New Words and Phrases for 2014

The Oxford English Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary update their additions once a year. Their web pages will list more words that are not added formally to their printed editions.

Both the printed and the web pages are interesting for their choices. I am not a purist when it comes to languages. I use many slang terms. I also appreciate that the English languages, both American and British, change quickly mainly due to the internet and the number of people who use English to communicate either in a chat room or while conducting business. What I do not understand is how some of these words and phrases make it into a hard bound copy of a dictionary. Some seem like slang and a fleeting fantasy while others make sense and will stay in use in a quarter of century. I starred the words I think will disappear in a decade or less. What do you think?

CATFISH: 1. any of an order of chiefly freshwater stout-bodied scaleless bony fishes having long tactile barbels; *2. a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes

*CROWDFUNDING:  the practice of soliciting financial contributions from a large number of people especially from the online community

FRACKING: the injection of fluid into shale beds at high pressure in order to free up petroleum resources (such as oil or natural gas)

*FREEGAN: an activist who scavenges for free food (as in waste receptacles at stores and restaurants) as a means of reducing consumption of resources

*GAMIFICATION: the process of adding games or gamelike elements to something (as a task) so as to encourage participation

HASHTAG: a word or phrase preceded by the symbol # that classifies or categorizes the accompanying text (such as a tweet)

PHO: a soup made of beef or chicken broth and rice noodles

POUTINE: chiefly Canada; a dish of French fries covered with brown gravy and cheese curds

*TURDUCKEN: a boneless chicken stuffed into a boneless duck stuffed into a boneless turkey

SMH: shaking my head negatively

*AMAZEBALLS: extremely good or impressive; amazing

*DOX or DOXX: publishing private or identifying information about a specific individual with  malicious intent

ACQUIHIRE: buying a company for the value of its staff and not for the product or service itself

CLICKBACK: content on the internet that draws attention to and thus visitors to a specific web page

*VAX: vaccination

*HUMBLEBRAG: ostensibly modest, self deprecating comment to draw attention one’s self or accomplishments

*HENCH: man who is physically fit

*ADORBS: cute, adorabable

*MANSPLAIN: man, usually, explaining to a woman, usually, something using a condescending manner

*LISTICLE: article on the internet that uses bullet point or numbers for emphasis or clarity

www.merriam-webster.com 

www.oxfordenglishdictionary.com 

Common Words from Native American Language

by JENNIFER ROVA

  Many of the words and phrases we use today came from Native American languages. Of the Native American words borrowed, most come from the Algonquian languages, those first encountered by English settlers in the 1600’s. Examples are: chipmunk, hickory, moose, opossum, persimmon, raccoon, skunk, squash, toboggan, and tomahawk. 
  These language families are spoken by many individual tribes from the Northeastern part of the United States to the Rockies. Mississippi comes from the words for big (mitsi) and river (sitpi) probably Ojibwa or Cree sublanguages. Minnesota is from the Sioux words for water (mni) and  clear (sota). 
  A large number of Athabascan and Nahuatl (Middle America) languages stretching from Alaska (great big land) and western Canada (from Laurentian Iroquois kanata [village, wigwams, settlement]) down to the American Southwest and Mexico gave us words like wapiti, igloo, avocado, kayak, cocoa and chocolate. Numerous place names have come from the American Indian languages. They are interesting because the names describe the geography of the area or something about the tribes living there.

Apache -- elk horn fiddlers                                         Appomattox – tobacco country

Arizona -- little spring place                                       Chattanooga—eagle nest

Cherokee – cave people                                              Chesapeake – salty pond

Chicago – place of wild onions, bad smell                  Comanche – snakes

Dakota – friends, allies                                                Delaware – true men

Erie – at the place of the panther                                 Flat Head – sailfish

Haiti – mountainous country                                       Huron– hair style

Idaho – it is morning                                                    Illinois – warriors

Kenosha – long fish                                                      Kokomo – the driver

Kiowa – principle people                                            Macinac - turtle island                                    

Massachusetts – large hill place                                    Manhattan – island

Menominee – wild rice eaters                                       Miami – all beavers, all friends

Michigan – big sea waters                                             Milwaukee – rich land

Monongahela – falling bank                                          Nantucket – far away light

Nebraska – flat water                                                     Ohio – beautiful river

