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Word of the Day: soporific

December 2, 2016

Word of the Day: soporific

Soporific (adjective) sah-puh-RIFF-ik

Definition

1 a : causing or tending to cause sleep

b : tending to dull awareness or alertness

2 : of, relating to, or marked by sleepiness or lethargy

Examples

The soporific effects of the stuffy classroom and the lecturer’s droning voice left more than one student fighting to stay awake.

“The prose sparkles at every turn, but that’s not to say it’s without flaws. Some entire chapters … struck me as wholly soporific.” — Andrew Ervin, The Washington Post, 13 Sept. 2016

Did You Know?

“It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is ‘soporific.’ I have never felt sleepy after eating lettuces; but then I am not a rabbit.” In The Tale of the Flopsy Bunniesby Beatrix Potter, the children of Benjamin Bunny were very nearly done in by Mr. McGregor because they ate soporific lettuces that put them into a deep sleep. Their near fate can help you recall the history of soporific. The term traces to the Latin noun sopor, which means “deep sleep.” (That root is related to somnus, the Latin word for sleep and the name of the Roman god of sleep.) French speakers used sopor as the basis of soporifique, which was probably the model for the English soporific.

My Take

I hope that my posts, and especially, the ‘Word of the Day’ are not soporific. I do try to make this section interesting. What do you think? Am I succeeding or making you fall asleep or delete these without reading them?

Girl Sleeping during Exam — Source: schellesenglish07.blogspot.com

I got started on these because I was looking for a way to give my followers something they liked while dealing with a vendor who was having difficulty distributing my posts. There were extended periods in August and September where, despite my best efforts, the posts remained undistributed to my social sites and my email followers. I needed something quick and easy to publish during the days of trouble.

For the most part, those problems are resolved, except for my email distributions. I’ve figured out, and communicated to the vendor, that during periods of high activity on the vendor’s part, my posts are caught up in some sort of ‘race’ condition between their email servers.

Emily Browning - Sleeping Beauty 2011 — Source: masuema6751

But I digress. Soporific is the topic. I quickly found suitable images, including the sexy bonus picture that I almost always include for those that share the posts via Twitter. If you want to see it, please share the post from my page and click any of the Twitter buttons displayed.

I love learning the different contexts of these words of the day. Do you? Please share your comments. I’m sure we would all like to read them.

Have a great day.

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Gifts for readers like you

December 1, 2016

Gifts for readers like you

If you liked my books, your friends and relatives may like them too. All of them are available on my website, richardverry.com, Amazon.com, or from your favorite eBook store.

Most are available to read for free with Amazon Unlimited.

Several are also available in paperback; perfect for under the tree.

Thank you for your support.

To read the reviews by readers like you,
click on any of the book covers for more information.

The Taste of Honey	Broken Steele	The Breakup	A Mermaid’s Irresistible Curiosity
Her Client Trilogy	Her Client	Her Overseer	Her Essentia
	The Trafficking Consortium	Perfect Prey

Word of the Day: cabbage

December 1, 2016

Word of the Day: cabbage

Cabbage (verb) KAB-ij

Definition

: steal, filch

Examples

“When these ruffians were in a relatively mild mood they were content to chase us off the diamond, but when their glands were flowing freely they also cabbaged our bats, balls and gloves.” — H. L. Mencken, Happy Days, 1940

“More and more people are trying to get their ‘news’ free from online sources, unreliable as some of these fly-by-night wanna-bes are. In truth, the information is usually cabbaged from the website (or the print edition) of the local paper.” — Kim Poindexter, The Tahlequah (Oklahoma) Daily Press, 24 Aug. 2015

Did You Know?

Does the “filching” meaning of cabbage bring to mind an image of thieves sneaking out of farm fields with armloads of pilfered produce? If so, you’re in for a surprise. Today’s featured word has nothing to do with the leafy vegetable. It originally referred to the practice among tailors of pocketing part of the cloth given to them to make garments. The verb was cut from the same cloth as an older British noun cabbage, which meant “pieces of cloth left in cutting out garments and traditionally kept by tailors as perquisites.” Both of those ethically questionable cabbages probably derived from cabas, the Middle French word for “cheating or theft.” The cabbage found in coleslaw, on the other hand, comes from Middle English caboche, which meant “head.”

Pilfer wallet — Source: adigrahito.blogspot.com

My Take

Today’s word is a common word. The definition supplied by M-W is not. Besides the term for the vegetable, it also means to steal, pilfer, or filch.

