2021-05-09 #diceRollProse
Stats
Words: 170
Words-of-the-day: 34
Inclusion: 20%
Sentences with no words-of-the-day: 0
Most words-of-the-day in one sentence: 5
Nouns: 15
Adjectives: 10
Verbs: 9
Words of the week
obnubilate (v) to cloud over; becloud; obscure.
dubitable (adj): open to doubt; doubtful; uncertain.
vaporous (adj).
sententious (adj): abounding in pithy aphorisms or maxims.
deplorable (adj).
apothegm (n): a short, pithy, instructive saying; a terse remark or aphorism.
conflate (v): to fuse into one entity; merge.
thrawn (adj): (Scotish) twisted; crooked; distorted. – contrary; peevish; perverse.
succumb (v).
hardscrabble (adj): providing or yielding meagerly in return for much effort; demanding or unrewarding.
inequity (n): lack of equity; unfairness; favoritism or bias.
peccadillo (n): a very minor or slight sin or offense; a trifling fault.
lackadaisical (adj): without interest, vigor, or determination; listless; lethargic.
archipelago (n): a large group or chain of islands.
adult (n).
guddle (v): to catch (fish) by groping with the hands, as under rocks or along a riverbank.
sediment (n).
perk tree (n): (Scottish) a long pole; spec. A pole or rod, set up horizontally, from which to hang cloth clothes.
sprightly (adj): animated or vivacious; lively.
tern (n): any various seabirds of the subfamily Sternidae (of the family Laridae) that are similar to gulls but are smaller and have a forked tail.
hulk (n): the body of an old or dismantled ship.
equanimity (n): mental or emotional stability or composure, especially under tension or strain; calmness; equilibrium.
droid (n).
hark back (v): to return to an earlier subject, point, or position, as in speech or thought.
deep-six (n – slang): burial or discarding at sea. – complete rejection or ruin.
randan (n): Riotous or disorderly behaviour; a rowdy celebration or excursion, a spree.
lie low (v).
abjure (v): to renounce or give up under oath; forswear.
jedi (n).
conciliatory (adj): tending to win over from a state of hostility or distrust : intended to gain goodwill or favour of someone.
machinate (v): to contrive or plot, especially artfully or with evil purpose.
guber (adj): (Nigerian English) of or relating to a governor or governorship; short for ‘gubernatorial’.
sea change (n): a striking change, as in appearance, often for the better.
galaxy (n).
Unused Words of the week
frugal (adj): economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful.
lacy (adj).
maintenance (n).
Micawberly (adj): Synonym of Micawberesque (upbeat and optimistic in the face of seemingly hopeless circumstances).
quaere (v): To query; to question.
rarely (adv).
straggly (adj): straggling; rambling.
zhuzhy (adj) stylish, attractive, exciting. Also sometimes: flamboyant, showy.
Breakdown
‘May the 4th be with you’ brought a Star Wars theme to the word-of-the-day collection this week. I also found many ties to the sea, seafaring, and some Scotish words too. It behoved me to conflate these themes as best I could. My Star Wars knowledge is not fantastic but I do know a bit. I picked Corellia deliberately as the setting for this prose. It’s an oceanic planet, home of Han Solo, perfect for meshing Star Wars with the nautical words-of-the-day. Linking these themes is naturalistic anyway given that space travel uses the same terminology as sea travel.
The first word-of-the-day, obnubilate, worried me for this prose because it’s a stumbler and will put off readers, oh well. Writing a delectable prose is not what this is about so I kept it. I did like how it paired with dubitable and vaporous which immediately brings an ominous mood to the prose.
I found sententious and apothegm interesting words to learn this week with their pithy implications which I felt matched well to the modus operandi of Star Wars’ Galactic Empire.
What do you think of the protagonist’s narration? I was keen to drop in the nautical words and words pertaining to the sea of which there were many: vaporous, deep-six, sea change, archipelago, hulk, tern, randan. Guber even, has nautical roots. It is a shortening of gubernational which derives from Latin gubernātōr which means steersman. The definition given for randan was provided by Oxford English dictionary and I used it thus. However, other dictionaries define it as a form of row boat. It was accidental but, I do like the linking here, that instead of the protagonist using the more common terms, such as spree or rampage, they use a word associate to the world they grew up on.
I can’t help but wonder how much the six dictionaries I gather words from put into the correlation and collaboration of their words-of-the-day, if at all. Droid, galaxy and Jedi came from separate sources on two different days. However, if you look up the definition of equanimity, mental or emotional stability or composure, especially under tension or strain; calmness. A fitting virtue of a Jedi, right? Well, it didn’t come from the same dictionary that provided Jedi as a word-of-the-day. Coincidence then? Also, some of the sea/nautical words came from the same dictionary, was this intentional? A quaere I would very much like to take to the online dictionaries in a long time in the future in a galaxy far, far away perhaps.
Art
Beach by David Paget