Ojibwa – those who drew pictures                                Oshkosh – claw scratches

Ottawa – traders                                                             Pensacola – hairy people   

Peoria – place of fat beasts                                             Pocahontas – shield

Potomac – burning pines river                                       Pueblo – village dwellers

Roanoke – shell money                                                  Sandusky - large pools of water 

Schenectady – end of trail                                              Seminole – run away people

Shenandoah – hillside stream                                         Sioux – cut throats

Texas – friendly allies                                                     Topeka – potato country

Toronto – meeting place                                                 Tuscaloosa – black warrior

Utah – higher up                                                             Ute – dark skinned 

Walla Walla – many waters                                            Willamette—running water

Wenatchee – rivers coming out of canyon                     Wyoming – large prairie place

Yakima – run away                                                          Yosemite – grizzly bear

Many names for products come from Native American languages. Conestoga means “beautiful magic land” and we walk on Mohawk carpeting, Mohawk meaning “people of the flint”. The auto industry has taken names for some of their vehicles: Jeep “Comanche”, GMC “Denali”, Toyota “Tundra” truck, and Dodge “Dakota”. We use Igloo brand coolers but why would anybody name an RV “Winnebago” which means people of the stinking water”?

                                                                                                                                                    

Friday Fun with The Word UP

Jennifer Rova

I received this in an email today and smiled. The author is unknown but he seemed to be up for writing something funny. The word UP in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word.  It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv],  [prep], [adj], [n] or [v]. To  be knowledgeable about the proper uses of  UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with UP to a hundred uses or more.

 It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, 

 but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake  UP?

At  a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why 

are the officers UP for  election; if there is  a tie, it is a toss UP.  Why is it UP

to the secretary to write UP a  report?  We call UP our friends, brighten UP a 

room, polish UP the  silver, warm UP the  leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.  

We lock UP the house and fix UP the  old car.

At other  times, this little word has real a special meaning. People stir UP trouble, 

line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To  be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And  this UP is confusing:  A drain must be opened UP because  it is  blocked  UP.

We  open UP a  store in the morning but we close it  UP at  night. We seem to be

 pretty mixed UP about  UP!

When  it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding  UP. When the sun comes out, 

we say it is clearing UP.  When it rains, it soaks UP the  earth.  When it does not 

rain for awhile,  things dry UP. 

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now . 

 My time is UP!

Mossy Mantles and the Place Driven Story, Part Three

Place can be described and brought to life, brilliantly, in ways you might not readily imagine. Too much physical description can be as misplaced as too little.  If the depiction of the setting does not bring with it the culture and the spirit of the people, we will not know who the characters are. The history of the original inhabitants is crucial.

From The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton:

“The Beauforts house was one of the few in New York that possessed a ballroom (it antedated even Mrs Manson Mingotts and the Headly Chiverses); and at a time when it was beginning to be thought provincial to put a 'crash' over the dining room floor and move the furniture upstairs, the possession of a ballroom that was used for no other purpose and left for three hundred and sixty four days of the year to shuttered darkness, with its gilt chairs stacked in a corner and is chandelier in a bag; this undoubled superiority was felt to compensate for whatever was regrettable in the Beaufort past.”

“New York has always been a commercial community and there are not more than three families in it who can claim and aristocratic origin in the real sense of the word...

The van der Luydens, direct descendants of the first Dutch Governor of Manhatten who stood above all of them had faded into a kind of super terrestrial twilight.. They divided their time between Trevenna their place in Maryland, and Sutercliff, the great estate on the Hudson which had been one of the colonial grands of the Dutch government of which Mr. Van der Luyden was still a patroon."

                                              ***************************

So what do these passages say about place? The topic is not, by any means, limited to the physical description. If a writer were to leave it at that and not describe the character's social standing, then we would not know who they are.

If you take a look at the south, you may think that the fertile soil and temperate climate would produce happy stories of people who are totally at ease. This is not always the case. Can anyone tell me why? The culture and the past are somewhat at odds with the lush setting; it is that contrast and the brutality of the change forced upon it which have yielded the greatest stories. The expression, 'may you always live in changing times,' has particular appeal to writers.

William Faulkner created the fictional Yokaipatawa county where:

“Life was created in the valleys. It blew up into the hills on the old terrors, the old lusts, the old despairs. That is why you must walk up the hills so you can ride down.”

