Words You've Learned from Reading and Writing

Jason · Sep 5, 2019

As indicated previous post, here is list #10!

Shanghai - the practice of kidnapping people to serve as sailors by coercive techniques such as trickery, intimidation, or violence
Diaphanous - (especially of fabric) light, delicate, and translucent.
Clochard - a beggar (possibly a French word the writer has used as if it were English)
Barmecide - lavish or plentiful in imagination only; illusory; sham: a Barmecide feast
Bastinado - a form of corporal punishment in which the offender is beaten with a cane on the soles of the feet.
Pruritis - Severe itching of the skin, as a symptom of various ailments
Chiaroscuro - an effect of contrasted light and shadow.
By-blow - an illegitimate child; bastard
Haaf - open sea, especially that which is fish-bearing
Copacetic - all right, satisfactory, in good order
Sapper - a soldier responsible for tasks such as building and repairing roads and bridges, laying and clearing mines, etc.
Propinquity - the state of being close to someone or something; proximity
Banian - (or Banyan): an Indian fig tree whose branches produce aerial roots that later become accessory trunks. A mature tree may cover several acres in this manner.
Encomium - a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly.
Shulk - a group of foxes
Claudication - impairment or pain in walking that is relieved by rest.

All the prior lists:
List 1
List 2
List 3
List 4
List 5
List 6
List 7
List 8
List 9

Chris P · Sep 5, 2019

Jason said:
Hey Chris,

So, I stopped in to re-visit the thread and see if another list was warranted (one is forthcoming), but wanted to speak to your question specifically, because it got me curious. So, off to the interwebs I went, and found a reference to the word shidepoke on the heron page on Wikipedia, which sort of confirms the suspicions you found from the Urban dictionary. To further validate that, the Wikipedia page also informed me that the 3rd edition of Webster's dictionary had it listed too, so off to the online Webster's dictionary I went, and while there was not a listing for shidepoke, shitepoke was there, and the derivative spelling was also present. Here are the links, in order:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heron
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heron#cite_note-13
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shitepoke

Now, in the course of this, the term looks to have originated from the tendency of the heron to defecate before taking flight, most specifically, when flushed. With that in mind, I went back to your Updike reference, and tried to shorten the sentence to it's most grammatically simplest form. When doing that, I got this:

Given the etymology of the word, and the larger construct of the sentence, the way I read the meaning of this is that the wife in the story had essentially put the first-person on some kind of proverbial pedestal of sorts, where he was the center of attention, and to only be praised. So, the mother, to counter that, called him (the first person) out - or flushed him out for being the kind of guy who had children out of wedlock through his acts of adultery. So, basically, the author was flushed out where he suddenly must come face to face with the reality that he's kind of a shit, and not the greatest thing since sliced-bread, which he may have grown accustomed to.

Again, just my own interpretation of it, so take this with the grain of salt intended for opinions of one who's not even read the novel in its entirity. Just like all else, that's my 2¢ in a world where pennies are meaningless

Thanks for the input! It fits, in the same way the more familiar image of pigeons on park statues would fit.

In the book, the MC is visiting the farm he grew up on with his new second wife and her adolescent son. The MC's mother disapproves of divorce in general, and really liked the MC's first wife and of course adores the MC's kids from the first marriage. The tension of how the MC's mother will respond to the new wife and how that plays out drives the story. So, I can see how the MC's mother would think the MC has shit on his family, committed adultery and made his biological kids fatherless. But, oof-da that's a long way to go for a reference.

Jason · Sep 8, 2019

quork- apparently a sound that ravens make, unique to the GoT series
ochre:- an earthy pigment containing ferric oxide, typically with clay, varying from light yellow to brown or red (also just used as the name of a color chiefly pale brownish yellow)
paramour - a lover, esp. the illicit partner of a married person

Siri Kirpal · Oct 1, 2019

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Contumely: Rudeness or contempt. An insolent or arrogant remark.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Jason · Oct 3, 2019

Runnel - a narrow channel in the ground for liquid to flow through
Sawyer- a person who saws timber for a living

Jason · Oct 9, 2019

Firth - a narrow inlet of the sea; an estuary

Paul Lamb · Oct 9, 2019

I learned "ratiocination" from Poe, "juxtaposed" from Faulkner, "aficionado" from Hemingway, and most recently, "gamine" from Cunningham.

emraeshine · Oct 16, 2019

enclamed, camerated, and macerated

Sometimes I try to build my vocabulary by playing Scrabble. Recently while playing, I had the letters A - D - R - E - N - A - L - E - C - T - O - M. I was running out of time so I decided to look up some possible combinations on https://www.crosswordsolver.com/scrabble-word-finder and learned some interesting new words, including enclamed (to becalm or settle), camerated (to divide into chambers), and macerated (to soften or become softened by soaking in a liquid).

