Tag: definition

Esther Chiltons prompt “Sport”

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Sport in Botany defined by Wikipedia :

In botany, a sport or bud sport, traditionally called lusus,[2] is a part of a plant that shows morphological differences from the rest of the plant. Sports may differ by foliage shape or color, flowers, fruit, or branch structure. The cause is generally thought to be a chance genetic mutation.[3]

I saw a sport once. Eight or nine twigs on a forsythia bush, each fused to the next, like a pan pipe. It still had leaves and flowers. I was reading sci-fi books at the time, I was only young and found the strange formation almost creepy. I cut the sport off the bush and it never grew back. But I always remembered this sporting image!

Gobbledegook

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Confused, muddled, incoherent. Gobbledegook.

Like double-dutch it’s a word that tries to describe the kind of word salad some people talk rather than a measured and clear explanation.

If you have ever seen “Sir Humphrey”, the political private secretary in “Yes, Minister”, and “Yes, Prime Minister”, the BBC series from the 1980s and 90s, you will know he would used gobbledegook or flimflam (another lovely word) to blag his way through telling the Minister important information without telling him clearly. It’s  in this case a method of obfuscation, using a long tangle of incomprehensible words that is sneaky and makes the story he is trying to tell virtually impossible to understand.

It’s an informal noun and according to Google it is defined as :

language that is meaningless or is made unintelligible by excessive use of technical terms.

“reams of financial gobbledygook”

I hope you enjoyed this word!

Catharsis

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I’ve spent the day watching old Christmas films and mostly crying. I can’t remember watching so many in one go. It started with ‘White Christmas’, then ‘the Sound of Music’ and finally the Richard Attenborough version of ‘Miracle on 34th Street’.

I realised that the films were very heartwarming, and they made me think of all sorts of memories from my past. I tried to think of the word that described how I was feeling and could only think Cathartic. It’s definition is:

providing psychological relief through the open expression of strong emotions; causing catharsis.

“crying is a cathartic release”

That’s what I was feeling.

A Plantarium?

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My friend has really got into houseplants since lockdown. She regularly posts photos of her wonderful plants. I realised I have a lot of them as well and wondered if there is a word for that sort of collection? I thought of the word ‘Plantarium’. So now I’m going to check Google in case it means something else!

Unfortunately, the word is already taken! Oh well, I like it and I’ve learnt something new today x

Oorie?

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It was an Oorie day, the sky was full of dark grey, shifting clouds. A cold wind blew from the North East. Hail started to fall, bouncing off roofs and into gutters. The roads and pavements were slippery with the icy white mass of hail. It crunched underfoot. But it was melting quickly and rivulets of ice and water ran down the road into the grids by the pavement.

It’s hard to describe an ‘oorie’ day, even though I’ve just walked home in one. I saw the word on a friends page where she was writing a piece using the word as a prompt. That’s why I looked it up, I’ve never come across it before and doubt I will use it again.

Echolalia

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The repetition of other people’s words or sounds is echolalia. When the toddler you babysit repeats everything you say, over and over again, you can call it “annoying,” or you can call it echolalia..

I looked this up because a friend would keep repeating what I said, what I said. I did not know why, know why…..

Apparently it’s something to do with psychiatric disorders or autism. I would not say my friend suffered from either of these. Perhaps it was a habit? I don’t know. It was incredibly annoying until I realised it was normal for my friend and learned to accept it.

Shibboleth

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shibboleth
/ˈʃɪbəlɛθ/
noun
  1. a custom, principle, or belief distinguishing a particular class or group of people, especially a long-standing one regarded as outmoded or no longer important.
    “the majority, under the influence of vague nineteenth-century shibboleths, understood him to be associating himself with the doctrine that every nation has a right to be a sovereign state”

    My hubby used this word, so I asked him what it meant. He said something vague then said ‘look it up, I’m not sure’ so I did!

    I’m not sure I’d ever dare use a word like that!