To me, it’s an obviously a British usage of the word though the examples supplied come from American sources. I submit, that if any ordinary American from all classes, educations, or social standings would never associate the word ‘Cabbage’ to mean steal, etc.

Prostitute Cash — Source: Lisa S./Shutterstock

In the U.S., we use the term in two ways. One, the vegetable used to make coleslaw. The second is a slang term for money or cash. i.e. “Hey there, how much cabbage was in the take last night?” I haven’t heard it a lot lately, I must admit. I usually hear it older movies, and commonly used between gangsters, hookers, or even in shop owners chatting over coffee.

I don’t know anyone in my social circles who would use the term to steal. Do you?

If you share this post from my site on Twitter, you will receive a sexy bonus picture related to today’s word.

I love learning the different contexts of these words of the day. Do you? Please share your comments. I’m sure we would all like to read them.

Have a great day.

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New Novel finish and publishing soon

November 30, 2016

New Novel finish and publishing soon

Hello, all my fans and followers. Over the past few weeks, I’ve mentioned that I’ve worked on getting a story out of my head and written down.

I’m happy to announce that I finished it yesterday. At 92,000 words, it’s an interesting commentary on the human condition. I hope to turn it over for final editing by the end of the week, while I work on a cover design and the rest.

Be sure to look for it. It’s an erotic story about a woman who finds herself in an impossible situation, eventually forced to make a horrific choice to either sacrifice her soul and avoid an agonizing death or to save it and suffer the appalling consequences.

Both options are equally awful and unfair, yet she must choose her fate. If you liked ‘Her Client’ and ‘The Breakup,’ you’ll love this one.

Word of the Day: vicissitude

November 30, 2016

Word of the Day: vicissitude

Vicissitude (noun) vuh-SISS-uh-tood

Definition

1 : the quality or state of being changeable : mutability

2 a : a favorable or unfavorable event or situation that occurs by chance : a fluctuation of state or condition

b : a difficulty or hardship usually beyond one’s control

Examples

“The vicissitudes of life strike us all. But when life gets difficult for the poor, economically or emotionally, or most often both at once, it can pitch them into complete chaos.” — The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 22 Aug. 2016

“A good coach on tour is at once a friend and a taskmaster, a psychologist and an emotional buffer against the vicissitudes of competing at the highest level of the game.” — Geoff Macdonald, The New York Times, 1 Sept. 2016

Did You Know?

“Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better,” wrote British theologian Richard Hooker in the 16th century. That observation may shed some light on vicissitude, a word that can refer simply to the fact of change, or to an instance of it, but that often refers specifically to hardship or difficulty brought about by change. To survive “the vicissitudes of life” is thus to survive life’s ups and downs, with special emphasis on the downs. Vicissitude is a descendant of the Latin noun vicis, meaning “change” or “alternation,” and it has been a part of the English language since the 16th century. In contemporary usage, it most often occurs in the plural.

REPORTER LOSES HER SHIRT DURING LIVE BROADCAST — Source: YouTube

My Take

I feel like I’m in a state of a difficulty or hardship beyond my control. So, today’s word is quite appropriate. The aftereffects of my concussion still linger and trying to get better is … well, let’s just say problematic. Must I be my own advocate for a work related injury?

Anyway, moving on. It could be worse.

A wave takes her top — Source: bg-mamma.com

Like being on the television for a live broadcast from the beach and you lose your bikini top on camera. Yep, found that in my research.

Girl loses her top on a pier — Source: eveyo.com

Or the case of a woman who was merely hanging out on a pier and her bikini top flew off into the ocean below. Yep, found that too. Or you are just enjoying the surf with a bunch of your friends and a lecherous wave comes along and yanks your bikini top right off your body. Found that too. I’m sure I can find hundreds if not thousands of these examples all over the world.

I also find lots of artwork titled Vicissitude, which surprised me, as well as a magazine titled Vicissitude, which double surprised me. I will say, I’m inspired by all those creative people around the world who find interesting ways of using these more obscure words.

Vicissitude magazine cover — Source: magcloud.com

If you share this post from my site on Twitter, you will receive a sexy bonus picture related to today’s word.

I love learning the different contexts of these words of the day. Do you? Please share your comments. I’m sure we would all like to read them.

Have a great day.

Brought to you by Merriam-Webster, Word of the Day.

