Weekend Word Wrap
Welcome to the first in a series of Friday afternoon posts meant to hold you through the weekend. Because the blog is quiet on Saturday and Sunday, I figured parting words on Friday should thus be themed around the subject of "words" to a) make up for the lack of them, and b) give you knowledge to drop at the parties you'll be attending (note: As gratitude, I'm presently accepting invitations to such parties"¦).
Subjects of the "Weekend Word Wrap" will include: word-related trivia, scrabble strategy, idioms, use of the vernacular, acrostic fuel, elocution, etymology, anagram tips, acronym curiosities, pet grammar peeves, cryptic puzzle clues, and insight into how to express yourself in as few words as possible—something I am, so far, not doing very well.
This was a valuable lesson I first learned my freshman year of college. Captain of the Long Winded Club, (taking gold medals in all five of the run-on sentence competitions that year), I'd walk into my friend, Matthew's, dorm room and ask the following question:
"Matthew, would you like to go to the Commons and get some pizza?" "“ A serviceable, functional sentence with 16 syllables, right?
Meanwhile, Matthew's roommate, a taciturn fellow who managed to get all the girls with nothing more than a smile and a nod, succeeded in condensing my 16 syllable sentence into 2:
And like that, I learned the significance of brevity.
So without further ado, allow me to get the ball rolling by introducing a couple new words, courtesy of the good folk over at Word Spy:
ringxiety (ring.ZY.uh.tee) n. 1. The confusion experienced by a group of people when a cell phone rings and no one is sure whose phone it is. 2. Mistaking a faint sound for the ringing of one's cell phone. (Citations)
godcasting pp. Podcasting an audio feed with a religious message. Also: Godcasting.
—godcaster n. (Citations)
freemium adj. Relating to a business model that offers basic services free, but charges a premium for advanced or special features. (Citations)