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No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world. ~~John Keating
My task, which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, before all, to make you see." ~~Joseph Conrad
All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down. ~~Friedrich Nietzsche
The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. ~~Harriet Beecher Stowe
The two words 'information' and 'communication' are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through. ~~Sydney J. Harris
Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them. ~~Nathaniel Hawthorne
Language is to the mind more than light is to the eye. ~~William Gibson
Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all. ~~Walt Whitman
Your purpose is to make your audience see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt. Relevant detail, couched in concrete, colorful language, is the best way to recreate the incident as it happened and to picture it for the audience. ~~Dale Carnegie
Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn't mean anything else. ~~C. S. Lewis
If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers. ~~Doug Larson
I'm very sensitive to the English language. I studied the dictionary obsessively when I was a kid and collect old dictionaries. Words, I think, are very powerful and they convey an intention. ~~Drew Barrymore
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Language -- the words we use to express ourselves can be concise or overly confusing. Everyone is basically familiar with the idea of marriage vows. We all know they are interpreted to mean that we will stick with that other person come hell or high water, through good times and bad, and be faithful to them. At one ceremony I had, I always think I might have been jinxing myself from the get-go. Turned out he didn't honor any of them. In this ceremony, though, the words used, in part, were, "Cleave ye only to each other as long as you both shall live."
Language. Cleave not only means to cling to one another but also to cut apart. Funny how they don't use that phrase anymore
But it goes a long way to exemplify the importance of using the right words when attempting to communicate.
According to Robin Marantz Henig, "The English language has 112 words for deception, according to one count, each with a different shade of meaning: collusion, fakery, malingering, self-deception, confabulation, prevarication, exaggeration, denial. Some languages have innumerable The Inuit have 47 words for snow. Tamil is an official language of the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore. They have fifty-plus words for love. English has love, like, adore, infatuated all more or less defined by words like 'a lot' or 'unconditionally.'
Language is full of descriptive words. Beyond the 'making story,' we have a wealth of ways to bring actions and locale alive -- it is one of the best parts about being a writer. We get to play with words. Best sandbox ever! Above, I asked about your least favorite words. My least favorite word is VERY. Mark Twain once said, “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."
Why say 'very bad' when you can say atrocious? Don't say 'very poor' -- say destitute. Very is a very, very, very poor word to use!
As writers, our job is to communicate. Regardless of the type of writing, if we fail to impart the concept we are trying to describe or explain, then we fail. Given the vast number of cultures, religions, and lifestyles that may or may not perceive any scenario as you or I might, language becomes even more important.
So what got me on this latest 'wordy' kick? I'm two-thirds of the way through a book named The Dictionary of Lost Words: A Novel
by Pip Williams. This is following mid-step my reading History in English Words by Owen Barfield. I've always had a love of words: where they came from, how we use them, why use one and not another. My grandmother once said I'd grow up to be a lexicologist or an etymologist. I told her I wanted to be a writer. (and I thought bugs were creepy.) Not an entomologist, she had explained before saying that good writers were both. Two days later, she handed me a notebook and a dictionary.
Over the years she'd ask me what my latest favorite words were. She'd also ask me about words I thought were 'important' words or boring words or over-used words. She taught me how words spelled the same and pronounced the same but had different meanings were called homonyms. Book (to read) or book (a reservation) for example. Then she threw heteronyms my way. Just because (at the time) I was invalid, my excuse not to learn was invalid. She didn't believe for one minute that such a minute issue should ever stop me from learning. She wasn't finished. Then there were homophones.
These, it turned out were the tricky ones. These are the words people often mix up and use the wrong version. Your, you're, and yore. Their, they're and there. Rein, reign and rain. Two, to, and too.
I was hooked. My grandmother bought me many notebooks over the next few months. Then she said I needed to buy them. I was crestfallen. I had no money. "You'll buy them with words," she'd told me. "Lists of words. When you need a notebook, I'll give you a list I want for the last page of the old notebook." Colors beyond red, green, blue, etc.. Synonyms for hot or set or school. Later on, she'd have me write a description of something without saying what it was. Or having to describe a color/place/activity to someone who was blind. (As I spent almost a year unable to see, I always enjoyed those.)
She'd have me describe something. Once I spent over six months describing a simple wooden rocking chair. Then she'd tell me to write it again, but differently. Next, I'd have to write it from the perspective of a cat or a mouse or a mother holding a baby. Once, I had to write it from the perspective of that area on the crossbar I always seemed to miss when I dusted. Then from the chair itself. Over the months, that blasted chair grew a history. It developed a personality, had dreams, temper tantrums, and felt loss, grief. hunger and joy. [side note: I still have that rocking chair!]
Some of my favorite words? Myriad for sure - so many - like a meadow full of butterflies dancing to the song of the breeze. (That, and I love how it sounds!) Another is the word and because it links and keeps things/people/places and words together. And, due to my grandmother, in part, the word grand. So many meanings on multiple levels. That, and the fact that my children's children call me simply, Grand. No Grandma or Nana for me. How do I love being a grandmother, indeed, a great grandmother? It's grand, simply grand!
My grandmother seeded my mind with a love of words. It's still blooming. |
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brom21  writes: What interesting head knowledge! It is fascinating how the word quarantine is derived from an Italian word. I think the quote that said the root word Latin humus, meaning the soil may refer to man being formed from the dust of the earth according to the Bible. I am inclined to research the origin of words I use in my writing. Thanks so much!
s says: When I studied Latin in my teenaged years (and a bit of ancient greek, as that was part of Latin courses), I began a slight diversion in etymology which persists to this day. Using my knowledge of Greek (especially) and Latin has enabled me to make up new words that have a very distinct meaning, especially in my Earth-based fantasy stories. (It also helps me give fantasy characters names that mean something at least to me.) I found I learnt as much about English through my classical studies as through reading some of the set texts in actual English classes. Your newsletter certainly rang a nice bell with me. Thanks for putting it forward so well! |
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For Authors: February 02, 2022 Issue [#11194]
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