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Word of the Day: dynasty

November 29, 2016

Word of the Day: dynasty

Dynasty (noun) DYE-nuh-stee

Definition

1 : a succession of rulers of the same line of descent

2 : a powerful group or family that maintains its position for a considerable time

Examples

“A scion of the Patterson-Medill publishing dynasty (her great-grandfather and her father founded the Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News, respectively), [Alicia] Patterson launched Newsday in 1940, on Long Island, quickly building it from a small suburban daily to an influential national paper.” — Jocelyn Hannah, The New Yorker, 12 Sept. 2016

“Mark down 2016 as the year the Republican Party under a new standard-bearer divorced itself from the Bush dynasty.” — Dan Janison, Newsday (New York), 10 Oct. 2016

Did You Know?

Dynast and dynasty both descend from the Greek verb dynasthai, which means “to be able” or “to have power.” Dynasty came to prominence in English first; it has been part of our language since at least the 14th century. Dynast took its place in the linguistic family line in the early 1600s, and it has been used to describe sovereigns and other rulers ever since.

Joan Collins choked — Source: spytwins.com

My Take

God help me. When I searched for images related to today’s word, I immediately got hundreds of pictures from that 1980’s TV show of the same name. Ughhh!!!!! Then, mixed in those was ‘Duck Dynasty.’ Marginally better but WTFC. In my opinion, about the only good thing about the show evening soap opera was the cat fight between Linda Evans and Joan Collins. Two udders if I ever saw.

Linda Evans and Joan Collins catfight — Source: Unknown

Trying to trim out those references, I found Dynasty Warriors, a video game. Getting better but I’ve long since moved on from playing video games, preferring instead to play real life games. Those who know me intimately, know exactly what I mean by that.

What I really wanted to find were images related to the definition of the term. A family line of succession, a powerful group in power for a lengthy time. My first thoughts that came to mind when I saw the word was royalty, such as the Royal Line of England and Great Britain. I also thought of the dynasties of China, Egypt and the like. These are lines composed of blood.

Organized Crime — Source: uppedlife.wordpress.com

Then there are the business dynasties that rose over the past two centuries. You know what I mean. General Electric, Westinghouse, Wells Fargo, and the good old boys on Wall Street. Lest we forget political dynasties, such as in America and around the world. Then there are the dynasties within sports, such as today’s Women’s International Soccer (Futbol), or the dominance of the New England Patriots in American Football, or for a time, the Chicago Blackhawks, and in the 80’s the Atlanta Braves Baseball. Oh, and let’s not forget the NY Yankees who for much of the last one hundred years, is the team to beat. Sure, they all have their ups and downs. Inevitably, they all turn things around and rise to the top in their field.

Of course, there are the wanna be’s. I won’t go too much into them. There are literally millions of those. Me, I just want to leave my mark on the world. I’m doing that with my books and my artwork.

If you share this post from my site on Twitter, you will receive a sexy bonus picture related to today’s word.

I love learning the different contexts of these words of the day. Do you? Please share your comments. I’m sure we would all like to read them.

Have a great day.

Brought to you by Merriam-Webster, Word of the Day.

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Word of the Day: wistful

November 28, 2016

Word of the Day: wistful

Wistful (adjective) WIST-ful

Definition

1 : full of yearning or desire tinged with melancholy; also : inspiring such yearning

2 : musingly sad : pensive

Examples

As the car pulled away, Lea cast one last wistful glance at the house where she’d spent so many happy years.

“The book left me in wistful reverie, envisioning that shimmering pond and a rugged, robust old gentleman in his ‘herringbone suit’ and jaunty wide-brimmed straw hat, sitting on a three-legged wooden chair in front of an easel, his brushes flying.” — Elfrieda Abbe, The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 11 Sept. 2016

Did You Know?

Are you yearning to know the history of wistful? If so, we can ease your melancholy a little by telling you that wistful comes from a combination of wishful and wistly, a now obsolete word meaning “intently.” We can’t say with certainty where wistly came from, but it may have sprung from whistly, an old term meaning “silently” or “quietly.” How did the supposed transition from a word meaning “quietly” to one meaning “intently” come about? That’s something to muse about, but the answer isn’t known.