In Absalom Absalom, Thomas Sutpen is a character who sought to wrest his mansion out of the muddy bottoms of the north Mississippi wilderness. He was a man, Faulkner said who wanted sons and the sons destroyed him.

Some stories have shifts in the settings and the description of that shift, or explanation, can imbue great tension in the action. I have chosen a passage from Alexander Dumas, The Count of Monte Christo:

“Meanwhile through a gully between two walls of rock, following a path worn by a torrent, which, in all probability human foot had never before trod, Dantes approached the spot where he supposed the grottos much have existed. Keeping along the coast and examining the smallest object with rapt attention, he thought he could trace on certain rocks, marks made by the hand of man. Time, which encrusts all physical substances with its mossy mantle, as it invests all things moral with its mantle of forgetfullness, seemed to have respected these signs, traced with a certain regularity and probably with a design of leaving tracks. Occasionally these marks disappeared beneath clumps of myrtle which spread into large bushed laden with blossoms or beneath parasitical lichen. Edward had to move branches on one side or remove mosses in order to retrace the marks which were to be his guide in this labyrinth...”

“At last after fresh hesitation, Dantes entered the second grotto. The second grotto was lower and more gloomy than the first; the air that could only enter by the newly formed opening had that mephitic smell Dantes was surprised to find in the firs. He waited to allow the pure air to displace the foul atmosphere and entered.

The treasure, if existed was buried in this corner. The time had at length arrived; two feet of earth removed and Dantes fate would be decided. He advanced toward the angle and summoning all his resolution, attacked the ground with a pickaxe. At fifth or sixth blow the pickaxe struck against an iron substance. Never did funeral knell, never did alarm bell, produce a greater effect on the hearer. Had Dantes found nothing, he could not have become more ghastly pale. He again struck his pickaxe into the earth and again encountered the same resistance, but not the same sound.

'It is a casket of wood bound with iron,' thought he."

                                            *****************************

How many movies, comic books, and cartoons have recreated that scene? It has become a expected now, but that was the original.

The most profoundly beautiful description of a setting, would induce nothing but a big yawn if a desperate situation did not immediately follow. Alfred Hitchcock used to say, get your character's in a pickle so we can watch them work their way out. He was a great one for using a setting dramatic in and of itself to help this concept along.

Consider this example of the technique from another master, Charles Dickens. This is from Great Expectations:

 

“Ours was the marsh country down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea. The first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things, seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening. At such a time, I found that this bleak place, overgrown with nettles was the church yard; and that Philip Pirrup, late of this parish and Georgiana wife of the above, were also dead and buried; and that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard intersected with dykes and mound and gates with scattered cattle feeding on it was the marshes; and that low leaden line beyond was the river; and that distant savage lair form which the wind was rushing, was the sea; and that small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry was Pip.

'Hold your noise,' cried a terrible voice, as a man started up from among the graves at the side of the church porch. “ Keep still you little devil, or I'll cut your throat.”

                                 ******************************************

Descriptions of settings can indicate what kind of story you are about to read. The ability to weave that through the opening pages can be what distinguishes the classics and the prize winners.
Here at writingnorthidaho, we are always interested in what our readers like to know. Please drop us a line and let us know what you think.

Contradictions of Home

 We are very pleased to offer a guest post today by our friend, Jenni Gate.

Intro: Jen Gate

Jenni Gate has worked as a paralegal, a mediator, a small business consultant, and a writer. Born in Libya and raised throughout Africa and Asia, Jenni’s upbringing as a global nomad provided a unique perspective on life. As a child, she lived in Libya, Nigeria, the Congo, Pakistan, the Philippines, and the Washington DC area. As an adult, she has lived in Alaska, England, and throughout the Pacific Northwest. Her published work includes several articles for a monthly business magazine in Alaska and a local interest magazine in Idaho. She has written several award-winning memoir pieces for writing contests. Jenni currently writes non-fiction, memoir, and fiction, drawing upon her global experiences. New adventures abound. To read more about her adventures around the world, visit her at Nomad Trails and Tales.

By Jenni Gate

Growing up among different cultures creates contradictions in our adult lives that we find ourselves dealing with for the rest of our lives. This is true as we try to determine our identities, in coming to terms with personality issues, in transitions, in finding meaning for our experiences, and especially when we try to define what or where is "home."

