May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [Bonus]

Blog entry #55

Here's a cloud of my other favourite words. Enjoy!

Image source: wordclouds.com

Happy Halfway Month! See you on the other half of twenty-twenty. Hope to be back with a challenge in July.

Until then, stay safe.

Hasta pronto!

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [Z]

Blog entry #54

Zilch | Zing

Zilch

"I couldn't point out one flaw in this work - zilch, zip, nada!" Zilch is such a fun word for the boring old 'nothing'. It sounds posh. Apparently it's also a German surname of Slavic origin. Since my husband likes saying this word too, we try to find instances to say it - "At this moment, these shares are worth zilch", "Although I learnt this concept in school in two different years, I remember zilch about it."

Zing

Watching Masterchef Australia is one of the best pastimes in our house. More than the food, ingredients, and recipes, we are more interested in the new words we learn like meringue, the reactions and responses from the judges, and the amazing Australian accent spoken on the show. Usually, contestants whose origins are from the Asia-Pacific regions like Vietnam or India, the reactions by the judges are along the lines of "There's so much flavour in this dish; This rasam has got a certain zing to it; This broth is so zingy." If I make a dish with lots of tamarind or slightly sour tomatoes, we'd expect a zing while eating it!

Stay tuned for my upcoming bonus post tomorrow!

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [Y]

Blog entry #53

Yonder | Yoohoo

Yonder

Don't you just love archaic words? Well, I do, and this is one of them. It is fun to read out loud a soliloquy from Shakespeare's plays, such as the one below:

"But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun."

There is obviously no need to introduce the play or the character who uttered the above lines. How beautifully worded is the first line, so poetic! Imagine if Shakespeare were to replace it with its exact meaning: "A light came on in a window." How boring. Although I am familiar with the story of Romeo and Juliet, I hope to read the entire play as is, someday.

Yoohoo

Growing up watching a lot of teenage pop star soap-opera shows, I was no stranger to the gestural call out of 'Yoohoo!' Only after watching TBBT did I learn that there's a chocolate drink of the same name. Learning phrases, slangs, and jargon specific to certain cultures has always amused me. I tend to pick up quirky lines from the various shows I've watched and try to imitate the character when saying them out loud. I'm just waiting for an opportunity to respond like Sheldon when asked if he wants Yoohoo, and say, "It's hard to say no. The name literally beckons."

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [X]

Blog entry #52

Xenodochial | Xeranthemum

Xenodochial

Synonymous to hospitable and another x-word xenial, this word's exact meaning is actually the opposite of xenophobia. A xenodochial gesture by someone, when they're being friendly to strangers, can either work in their favour, or end up against them. It's fun to learn words that are uncommon or unheard of, such as this one. Xylophone is too mainstream, and way too plain and commonplace to be classified as a favourite, isn't it?

Xeranthemum

This flower is not only of a colour that is one of my favourites, i.e. lavender, but is also a symbol of cheerfulness, immortality, eternity and everlasting love. When starting out to learn Machine Learning or ML, one of the most sought after skills of today, you start by practising on a platform known as Kaggle. Here, one of the very first datasets you are exposed to is the flowers dataset, where you are expected to classify different flowers based on their characteristics. Xeranthemum is one such flower to be classified.

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [W]

Blog entry #51

Winner | Whetstone

Winner

"Winner winner, Kofta dinner" - modified the usual phrase because I'm a vegetarian and also, I like Kofta. Winner to me after 2012 resonated only with one person, and that's Harvey Specter. In school we were taught "winning isn't everything, participation is just as good." But after marrying a highly competitive chess-player, I've learnt from him that "winning isn't everything. It is the ONLY thing." My husband keeps telling me: "if you play, play to win. There's no other way." Over time, I've learnt to become more competitive not only when playing tournaments but also in general, and I've come to realize, it sometimes helps me find purpose in what I'm doing, my Ikigai.

