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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Dearest, darling word warriors! My most sincere apologies for the tardiness of this new word of the week. You see, I have been in the process of moving in with the person who gave me words—my mother. She has recently had a small stroke and briefly lost all of her words. She is now relearning to read and I have moved in to aid her in her recovery. This move is anything but nugatory (new-guh-tor-ee), especially for her. She needed help and I was more than happy to oblige*. Nugatory means insignificant, trivial, or unimportant. Since mom is delighted (most of the time) to have me there as assistance, that makes it not nugatory. *Bonus word: oblige (uh-blije)—doing as someone wishes or asks in order to help or please them.  His efforts to lose weight by eating only donuts were nugatory.
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Sometimes when I start writing, I get carried away. Hours pass without me noticing. I find myself still banging on the keyboard in the dark, much like a troglodyte. A troglodyte, you say? No . . . a troglodyte, I say. What, you may ask, is a troglodyte? Well, I'm glad you asked. You did ask, didn't you? OK, OK, fine, I'll get to it. A troglodyte is someone or something that lives in a cave. Cavemen, bears, bats, old West bank robbers, and writers who live with cats are examples of troglodytes. But . . . it is interesting to note that there is a looser definition for the word troglodyte. It can also mean a hermit (someone who chooses to live along and rarely goes out) AND a person who is stubbornly ignorant or old-fashioned . . . kind of out of date. So . . . if anyone every calls you a troglodyte, simply and calmly ask them, "Would you please clarify that. In what regard do you consider me a troglodyte?"  I took Memorial Day off, so I am sharing this new, sad word with you a day late. I hope it will be worth the wait! Exulansis (ecks-uhl-ants-iss) occurs when you give up trying to talk to someone, even your best friend or parents, and give up because they just don't get it. They can't relate or understand your feelings because it doesn't make sense to them. The reason I chose exulansis as today's word is because of Memorial Day. A lot of times, soldiers see very, very bad things. Things that give them nightmares or the heebie-jeebies (anxiety and stress). It is often difficult for them to talk about, because most people have not experienced such things and can't imagine it. So the soldier gives up the conversation and keeps it to himself. This is just one example of exulansis, but it is a good one. If you know a soldier who wants to talk, let them. If you have a friend who lost a dog and you've never had a dog to lose, you should still let them talk about it and listen with a sympathetic ear. Talking about experiences is a way to get them outside of you so they don't do too much damage. That is all.  If you lost this teddy bear and were very sad and tried to talk to someone about it and they only said, "It's just a teddy bear! Get over it," but you know deep down inside it is so much more to you, you would probably stop trying to tell them and you would experience a severe case of exulansis. Nobody should go through that. Keep trying until you find someone who understands. These two words are such fun!! First of all, to get the pronunciation out of the way, they are said precisely as they appear to be said— (mump-sih-muss) and (sump-sih-mus). Their meanings, not surprisingly, are quite different; in fact, they are quite contradictory. A mumpsimus occurs when one continually adheres to a wrong thing. It could be a pronunciation, a rule, an idea of any kind, a meaning, or anything of the like. A sumpsimus, on the other hand, is when that wrong concept is strictly replaced by the correct idea. To clarify, here are some examples of mumpsimuses and their corresponding sumpsimuses: Mumpsimus: "Children should have their knuckles cracked with a ruler when they misbehave in school. The teacher ought to be able to physically punish students who act out." Sumpsimus: "Children need to be understood and they need to learn to behave because it is the right thing to do, not because they fear pain and punishment." ************************************************************** Mumpsimus: "It is pronounced expecially." Sumpsimus: "It is pronounced especially, you twit!" ************************************************************* Mumpsimus: "The best treatment for an illness is to place leeches on the body to suck out the bad blood." Sumpsimus: "The only way to properly treat illness is with proper rest and medication." ************************************************************* As you can see, they are both rigid in their belief, but the mumpsimus is generally wrong, and the sumpsimus is generally accepted.
Oh, Tom, this is not a good way to handle children or mice!
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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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