My Take

Damn, this is a perfect word to use in my books. So many of my characters find themselves yearning, pensive and melancholic. They look for something better, something that will improve their standing in the story. Some are beaten down and just need a sliver of hope. Some can direct their lives in better ways. While others wish they could, but assume that their fates are written in stone. They all have one thing in common. At times, they are wistfully thinking about the other side of the fence.

Wistful is a word that directly points to emotion. Usually, we think of emotion in human terms, but animals and even plants (IMHO) have emotions. I found a great image of Bruce Willis with a wistful, pensive expression on his face. I found the same in other people as well. I even found a meme of a pug, yearning for a scrap of food from their master’s breakfast plate.

I love the word, and I’m going to redouble my efforts to use it in my stories. I hope you enjoy them. They’re available on Amazon, B&N, your favorite eBook retailer and right here on my site. Plus, available only on my site is a short story about a Mermaid who was too curious for her own good. She has no idea what she started when she went to investigate that fishing boat floating on the surface of the sea.

If you share this post from my site on Twitter, you will receive a sexy bonus picture related to today’s word.

I love learning the different contexts of these words of the day. Do you? Please share your comments. I’m sure we would all like to read them.

Have a great day.

Brought to you by Merriam-Webster, Word of the Day.

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Come and enjoy a genteel morning with Jane

Word of the Day: genteel

November 27, 2016

Word of the Day: genteel

Genteel (adjective) jen-TEEL

Definition

1 a : of or relating to the gentry or upper class

b : elegant or graceful in manner, appearance, or shape

c : free from vulgarity or rudeness : polite

2 : marked by false delicacy, prudery, or affectation

Examples

“The Hamptons, once so genteel, with their sepulchral light and estates hidden behind neatly groomed hedges, have managed to become a nexus of social life, … where openings and charity galas and club nights fill the summer calendar.” — Marisa Meltzer, Town & Country, 1 Aug. 2016

“At this preternaturally elegant new French restaurant …, the waitstaff keeps things lively with cheeky repartee. On arrival one late-summer evening, a man, having located his party, said to the host, ‘I’m with them,’ and was met with a genteel retort: ‘As you should be.'” — Shauna Lyon, The New Yorker, 26 Sept. 2016

Did You Know?

In Roman times, the Latin noun gens was used to refer to a clan, a group of related people. Its plural gentes was used to designate all the people of the world, particularly non-Romans. An adjective form, gentilis, applied to both senses. Over time, the adjective was borrowed and passed through several languages. It came into Old French as gentil, a word that then meant “high-born” (in modern French it means “nice”); that term was carried over into Anglo-French, where English speakers found and borrowed it in the early 17th century.

My Take

Genteel, genteel. My my. It’s one thing to use the word in what one believes is the proper context and it’s quite another to discover you may have used it incorrectly over the years. Seeing the definitions in print have a way of making me stop and think. Have I used it wrong?

I know I’ve used it in the form described in ‘1b’ of the definitions, elegant and graceful. For example, when Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance, it’s a thing of beauty, elegance, and grace. See, genteel.

But what about the other forms. Upper class, free of vulgarity and rudeness. I suppose those make sense to me. The gentry of society fits those definitions, though I know several of the gentries who are rude and vulgar to the rest of us.

2016 Camaro Interior — Source: topspeed.com

However, definition #2 seems out of place to me. To be marked by false delicacy, prudery, and affectation, well that seems an antonym to me. I’ll need to reflect on this definition, but I don’t believe I’ll resolve it anytime during the writing of this blog.

So, what else could be considered genteel? When I went looking for images related to the word, I found the usual products and companies capitalizing on the term. I found numerous joke panels using the word.

Hot Girl in High-Heels behind the wheel — Source: autospies.com

Then I stumbled on the interior of the Chevrolet Camaro 2LT. To me, that is the perfect representation of elegance and grace. Of course, I am biased to the car. I own one I see another in my future. The only thing better that the elegance of the interior of my Camaro is a sexy blonde sitting in my Camaro.

If you share this post from my site on Twitter, you will receive a sexy bonus picture related to today’s word.

I love learning the different contexts of these words of the day. Do you? Please share your comments. I’m sure we would all like to read them.

Have a great day.

Brought to you by Merriam-Webster, Word of the Day.

A jigsaw puzzle piece.

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Word of the Day: riddle

November 26, 2016

Word of the Day: riddle

Riddle (noun) RID-ul

Definition

1 : a mystifying, misleading, or puzzling question posed as a problem to be solved or guessed : conundrum, enigma

2 : something or someone difficult to understand

Examples

Despite Nick’s outgoing nature, he doesn’t share many details about his background and personal life, so he remains something of a riddle.