Whetstone

I thoroughly enjoyed learning Shakespeare's play As You Like It for my English Literature class in grades nine and ten. No one was happier than me to know that my year was the first batch to study this short, fun play whereas until now, every batch had to study the tragedy Julius Caesar. What's better than studying a witty comedy over the myriad tragedies written by Shakespeare, all of them depressing or gory? Among obviously learning all of the new phrases introduced by the Bard of Avon and trying to interpret the several meanings within his sonnets and quips, 'whetstone' was one interesting word I recall. In the play, when the court jester Touchstone’s "wisdom" is questioned, it elicits the Duke's daughter Celia to remark, "the dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits." Google its interpretation if you're interested!

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [V]

Blog entry #50

Venture  | Ventriloquist

Venture

A shortened form of 'aventure', itself a shortened form of 'adventure', coined as early as the 15th century, this word means to undertake a risk. The term venture capital came about only in 1943. I associate this term with gallantry. Whenever I want to try something outside my comfort zone or face one of my fears, I tell myself that I would venture out, say, in the dark, or alone on a trip. It’s good to take calculated, calibrated risks sometimes.

Ventriloquist

If you had read my post on 'V' in the city connect challenge, you’d know that I had attended a ventriloquism workshop back when I was in grade 7. Post the YouTube era, I’ve binge-watched videos of two amazingly creative and talented ventriloquists, namely Jeff Dunham and Darci Lynne. My favourite words post on 'L' talks about 'loqui-' being the Latin stem for ’talk.' You can now guess that the prefix of the word ventriloquism comes from the Latin word 'venter', which refers to 'belly.'

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [U]

Blog entry #49

Umpteenth | Ubiquitous 

Umpteenth

In the Fatty and the Five Find-Outers series, you hear Fatty tell his friends "I'm telling you this for the umpteenth time" umpteen times! It thus became my favourite word. Enid Blyton uses a lot of rich words and phrases that come naturally to me today, thanks to binging on all her series - Famous Five to Secret Seven to Brer Rabbit. "Make room", "spill the beans", "Guy Fawkes night", and "ginger ale", were some of the phrases and terms I learnt in grades four, five and six.

Ubiquitous

I knew its synonym 'omnipresent' well before I came across this word. One of the rare words to contain three u's in it. Akin to presumptuous, superfluous, and unusual. There's also tumultuous, one with four u's, whoa! It's interesting how despite the words starting with a vowel 'u', if it has a 'you-' pronunciation, you add an 'a' in front of it, like 'a uniform', not 'an uniform.' Whereas 'u' words with 'uh' pronunciations have an 'an' at the start - 'an urn', 'an urgent request.' So for ubiquitous, it's of course 'a ubiquitous...', such as: 'Corona is now a ubiquitous phenomenon, i.e. a pandemic.'

Stay safe everyone!

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [T]

BLOG ENTRY #48

Touche | Tidy

Touche
With its origin in fencing, I like to say this French word in response to an intellectual's quips. When I know I've been outsmarted in a repartee, this is the best one-word response acknowledging defeat. I can recall several instances I've come across with my friends on campus with the banter ending in one of us saying 'Touche.'

Tidy
Although this word reminds me of Marie Kondo since the start of 2020, I like the job of tidying up as much as the word itself. Neat, organized spaces do indeed spark joy in me. Cleaning, decluttering, throwing things away, shredding papers no longer needed - ah, fun times! 

There once was a girl named Heidi
Who liked to keep her things tidy
She strutted about high and mighty
'Cause all her clothes were so whitey!

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [S]

Blog entry #47

Svelte | Subsume

Svelte 
No, I’m not talking about the new, blazingly fast JavaScript framework, which is apparently better than both React and Vue, but rather the word referring to a slender and elegant person. Saying this word out loud evokes the sensation of a swan-like personality within you. It is synonymous with yet another lovely word - suave. What a coincidence of both words having a 'v' in them. Perhaps that’s what makes the words so fun to say! 

Subsume
It was wrong of me to assume this word was related to presume 
Whereas it is, in fact, a synonym of insume 
It means to include or absorb in something else 
Basically be consumed by something other than itself! 