Siri Kirpal · Oct 16, 2019

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Shouldn't enclamed be encalmed?

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Chris P · Oct 17, 2019

Equinoctial - related to an equinox.

It makes sense this would be a word, I've just never run into it.

Jason · Oct 19, 2019

avascular - characterized by or associated with a lack of blood vessels (learned on my recent visit to the eye doctor - did you know your lenses are avascular?)

MaeZe · Oct 21, 2019

panopticon
"a building, as a prison, hospital, library, or the like, so arranged that all parts of the interior are visible from a single point."

And then weirdly my son used it yesterday when before last week when I learned it, I didn't remember previously hearing it.

Chris P · Oct 21, 2019

MaeZe said:
panopticon
"a building, as a prison, hospital, library, or the like, so arranged that all parts of the interior are visible from a single point."

And then weirdly my son used it yesterday when before last week when I learned it, I didn't remember previously hearing it.

Ha! There is a theory about that: Morphic Resonance. It's a a theory based on the observation that once something happens for the first time, future recurrences are more likely to happen. Never hearing a word before then suddenly hearing it everyone is one of the more trivial and shallow manifestations of the phenomenon. More developed thought relates to collective memory and such. It's achieved the status of religion by some folks.

Jason · Oct 21, 2019

Chris P said:
Ha! There is a theory about that: Morphic Resonance. It's a a theory based on the observation that once something happens for the first time, future recurrences are more likely to happen. Never hearing a word before then suddenly hearing it everyone is one of the more trivial and shallow manifestations of the phenomenon. More developed thought relates to collective memory and such. It's achieved the status of religion by some folks.

hmmm, morphic resonance- sounds like a book title or plot is in that somewhere &#55357;&#56832;

MaeZe · Oct 21, 2019

Or it could be that until I learned the word I didn't hear it (glossed over it) when others used it. :tongue

That shifting paradigms theory is interesting. Then I got lost in all those new terms.

Siri Kirpal · Nov 16, 2019

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Brumation: a torpor in reptiles similar to hibernation, but they do come out of it on sunny days

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Siri Kirpal · Nov 23, 2019

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Condign: Deserved

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Chris P · Nov 23, 2019

Siri, "condign" is an interesting word but kind of naked as presented. Can you quote the sentence? I assume it's used as an adjective here, and not the past tense of the verb?

Siri Kirpal · Nov 24, 2019

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

From Love's Labour's Lost:

Boy: Speak you in my praise, master?
Armado: In thy condign praise.

The word wasn't glossed in the volume I'm reading, so I knew it had to still be in use...sort of. Condign means deserved, but is a portmanteau of con (with) and dignity.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Siri Kirpal · Nov 24, 2019

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

So, yes, I assume it's an adjective.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Chris P · Nov 24, 2019

Interesting! Being a portmanteau, I wonder if it was originally supposed to be pronounced "con-dig" or "con-dig-n" rather than "con-dine"?

Jason · Nov 24, 2019

That actually is another good one...

portmanteau - a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others, for example motel (from ‘motor’ and ‘hotel’) or brunch (from ‘breakfast’ and ‘lunch’).

Siri Kirpal · Nov 24, 2019

Chris P said:
Interesting! Being a portmanteau, I wonder if it was originally supposed to be pronounced "con-dig" or "con-dig-n" rather than "con-dine"?

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

No idea. I've wondered that myself.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Chris P · Nov 24, 2019

I love portmanteaus! I eat them up with a spork.

(Or....portmanteaux?)

Chris P · Nov 28, 2019

Commodious - roomy and comfortable, especially in regards to furniture. I'd run into this word a lot, and I figured it was related to "accommodating" in some way, but I never knew exactly what it meant.

Words You've Learned from Reading and Writing

Ideas bounce around in my head

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

Ideas bounce around in my head

Swan in Process

Ideas bounce around in my head

Ideas bounce around in my head

Swan in Process

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

Ideas bounce around in my head

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

Ideas bounce around in my head

Swan in Process

Swan in Process

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

Swan in Process

Swan in Process

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

Ideas bounce around in my head

Swan in Process

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred