WOW Word of the Week: Persiflage

Summary:  Meander through my musings to learn a holiday word about, well, words...

This week is like a personal springtime. I'm feeling myself slowly coming back to life like a seedling unfurling into a flower.

Last week, after trekking around the Midwest the week before to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with family, I found myself with some unwelcome symptoms: a fever (most dreaded), aches, chills, congestion and worst of all a sore throat—something no communications coach ever wants, especially going into a full week of coaching sessions. I tried to offer phone sessions to my clients to keep the germs to myself and the communication rolling, but it was murder on my voice and throat. I scrapped that short-lived solution and went to the doctor. Diagnosis: strep throat.

My holiday vacation was suddenly extended by way of infection. And my intent to blog was prolonged as I spent most days rescheduling clients from the couch.

Does all this sickness talk seem like persiflage to you? If so, I made my point: Traveling the day before Thanksgiving, my husband and I listened to old recordings of Jean Shepherd's radio show—Shepherd of "A Christmas Story" fame. What a writer! Of the many vocabulary words to choose from in his rhetorical radio ramblings, the one that caught my attention the most was the word about words ... specifically about filler words that mean little and say lots, persiflage.

It's defined as frivolous banter. Shepherd's usage was "little brother persiflage" to describe his brother's dinner conversation; not as important as his own childhood dialogue on what he wanted for Christmas.
 
Look up persiflage here. And pardon mine, please. Let's blame it on the lingering infection.

© KiKi Productions, Inc. 2012

WORD OF THE WEEK: Trivia

Summary: Just for fun, this week's WOW Word of the Week contains a little trivia quiz—about the word trivia!

Can you answer this trivia question: What is the origin of the word trivia?

According to my good online friend Merriam-Webster, the root words are Latin: tri (for three) and vium (for road). The original combination, trivialis, came to refer to inconsequential things. But why?

Romans commonly believed—again, according to our researching friends at the e-dictionary—that when three roads intersected, the walkers who used them could easily stop to greet each other and exchange brief pleasantries about where they were headed. Because these people were strangers, they would keep their topics light, or trivial.

In our own, American trivial pursuits (so to speak), we've come to use the word trivia itself as referring to the knowledge of somewhat meaningless facts, or those facts themselves.

Personally, I've been known to my friends as an expert it word trivia. No surprise there! In my younger years, I was even more of a music trivia ace, especially in the classic rock and top 40 genres. What are you an expert in?

TRIVIA (TRIH - vee - YUH) – unimportant matters; insignificant facts or details; a quizzing game involving obscure facts.

© KiKi Productions, Inc. 2010

WORD OF THE WEEK: Syllabification

Summary: Tired of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? What about anti-disestablishmentarianism? Let's learn some new long words today!

Here's a fun word (I think) that's not only silly-sounding and fun to say, but also is about word play by definition. And on top of that, it's--appropriately--got a heck of a lot of syllables.

Syllabification (SIL - eh - beh - feh - KAY - shun) - n. The act/process/method of forming or dividing words into syllables. Originated in the 15th century from the Latin syllaba. Also: syllabication. (Although syllabication means exactly the same thing, I like today's WOW word, simply because-- go figure --it has one more syllable!)

Let's syllabify, or syllabicate, this word. Shall we?

Syl / la / bi / fi / ca / tion has six syllables. Neat! So, tell me: What's your favorite multi-syllable word?


© KiKi Productions, Inc. 2010

WORD OF THE WEEK: Morphology

What is morphology? Is it the science of transmutation? ... Hmm, in a manner of speaking, I guess you could say it is.

Precisely, it's the study of word development, particularly its parts (its stem, or main part, and its affixes--prefixes and suffixes). Want to know more? Check out these two great links for some information and observations.

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/morphology.html

http://walkinthewords.blogspot.com/search?q=morphology

And then check this out: MORPHOLOGY (mor - FAHL - eh - GEE) - (1) the biological study of the forms of animals and plants; (2) the study of word formation. From the German word morphologie, this word entered the English language in its current form in 1830.

© KiKi Productions, Inc. 2010

WEEKLY UPDATE: Readers' Delight

Summary: How did you celebrate yesterday's National Grammar Day? What about World Book Day, also yesterday? (I worked!)

How did you celebrate National Grammar Day and/or World Book Day? (Both were yesterday.) Did you read? Write? Read a book to a child? Surf online? In my opinion, that last one counts if you actually read or wrote articles of any significant length or merit. Sure, what qualifies as "significant" is debatable—but I'm sure we can all agree that this blog has value. Right?

Personally, I spent my day pretty much the same way I do every week day: Answering client calls, coaching individuals, working online and taking care of domestic duties. Ho-hum, huh?

Think again! What I do every day is in perfect alignment with these magnificent holidays. My clients have questions for me like, "What kinds of questions should I be prepared for in my upcoming job interview?" and "How do I start an appropriate online dialogue with my colleagues?" We're talking language questions here. And you'd better believe I emphasize good grammar! Of course, reading is a part of my every day—even if the bulk of it is frequently done online. There are a number of other really wonderful blogs (see the blogs I follow, listed to the left on my blog's home page) that teach so much about grammar and word usage. Reading them makes you a better reader!

If you celebrated obliviously, it still counts: How did words play a part in your day?

© KiKi Productions, Inc. 2010

WORD OF THE WEEK: Remember This Memorial Day

You might say there are two words to remember this week: The first, memorial, is defined at myEtymology.com. And that makes the second word etymology.

According to the folks at myEtymology, memorial was first used in the English language in the 14th century. And its history, or word origin—or etymology—is as follows: It's derived from the Old French word "memorial" which comes from the Late Latin word "memoriale," meaning "memorandum" or "memory," which is borne of the Latin word "memorialis" (historiographer royal, a man employed in the emporer's secretarial bureau), coming from "memoria," also Latin and meaning "memory, recollection; history." That word is derived from the Latin word "memor," meaning "remembering" or "mindful." And there you have the history (etymology) of the word "memorial"!

Can you remember all that? If you aren't sure, take notes, because—yes—there will be an upcoming quiz ....

(c) KiKi Productions, Inc. 2009