First came across it in a technical document 
Almost got into a misunderstood argument 
In the end, it was all swell 
It’s now my favourite word, just as well 

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [R]

Blog entry #46

Resilience | Raptor

Resilience

This word is synonymous to "bouncing back." Check out my latest post here to read a summary of a book with the same name. The idea of bouncing back reminds me of a trampoline, and the Mickey Mouse bouncy I’ve bounced in at birthday parties. Being resilient did not come naturally to me, but through serious practice, and help from my loved ones, I can say I’m fairly good at handling crisis situations nowadays, springing myself back to positivity, and focusing on finding solutions.

Raptor

This word should actually be put in my list of "words that send a chill down my spine the moment I read them." I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve watched the very first Jurassic Park movie, its scenes - especially the one with the kids and the raptors in the kitchen, sat on the very edge of my seat, and gotten thoroughly frightened. The initial scene of the movie itself, wherein they discover that the scientist has bred raptors sets an ominous tone for the rest of the movie. But all extinct, scary stuff aside, this word is fun to say out loud in an American accent, at least for me!

Image courtesy: Google © 

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [Q]

Blog entry #45

Quirky | Quipu

Quirky

I think the credit for most of the words being classified as my favourite goes to TBBT and Young Sheldon. Sheldon is always termed 'quirky', a stereotype for... a lot of things, actually. A nerd, a theoretical physicist with multiple degrees and a PhD, OCD for…again, a lot of things, a germaphobe, and supposedly a person lacking feelings, at least in the first three seasons. Synonymous to whimsical and idiosyncratic, this word need not always be seen in a negative light. I personally feel it’s a good thing to have a few quirky habits, as long as it's "no harm, no foul".

Quipu

Thanks to Young Sheldon, I now know that this word, aka khipu, refers to a method used by the Incas and other ancient Andean cultures to keep records and communicate information. As per the official definition, in the absence of an alphabetic writing system, this simple and highly portable device achieved a surprising degree of precision and flexibility. I am beginning to become fascinated with ancient forms of so-called technology, i.e. communication devices, modes of transport, and war strategies (that escalated quickly!). Plus, this word sounds cute.

Image courtesy: Google © 

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [P]

Blog entry #44

Pangram | Polyglot

Pangram

I learnt a couple pangrams while indulging myself in Touch Typing games during school days - this translates to fun for me! It’s a creative thought exercise trying to come up with pangrams of your own. Even Shashi Tharoor apparently spent one of his mornings coming up with a supposedly shortest pangram, although it was later deemed to not be the shortest pangram that made sense. Here’s one I came up with, containing exactly a 100 characters:

"You can waltz, hip-hop, tap, freestyle, and jive, but there's no movement quite like a good exercise"

Polyglot

Being one myself, with a measly count of proficiency in six languages, I find it extremely uncomfortable when I don’t understand what’s being said around me, like what happens to me when I go to Bangalore. Call it OCD, but my brain goes 'Aaargh!', since Kannada is not one of the languages I comprehend (yet). See the optimism there? I added a yet. Carol Dweck would be proud of me, I hope. I would love to become fluent in one of the foreign languages, but my focus right now is on learning Indian languages, as they constitute the most beautiful set of languages out there.

Image courtesy: Google © 

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [O]

Blog entry #43

Otolaryngologist | Onomatopoeia

Otolaryngologist

Although I knew this was the long version of an 'E-N-T' doctor, I liked saying it out loud as part of Sheldon’s dialog from only the second episode of The Big Bang Theory. I’ve also guessed this word as part of a game called Contact, in which players try to arrive at a person’s chosen word by coming up with other words that start with the same set of letters as the chosen word. It’s a fun car game for a group of four or more.

Onomatopoeia

Being my English teacher’s pet for a couple of years, I was always asked by her to spell this word to the class numerous times. No idea why this word was singled out. Aren’t there other tough words to spell too? Even shorter words like separate, received or occurred trip up a few sixth graders, don’t they? But this particular word has a fun meaning. Coming up with words such as sizzle, achoo, honk, boom, hiss, giggle is such an amusing activity. Thanks to owning, reading and re-reading hundreds of Amar Chitra Kathas throughout my childhood, I’m no stranger to onomatopoeic words. Thank you, Uncle Pai!