An average person who grows up in one place for their whole childhood knows who he or she is. He has a strong sense of identity in the place where he spent his childhood. Even if she moved house within a town or city, she can define herself by the geographical boundaries. Someone who is born and raised in a small town identifies so closely with that town that even if she moves away long into adulthood, that place is still home in her heart. There is pride of home, often a deep love for the way of life in which one was raised, and broad, intimate knowledge of the traditions and cultures of home.

When we grow up moving from place to place, culture to culture, we call many places home. We hold diverse realms of cultures, traditions, and social norms within us. When we move from place to place, we are always trying to gauge what the social norms are, learning new traditions, adopting cultures, even new languages. We may feel that we can fit in anywhere, but we never really fit in. We miss the depth and breadth of knowledge a local person has of the culture of a place. Our parents may be able to go home, to a place that nurtured them in childhood, established moral boundaries, set social norms and cultural practices and traditions, but as children who grow up exchanging whole worlds with the sound of a jet engine, we carry a tormenting ideal of home within us that we may never find.

Although it may seem obvious, in practical, real-life experience, this feeling of being out of step or at odds with the particularities of a place is a living contradiction. When we return to our passport countries, we may not have a sense of place to return to. We may look like we belong, so the expectations are the same as for a local person. But in reality, we are hidden immigrants, unfamiliar with the norms, expectations, cultures and traditions of a place. Many of us feel rootless and restless for the remainder of our lives as a result. Some can't wait to pick a place to call home and settle in.

Long into our adulthood, regardless whether we feel settled or rootless, we cringe when anyone asks where we're from. How do we explain that we are from many places, that we have called many places home? How do we choose just one place to be from? Is it where we felt the most accepted? Is it where we just began to set down roots when a parent’s job was transferred or a civil war forced an evacuation? Is it where our friends bonded with us during a coup or war with a closeness we have never felt again? How do we explain that even when we look like we belong, we may be foreign in every other way? If we have parents of different ethnic backgrounds, it becomes even more complicated to explain.

For me, defining home is extremely complicated and contradictory. I feel like an outsider looking in. When I lived in a small town, the provincialism of the townspeople was apparent in every gesture, every comment, every question, and I felt like a complete foreigner at times. Even though I felt love for my country, I also felt split loyalties during international crises, and it was impossible for many of my new friends to understand.

Having lived in many places that are no longer safe to travel to, it has been important for me to read as much as possible about many of the places I have called home. Sometimes I've learned more about a place after leaving it than I did when I lived there. I've had my heart broken when places I once called home become embroiled in war, when they suffer natural disasters or famine. How, in those times, do we describe the sense of helplessness that comes over us that there is little we can do to help the people of a place we once loved?

We hold many homes in our hearts, many cultures, many traditions, many ways of being. We hold places in our hearts that we can never return to. We hold the memories of friendships, of heartaches, of happiness particular to a place. We may never fully belong, but we adapt, we empathize with others, we try to make sense of the contradictions, we struggle with our shifting identities, and eventually we create a sense of home within ourselves.

How do you define "home"? What does it mean to you? Do you have a strong sense of identity because of the homes you've internalized, or is identity a fluid concept, something you change and adapt with every new location?

Reading a Manuscript

There are two manuscripts currently awaiting my attention. It is a distinct honor to be asked to read them and it is a task I approach with reverence. Most writers will guard their work quite zealously, until it is fully formed and ready to be released. If you are at this particular point in time, before the query letter is written, it is wise to ask a few good people to take a look and let you know what they think.

As a writer, you want to find common agreement. In my first attempt at a novel, I heard that my protagonist fell in love with a man she did not seem to like all that much when she first set eyes on him. While this is a common device in many love stories, I missed the mark in describing the man, in such a way as to allow the reader to see why she would eventually fall in love with him. In the end, the novel failed to get out into the world and ended up in my cupboard. The other day, a solution occurred to me on an afternoon walk in the woods.  I have no desire to dust off that story and fix it at this point; there are so many stories and too little time.  I did feel happy though, in the knowledge that a tricky piece of the puzzle had somehow fallen into place. Who knows? If I live to be ninety and still have my faculties, it may see the light of day yet. If not, it was part of my learning curve and not a total waste of time.