“Stewart’s books are for children who like mysteries and riddles, and there are many scenes where readers hold their breath in suspense.” — Clara Martin, The Clarion-Ledger, 16 Oct. 2016

Did You Know?

It is not unusual for words to acquire and lose meanings over time, and riddle is no exception. Old English speakers—who had a variety of spellings for riddle, including hrædels, redelse, and rædelse—used the word as we do today to describe a question posed as a problem to be solved or guessed, but they also used it in the now obsolete senses of “counsel,” “consideration,” “debate,” “conjecture,” “interpretation,” “imagination,” and “example.” (Not surprisingly, the Old English source of riddle is a cousin to Old English rǣdan, meaning “to interpret” or “to advise.”) By the beginning of the 15th century riddle acquired the sense of “a puzzling or perplexing thing,” and in the 17th century it also came to refer to “a puzzling or enigmatic person or being.”

My Take

Word Riddle Games — Source: bhavinionline.com

Riddle me this. Who has the creative soul to paint, draw, write and publish, can solve problems and issues with computers, software and a leaky roof, and yet, can’t solve the simplest of riddles?

That’s right. I suck at solving word riddles. I have no idea why but I seem to stumble every time. Take, for example, the riddle I included in this post. I couldn’t solve it. Perhaps it has something to do with the lingering symptoms of my concussion, or maybe not.

The answer is … check the bottom of this post.

If you share this post via Twitter, you will receive a sexy bonus picture related to today’s word.

I love learning the different contexts of these words of the day. Do you? Please share your comments. I’m sure we would all like to read them.

Have a great day.

Brought to you by Merriam-Webster, Word of the Day.

A jigsaw puzzle piece.

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Word of the Day: impute

November 25, 2016

Word of the Day: impute

Impute (verb) im-PYOOT

Definition

1 : to lay the responsibility or blame for often falsely or unjustly

2 : to credit to a person or a cause

Examples

“Now, one comment in reaction to my essay said that by talking about the city’s problems and not its promise, I was in the business of tearing down Syracuse. At LeMoyne, I was taught that the most dangerous thing to do in argument was to impute motives to your opponent.” — Carl Schramm, Forbes.com, 4 Mar. 2013

“The CAS panel concluded that Sharapova’s case ‘was not about an athlete who cheated.’ Instead, the panel found, ‘It was only about the degree of fault that can be imputed to a player for her failure to make sure that the substance contained in a product she had been legally taking over a long period … remained in compliance.” — Tom Perrotta, The Wall Street Journal, 4 Oct. 2016

Keep Calm and Blame the Dog — Source: quizlet.com

Did You Know?

Impute is a somewhat formal word that is used to suggest that someone or something has done or is guilty of something. It is similar in meaning to such words as ascribe and attribute, though it is more likely to suggest an association with something that brings discredit. When we impute something, we typically impute it to someone or something. You may also encounter the related noun imputation, which appears in such contexts as “I deny all your imputations of blame.” Another sense of impute means “to calculate as a value or cost (as for taxation),” as in “impute a benefit from the use of the car.”

Impute CoHabitation — Source: roystoncartoons.com

My Take

Do you know how hard it is to find images related to today’s word, impute without insulting someone? It means to lay blame falsely or to credit a person unjustly.

I just won’t do it on this blog. My errors are my own, and I will not blame someone else for my short givings. I did question the difference between Impute and Impune. I thought they were related, but I wanted to make sure. I’m happy to say; they are, but not exactly. Impune is an adjective meaning ‘unpunished.’ I take it that the individual blaming someone else (impute) for their error, may remain unpunished (impune) for their actions if they successfully transfer the blame.

You killed my sister — Source: viewsaskew.wordpress.com

That said, I stayed away from using images with real people, or at least where you can recognize them. That left me with banners of the word and cartoons, and of course, this one where the Wicked Witch blames Dorothy for killing her sister. I downloaded many of them but I probably won’t use them all. I hope you like them, as I wouldn’t want to impute my actions on someone else.

If you share this post via Twitter, you will receive a sexy bonus picture related to today’s word.

Please share your comments. I’m sure we would all like to read them.

Have a great day.

Brought to you by Merriam-Webster, Word of the Day.

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Word of the Day: soporific

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