Image courtesy: Google © 

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [N]

Blog entry #42

Noodle | Nonchalant

Noodle

"Quit, don't quit...Noodle, don't noodle..." Thanks to Oogway from Kung Fu Panda, this word is now a family-favourite! That movie is an all-time watch for us, and we love every quirky, humorous yet teachable moment. Apart from enjoying saying the word out loud like Oogway does, I also enjoy eating this Chinese delicacy! Whether it’s home-made, restaurant-prepared, thin noodles, flat noodles, Udon noodles (Japanese), spaghetti (Italian), or our plain old Maggi, I like them all. Ooh, my mouth waters just writing this, maybe I’ll go make myself a packet of Maggi right away! Toodles!

Nonchalant

Calm and collected, cool as a cucumber, blasé and insouciant. This word reminds me of a monk, or Buddha if you will, who remains unperturbed in the face of commotion, chaos, or even a catastrophe. I visualize a cool-headed, serene-faced person who is able to not only handle a turbulent situation but also help those around them cool their heads off. I hope to nudge myself towards such a "nirvana" state. I hope to spiritually advance myself by learning to stay nonchalant, and be cool as a cat, at least on the outside.

Image courtesy: Google © 

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [M]

Blog entry #41

Melody | Moonpie

Melody

The word itself is like a melody! To quote Iyaz, it's like a melody in my head that I can't keep out. For me, I've always described my Mondays as melodious - Melodious Monday, or Monday Melodies! They're always jingles or hip-hop, but never blues. Melody also reminds me of the chocolate I was fond of for a brief period. And yes, it was quite chocolaty, although I never stopped to ask why, like its ad did.

Moonpie

This word got added to my list of favourite words ever since TBBT Season 2 Episode 19. Only recently did I get to know that it's a confectionery item. Branded in India at Lotte Choco Pie, I didn't quite like it initially. Over time, I guess I just got accustomed to its taste. Although I'm not a big fan of marshmallow-based sweets, I don't mind eating a Moonpie and finding it "nummy-nummy".

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [L]

Blog entry #40

Lexicography | Loquacious 

Lexicography 

I’ve found this word joyous to say out loud ever since I watched Erin McKean’s TED talk. Lexicography is the activity of compiling dictionaries. For a lingual nerd like me, that spells happiness and fun. What a greatly enjoyable job it must be for a lexicographer! They get to decide which words would make the cut, and which words would not, based on facts of course. It’s a cool thought exercise to try and define words in a generic way. For instance, try to define the word 'itch' without using the word scratch - tough, isn’t it? Merriam-Webster defines itch as “an uneasy irritating sensation in the upper surface of the skin usually held to result from mild stimulation of pain receptors.” Sweet!

Loquacious 

Synonymous to 'talkative' and 'garrulous', this word is used to describe someone who is very chatty. I learnt this word when my teacher made us play the dictionary game. Obviously, I was the winner, and in the process, learnt several new words in grade 7, like this one. The etymology for this comes from 'loqui-', which in Latin means "to speak." Definitely not 'low-key', eh?

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [K]

Blog entry #39

Kitten | Kaleidoscope

Kitten 
The moment you say this word, don’t you get a cute feeling? Thinking about a cat may give you shivers, and thinking about a puppy may make you want to play with one at a pet store, but when you think about a kitten, you immediately go 'Awww….', like Sheldon in TBBT. Although I’m not fond of owning pets, I don’t mind playing with kittens at a store or at someone else’s house.

Kaleidoscope
I’ve had one of these ever since I was little. It represents symmetry and shows you how mirrors stacked against each other can produce amazing patterns. It’s addictive to keep rotating it clockwise and counter-clockwise, and observe how so many different illusions are formed from repeated reflections. I like this word also because one of my all-time favourite artists has this word in one of her songs. She is the most creative artist I know when it comes to lyrics. I’m talking about none other than Taylor Swift and her song Welcome to New York. 

