Today’s Year of Words post is for my mum – Shirley. That’s her a few years back.
Why?
Short story – her father (shell-shocked from WW 1) was a bit of a nut case and he made her sit down after school every day and write out the dictionary.
The outcome?
No one ever challenged Mum to a crossword!
Right now though, Mum is in hospital and a little confused (low sodium, liver/kidney disease to name a few) and talking about the nurses playing in a band in the hall at night!!!!
When I visited her today however, telling her about my Year of Words challenge, and sharing a few of my finds from this week, she smiled and started telling me the meaning and putting the words into a sentence. I smiled then too.
So my choices this week, courtesy of my Mum are…
Akimbo: to stand with one hand on a hip and bent outwards.
Ambrosia: delicious, sweet – referring to taste and smell.
Ambit: the extend or boundary (the ambit of his love…)
Here’s a few things I learned.
It’s alright to spell alright all right!
Aggro: is the correct spelling for someone with a bad temperament. (For years I’ve written agro, making them a rather rude (but funny) and obnoxious (but cute) puppet!!!!!
Adrift: (just because I like it.)
So, taking a few of this week’s words….
She stood akimbo, determined to resist the ambrosia of his maleness!
Oh la la (Not sure I’ll be using that in my next novel, but it was kinda fun. LOL)
Hope you all learned something too. Thanks Mum. Until next week…
Great post – and your mum looks and sounds like a sweetie. I confess I’ve always spelt aggro now. Hopefully the copy editor changes it in the book I’ve just sent back!!
I like the “a” words you’ve chosen to put in your blog. I’m going to try to work ambit in to a spoken sentence this week just for the fun of it. I’d never heard the word, so I’ll see if anyone gives me a strange look when I use it.
I used to read the dictionary as a kid, and would constantly be distracted when looking something up by all the other interesting words I would see.
Not many stuck, though.
I’m enjoying tagging along on your journey.
Thx Nat, I admit to being a little concerned when I started the ‘ac’ words. Accountant! Actuary! *Yawn* LOL – only joking is you are one 🙂
What a great post, Jenn 🙂 Your Mum sounds wonderful. “… the ambrosia of his maleness.” Awesome!
I love it, Jen, keep them coming!
Jenn, I hope your mum is on the mend soon! Sounds like my mum and yours would get on famously. It was a brave child that challenged my mum at scrabble!
I love the word ‘ambit,’ but it’s always ended up on the editing floor as it’s deemed to obscure… Think I’ll have another go with my current WIP:-)
(Maybe you could run a small side comp to see who could get the largest number of your obscure words into the finished manuscript!! Might drive some editors nuts…)
My thoughts exactly – about the competition, not driving an editor nuts. Career shortening me thinks!!!! I also intend to have a post addressing the pitfalls (and positives) of weird and whacky words. I’m glad people are enjoying my word journey. Thank you
Great post, Jenn. God bless our mums for the wealth of life they have given us.
Hope your mum improves soon.