Warrior Words
of the Week
Come each Monday to learn a new
word or phrase to add to your army.
word or phrase to add to your army.
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Did you ever lie on your back in the grass when it's warm out and suddenly feel a gentle breeze waft over you like a soft kiss. You can now proclaim, my friend, that you have been touched by a zephyr (zeh-fur).   Zephyrs are wonderful things.They are welcome when it's hot, they blow wildflower seeds and scatter color throughout fields, and they lift your kite in the spring. I think there should be a national "Take a Zephyr to Lunch" day! Also, a little trivia for you: zephyr used to be the name for gingham fabric, the kind with the tiny squares in different shades of the same color. And . . . it was also the name of a make of automobile. 
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Onomatopoeia (on-oh-mah-toe-pea-uh) might just be as hard to define as it is to say, but it certainly is among the most fun words out there. What it means is the words that sound like their sound they define. Oh, boy, I've probably lost you! I think it best that I give you some examples. BOOM! POP! MOO! OINK! SIZZLE! WHOOSH! CLANG! DING! BEEP! SMACK! VROOM! ZONK! CRUNCH! BOO! There . . . I'm sure it all makes sense, now. When you say these words, they sound like the sound that they make. Get it? Got it? Good!  Onomatopoeia makes writing and illustrating more fun, vibrant, and action-filled. And, besides all that, where else can you find a word that has twice as many vowels (8) as consonants (4), with four of the vowels together?  If you experience something that leaves you so astonished that you are without words, you might say you are gobsmacked (gob-smacked).
This very descriptive word comes from gob, which is slang for mouth, and smacked, which I don't have to explain. Sometimes you are so shocked that you put your hand up over your mouth and can't say a word. That is when you are gobsmacked. "I am gobsmacked that she showed up at my party without an invitation. I am even more gobsmacked that she brought a dozen friends with her." Only those are words in your head, because you can't even say them out loud, such is your state of gobsmackedness (I just made that word up, but it kind of make sense to me.)  I think the most fun words come from being confused. The word bumfuzzled (bum-fuzz-uld) expresses just that—being confused. It is derived from an equally funny word—dumfoozle. No, I am not making these words up. They sound like exactly what they mean.
Never be bumfuzzled again by the word bumfuzzle. But, do feel free to bumfuzzle others by using the word bumfuzzle. Go ahead, give it a go. "Mother and father, I am bumfuzzled by the sudden increase in the price of gasoline. Would you explain it to me?" "Teacher, I found myself bumfuzzled by last night's homework. Would you explain it to me in a less bumfuzzling way?" |
AuthorI am Becky Lyn Rickman. I am a writer because I love words almost as much as I love the people in my life. I want to fill the world with magnificent words and then jump in and splash around in them. I live with Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy, my cats, but the only words they really love are "meat" and "gravy." Archives
March 2018
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