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [J]

Blog entry #38

Jubilee | Juxtapose

Jubilee

When you hear this word, you think of celebration. Silver jubilee birthday, golden jubilee anniversary. I read this word, I think two things. One, it puts me in a celebratory mood because someone has achieved a milestone of either 25 or 50 years of something - wow! Two, it reminds of the posh upstate in Hyderabad, because it's named Jubilee Hills. Only recently did I learn that Jubilee is an English variation of the Hebrew word 'jobel', which means "ram's horn." This curved horn was used as a trumpet to signal the year of the Jubilee. Every 50 years, the House of Israel would celebrate the Jubilee year, which The Bible mentions as a year of rest, forgiveness of all debts, and the liberation of slaves to their native lands.

Juxtapose

Yet another fun word to say! This word implies the idea of placing two things side by side, for the purpose of comparison or contrast. Learning the various examples of juxtaposition was a fun activity to do as part of a school assignment. Instead of finding commonplace examples, we had to search for idioms that contained juxtaposed elements, and examples from Literature. Here are some I found for my assignment:

Idioms: When it rains, it pours; Better late than never; Making a mountain out of a molehill.

Examples from Literature:

A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..."

Anna Karenina: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

And my favourite example and poem: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference."

Image courtesy: Google © 

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [I]

Blog entry #37

Iambic | Integumentary

Iambic

We learnt this word in the ninth grade, when we were introduced to Shakespeare. Iambic pentameter refers to the metric line used in poetry. The root word 'iambus' is a meter comprising one short, unstressed syllable followed by one long, stressed syllable. The rhythm of the meter goes: "da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM." Shakespeare's sonnets had 10 syllables per line. Below is an example from his play As you like it, which we studied in English Literature in grades 9 and 10. Try reading it out loud by stressing on alternate syllables.

ORLANDO: What passion hangs these weights upon my tongue?

CELIA: O my poor Rosalind, whither wilt thou go?

ORLANDO: Thou art not for the fashion of these times

ROSALIND: Sell when you can; you are not for all markets.

ROSALIND: Cry the man mercy, love him, take his offer.

Integumentary
We learnt this hexasyllabic word in grade 7 Biology. That was my favourite year of Biology because we were introduced to all the ten systems in the human body. Circulatory, digestive, excretory, endocrine, integumentary aka exocrine, muscular, nervous, renal, reproductive, and respiratory. When I learnt all of this, it made me realize the amazing manner in which our bodies are built and the way they cohesively function, without one system interfering with another. While all the other words seemed normal, this was an interesting, new word to learn. I also clearly recall the diagram we had to label - they always asked us to label the cross-section of the layers of the skin. Apart from the name of the system pertaining to the skin, I am also fascinated by how the skin heals itself after a wound - the layers grow back and make it look as if nothing happened! Let's all take good care of this beautiful, magical structure, shall we?

Image courtesy: Google © 

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [H]

Blog entry #36

Happy | Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

Happy
The best state of mind to be in IMHO. Whenever you see someone at peace or with a serene face, they are happy. When you find someone content with what they have, they are happy. When you find someone not getting easily agitated by circumstances, they are happy. This is one question I ask myself every night - am I happy? When the answer to that is a yes, I am happy. Boy, when I say "I’m happy" so many times, I am reminded of Happy Singh! That’s Akshay Kumar’s character in Singh is Kinng. He goes around Australia repeating "I’m happy", puzzling the onlookers.

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
Over 36 letters long, this word refers to the fear of long words. What an irony! Apart from watching and being mesmerised by spelling bees, where contestants are not necessarily asked long words, I am fascinated by long words, their spelling, meaning and pronunciations. Two of the other words I like to remember are pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, a 45-letter word, also the longest word found in any of the major English language dictionaries, and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I didn’t know this was a Mary Poppins song until I heard Mike Ross say it in Suits. It's such fun learning words :) 

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [G]

Blog entry #35

Glimpse | Garnish

Glimpse

Saying this monosyllabic word containing a bilabial nasal immediately followed by a stop consonant, sounds like you're talking while gulping down a liquid! I loved saying this word right from when I was four years old. Naughtily peeking into something, or stealthily watching some TV for a bit when I've crossed my threshold, I'd happily say this aloud: "Aha I caught a glimpse of it!" The word glance isn't as fun to say as this one, even though they can be used interchangeably.

