheat and include two, as I just could not decide upon my favourite. The first is “cachinnator”, a very unusual word used to describe a person who laughs loudly and immoderately. You may also talk of cachinnation, the act of laughing loudly and cachinnate, which refers to a loud, immoderate laugh. The roots of these words are found in the Latin word “cachinnare”. 

The final word for this week also has its roots in Latin, “cockalorum” – which describes a little man with a very high opinion of himself, and refers to boastful talk. Before anyone asks, I have to tell you this word is also fine to use in polite company as it compares the boasting to the crowing of a cockerel.  Sorry, I just had to give this a mention!

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