Certainly, a story is like a great enigma. Years ago, up at the lake, my family of origin decided to tackle one of those thousand piece puzzles, during a week of inclement weather. We were always an impatient bunch, but some of us found the process soothing. We started to square off the frame and get some sections going, until one day, we returned from a trip to town to see our father sitting at the card table with a pair of scissors! He was cutting a piece to fit. Aghast, we let out a collective protest while he insisted that the piece really was supposed to go there and that the manufacturer did not trim it correctly. Don't do this to either a puzzle, or a manuscript! Don't try to make something work because you stubbornly insist that your reader is wrong and you are right. If two readers say the same thing then you have to admit defeat and go back to the drawing board. A little humility is in order.

A writer needs to know if the story starts to lag at any given point. Picture, if you will, four people holding up a King size sheet. Where in your novel is the greatest dip? Do the four corners have to be lifted higher in order to keep it from sagging to the ground? Many times, a writer will get a response to a query. An agent, after reading the first three chapters, may ask for the full manuscript. The writer will send it off right away and then go through weeks of nail biting uncertainty. With a great thud, the manuscript lands back on the doorstep, having been returned. The excruciating task begins. The reason, obsessed over and discussed with friends, often does not yield an answer. The writing was good enough to get that  far, but was there a lag, a sag, or a droop, that made the agent toss it into the return pile? If so, its better to find out before sending it out and putting yourself through many frustrating attempts to get published.

A writer needs to know if they have gone off on a tangent, if they have written a passage aimed at the greater good of society, but not necessarily having anything to do with the story. Are they in any way proselytizing? They need to know if they have served the story, have kept a narrative arc, or if they have created a great muddle. If you are a writer who crafts your work by feeling your way through it, you must be prepared to hear that you have veered off from the direction the reader thought, or wanted, the story to take. We liked to be surprised, but not entirely surprised. Therefore, when you nail a story down, and you know what it is and what it looks like precisely, you can layer in some foreshadowing, so that the reader is prepared when the tale takes a turn. Was I forewarned when Lady Sybil, in Downton Abbey, died in childbirth? No, I was surprised. Was I too surprised? No. Lady Sybil was already on a perilous path. We knew she was, to some extent, doomed. That is how it works.

Characters become like our children, or our pets. Hearing someone say they did not like the protagonist can be a mighty blow. It need not be a death sentence though. Opinions will vary greatly as to the level of admiration, or dislike. What is more important to the writer, is that the character can be imagined, can be seen with the mind's eye. If so, then the writer has produced something, rather than nothing.

Lastly, good writing will always have a certain zing. If the readers come back and say that the work held their interest, that it was a fast and easy read, then you may heave a great sigh of relief, for that is the hardest part. The very best writing will always grab the reader and hold them tight. Stephen King likens his work to the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries. That is not a derogatory statement and accounts for his commercial success.

Was the writer tripped up anywhere? This is a great question. No reader should be thinking, wait, did I miss something? They shouldn't have to go back a few pages to try to figure out what is happening. Ask your reader if anything needs clarifying.

If you have a manuscript ready to go on its first voyage out of your clutches, then God Bless you. Take vitamins, eat well, rest, take long walks and do not lose faith in your idea, or yourself, whatever you do. If you receive a blow, look for common agreement. If it is just one opinion, try to make sense of it, but do not despair. Years ago, a song writer told me that when he writes the tune and words come to him, he feels good in his soul. He said that he sees God as the Creator and that when he creates, he makes the Creator happy. How I have clung to those words, lo these many years. It takes time, be patient and do not give up no matter what. If you feel in your heart that writing is what you were meant to do, then you must do it, without regard for the outcome. Many of us wrote with one foot rocking the cradle, or on our lunch hour at work, or in the wee hours before dawn. I sat with my laptop in the car at soccer games, while the other mothers paced up and down the sidelines, screaming. I wrote in the storage cupboard at work during lunch because I was in possession of the key and knew I would not be disturbed. I wrote while my kids did their homework, or when they jumped on the trampoline, placed strategically in front of my study window. Persistence pays. Do not let anyone tell you that it doesn't.

 Andy Warhol said, “Make art. Let others decide whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make more art.”