Garnish

Yet another fine dining word. You'll hear more of it when watching an episode of say, Masterchef Australia. Just like me, even my husband likes to say "let me garnish this plate with freshly cut cilantro" every time he cooks. But for me, it brings back a nostalgic memory of Mom and I attending late night concerts, those days late night meaning events that start after 7pm. This was when I was in the sixth grade. We'd take a quick detour to grab an early dinner at one of my favourite restaurants in Matunga in Mumbai called Garnish. One grilled sandwich and one watermelon juice was my standard order. I even remember us trying out their signature Paper Dosa once. It was huge!

Image courtesy: Google © 

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [F]

Blog entry #34

Finesse | Flexible

Finesse

No I'm not referring to the Bruno Mars song. It's catchy though, I'll admit. What I'm referring to is this English word that is synonymous with another polished word called panache. As I improved my table tennis skills and upped my game, I started winning against Dad more often. His favourite remarks included "Ah Beauty!" when I'd hit a neat smash, or "You're playing with finesse", when I'd return his topspin with a sharp chop.

Flexible

Aren't people who say "I'm okay with anything", or "I'm fine with whatever you made, or ordered" a delight to hang out with? Isn't it fascinating to watch a dance do a full split effortlessly? This word has a sense of openness and adaptability associated with it. I do yoga to try and be more flexible with my body. I try out new cuisines, go to places I've never been before, and say yes to doing what the other person wants to do even though it may not be my cup of tea. Being flexible makes you happier, because when you are too picky, there are only certain things you can enjoy. When you're flexible, you can be content with anything that comes your way! 

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [E]

Blog entry #33

Entomology | Exquisite

Entomology
When I was in the second grade, my parents bought me games that were fun to play and tickled the brain. One of them was Reader Rabbit, about improving your vocabulary, and the other was this Insect Game, where they taught you about insect parts. Entomology is the study of insects, and I learnt to label all the insect parts with that game - head, abdomen, thorax, antenna, and wings. The insect teacher that went "En-to-mology" in a deep, male voice still echoes in my ears. 

Exquisite
Containing both an X and a Q, this would be a high-scoring Scrabble word, but a rare 9-letter one to actually be formed on the board. Saying this word out loud puts you in a luxurious fine dining restaurant with the server saying "The wines we have are exquisite." It’s a nice word with the plosives (see my post on S for its mention) balanced between the vowel sounds and one fricative. Phonetics is a fun subject to explore!

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [D]

Blog entry #32

Diabolical | Deft

Diabolical
I knew this word since grade 6, because we had a Sudoku book, which contained puzzles of levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, Diabolical, and Fiendish. Diabolical puzzles were at least doable by us even if it took half hour. Fiendish was simply too difficult to even attempt when we were newbies at this logic and numbered-based game. Diabolical is synonymous to satanic. Emphasis on either the 'dia' or the 'bo' makes it sound really ominous.

Deft
I liked using this word ever since grade 4, and turns out Dad uses it often too. In grade four, my parents bought me this Enid Blyton book of short stories, called Look out for the elephant (also mentioned in my post on L in the cities challenge) I still remember the second story in this book - its name is easy to remember due to its alliterative nature: Jigsaw Jenny. In this, a girl Jenny has two younger brothers who make fun of her for continuously solving jigsaw puzzles all day long. One day the boys find a $5 bill torn into little pieces, and it’s Jigsaw Jenny to the rescue! As Enid Blyton so wonderfully puts it: "Jenny slowly started to put back the bill together,  her deft fingers working to separate the corner pieces from the ones in the middle." I owe more than half of my vocabulary, phrase and idiom knowledge to Enid Blyton, the rest to my parents and other books :) 

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [C]

Blog entry #31

Confetti | Charlatan

Confetti
These are the streamers you see at parades, thrown as a mark of celebration. I love Taylor Swift singing it in her song Long Live. I learnt (from TBBT again; it’s greatly informative for geeks like me, so don't be surprised when you see many more references being made from this show in the upcoming posts on my favourite words) that the singular of confetti is confetto. Origin: Latin name for small Italian sweet. Similarly, the singular of spaghetti is spaghetto!

Charlatan
Have you noticed how words starting with 'ch' but pronounced with a 'sh' sound always seem sophisticated when spoken out loud? Chic pronounced as "sheek" at a fashion show, Chardonnay, a bottle of wine opened by a VIP at an event, Chanel the luxurious French brand for LBDs and accessories, and so many others - champagne, chagrin, chef, chandelier, chateau, chauffeur and chivalry. Try saying these words to yourself aloud - don’t you feel high and mighty?

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [B]

Blog entry #30

Boo | Befuddled

Boo

This is not just in my favourites list, but also in my list of cutest words ever invented. Monosyllabic, cuddly-sounding, and comfortably cozy. You can call your loved one by this nickname like Chris Brown does, or name your cat Boo, like Scott Adams did, or in some cases, also use it as a scare-word. Come out from hiding, and go "Boo!" - usually done by kids. Boo is also the little girl from Monsters Inc. and she is super-cute. Put two of this word together and you get a term used by babies when they get hurt or when you make a mistake and reveal it to them: "Oops! I made a boo-boo", like Shah Rukh says in Kal Ho Na Ho.

Befuddled
In my 9th grade tuitions, our Ma’am used to write one new word at the top of her whiteboard every evening and we’d have to come up with a sentence from our personal experiences or a recent event using this Word of the Day. One such word was befuddled, synonymous with perplexed or bewildered. My sentence went something like: "I myself was befuddled when I observed the lawyer in the TV show confuse the jury by presenting ambiguous and convoluted facts." It’s also fun to say it in the American accent, like Leonard does in The Big Bang Theory, Season 4 Episode 22: The Wildebeest Implementation.

Image courtesy: Google ©

May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words [A]

Blog entry #29 

Ablutions | Ambidextrous

Ablutions
This is certainly a fun word to say! When the other person says it, you immediately want to go: "A blue what?" I’ve always come across this word in the phrase "sacred ablutions", as in the holy ritual of washing a ceremonial container or oneself. I think sometimes words are just created euphemistically. Who would like to read something like: "This deity was washed from head to toe" or "we scrubbed ourselves after the ceremony"? Ablutions seem so sophisticated. So will some other words, when you see them in the later posts.

Ambidextrous
This has been a fascinating word for me since the age of five, when Dad first introduced it to me. Being one of the few lefties in the family, I was always curious to see what it would be like for everyone else to do things with their right hands with ease. Starting with writing, scribbling at first, slowly getting better, to stirring dishes in the kitchen, to naturally favouring my right hand for general things like picking stuff up, ambidexterity was one of the things I wanted to master. I may not be equally deft in writing with both hands, but I hope to get there soon by constantly trying. Practice makes better, if not perfect.

Image courtesy: Google ©

Introduction to Blog Challenge #2: Favourite Words [A-Z]

Blog entry #28 

Welcome to the second blogging challenge! This one is self-made. 

Why am I taking up yet another challenge right after the first one? 
Because: challenges with constraints spark more creativity and get things going for me than if I have complete freedom. I’d either ramble on things that have piqued my recent interest such as psychology, or I’d very well go off on a tangent never to return to the topic at hand! I’d probably do that sometime, but I’ve only just started writing and I’d like to keep up the momentum, so a challenge it is! 

Blog Challenge #2: 
May A-Z Challenge: A Pair of Favourite English Words 

In this challenge, I’d like to introduce you to two words from each letter of the alphabet which come under my favourite category, because they’re either fun to say out loud repeatedly, or evoke certain thoughts and feelings when I look at them. In each post, you might come across an interesting tale, or you might learn some facts about the word, and know why I like that particular word. 
Enjoy! 

P.S. Being a Scrabble player, an avid reader, and having a penchant for languages, words and their etymology, I hope to rediscover more of myself through this challenge.