Halcyon

Just means tranquility and peace.Its actually a greek word for the mythological bird halcyon.As a noun it implies this bird of ancient Greece ,that nested on the seas and calming them with their magical powers.

When used as an adjective it means  tranquil, placid, calm or peaceful.

The kingfisher is called the halcyon.Scientific names for the Stork-billed Kingfisher Scientific name - Halcyon capensis and the White-throated Kingfisher's Scientific name - Halcyon smyrnensis etc.

The kingfisher also called the halcyon.

Halcyon Woodlands, a Halcyon summer

Generally the terms like good old halcyon days or the halcyon season is used in literature to imply a peaceful period.

Kettle Basin Brook Burn ...What are these?

During road trips, trails, camping experiences we always come across so many names for water bodies.All the words mentioned in the title are water bodies.I've always wondered the difference between them.Its nice to know what they actually mean and how a creek may be different from a brook etc.Below are some common water bodies with a small description..

• Creek - a usually dry creek bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally.
• Basin - a region of land where water from rain or snowmelt drains downhill into another body of water, such as a river, lake, or dam.
• Bay - an area of water bordered by land on three sides.
• Billabong - a pond or still body of water created when a river changes course and some water becomes trapped. Australian.
• Brook - a small stream.
• Burn - a small stream.
• Canal - a man-made waterway,
• Channel - the physical confine of a river, slough or ocean strait consisting of a bed and banks. 
• Creek - a small stream.
• Creek (tidal) - an inlet of the sea, narrower than a cove.
• Draw - a usually dry creek bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally.
• Estuary - a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea
• Glacier - A large collection of ice or a frozen river that moves slowly down a mountain.
• Harbor - a man-made or naturally occurring body of water where ships are stored
• Inlet - a body of water, usually seawater, which has characteristics of one or more of the following: bay, cove, estuary, firth fjord, geo, sea loch, or sound.
• Kettle - a shallow, sediment-filled body of water formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters.
• Lagoon - a body of comparatively shallow salt or brackish water separated from the deeper sea by a shallow or exposed sandbank, coral reef, or similar feature.
• Lake - a body of water or other liquid, but usually freshwater, of considerable size contained on a body of land.
• Loch - a body of water such as a lake, sea inlet, firth, fjord, estuary or bay.
• Mangrove swamp - Saline costal habitat of mangrove trees and shrubs.
• Marsh - a wetland featuring grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, and other herbaceous plants (possibly with low-growing woody plants) in a context of shallow water. 
• Moat - a deep, broad trench, filled with water, surrounding a structure, installation, or town.
• Ocean - a major body of saline water that, in totality, covers about 71% of the Earth's surface.
• Pool - a small body of water such as a swimming pool, reflecting pool, pond, or puddle.
• Pond - a body of water smaller than a lake, especially those of man-made origin.
• Puddle - a small accumulation of water on a surface, usually the ground.
• Rapid - a fast moving part of a river
• Reservoir - an artificial lake, used to store water for various uses.
• River - a natural waterway usually formed by water derived from either precipitation or glacial meltwater, and flows from higher ground to lower ground.
• Run - a small stream or part thereof, especially a smoothly flowing part of a stream.
• Salt marsh - a type of marsh that is a transitional zone between land and an area, such as a slough, bay, or estuary, with salty or brackish water.
• Sea - a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, or a large, usually saline, lake that lacks a natural outlet such as the Caspian Sea and the Dead Sea. In common usage, often synonymous to ocean.
• Spring - a point where groundwater flows out of the ground, and is thus where the aquifer surface meets the ground surface
• Stream - a body of water with a detectable current, confined within a bed and banks.
• Subglacial lake - a lake that is permanently covered by ice and whose water remains liquid by the pressure of the ice sheet and geothermal heating. They often occur under glaciers or ice caps. Lake Vostok in Antarctica is an example.
• Swamp - a wetland that features permanent inundation of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water, generally with a substantial number of hummocks, or dry-land protrusions.
• Tarn - a mountain lake or pool formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier.
• Tide pool - a rocky pool adjacent to an ocean and filled with seawater.
• Wash - a usually dry creek bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally.

A steaming cup of coffee

What more refreshing than a cup of hot coffee.Coffee is a world famous beverage made from roasted coffee beans.The origins of the beverage is believed to be from Ethiopia.There are plenty of options in a coffee house.I wanted to know what each type actually meant to assist my taste buds in their choice.Thus, the article on the different coffee words and their meaning.

Hot Coffee Types

Espresso : Got by passing hot steam through roasted and ground coffee beans.Very strong. It is served hot in a small cup sometimes with cream. Espresso can be decaffeinated, medium strong or very strong depending on the country and coffee house.

CaffÈ Latte : Espresso with steamed milk forming a small topping of foam. It has less foam than a cappuccino

Cafe Breva :  Espresso with steamed half and half (cream).

Cappuccino : 1/3 Espresso (1 shot) 1/3 steamed milk and 1/3 foam. Cinnamon or flaked chocolate is sprinkled on top.

CaffÈ Mocha : A latte or a cappuccino with chocolate syrup or hot cocoa. 

Cafe Macchiato: 4 parts espresso with 1 part steamed milk.

Black coffee: Coffee brew (liquor from passing steam through roasted beans ) with no milk.Strong.Can be had with or without sugar.

Americano: A single shot of espresso with about 7 ounces of hot water added to the mix. Diluted espresso.

Indian (Madras) filter coffee: Coffee brew from the south of India.Made from hot water pressurized through dark roasted beans powder in a traditional filter.Served with 3 parts coffee to 1 part milk or equal depending on region.

Irish coffee: Coffee brew with Irish whiskey and foam. Alcoholic coffee beverage.

Cold Coffee Types 

Frappe : Variation of cold espresso.coffee brew / instant coffee with sugar, water/milk and ice. Cold Beverage.

Iced Cappuccino : is a double shot of espresso over crushed ice with an two ounces of cold milk and milk froth.

Iced espresso :  is a double shot of espresso over crushed ice, with whipped cream.

Gelotology

Laughter is a good medicine. Laughter is also interesting for some.

More interesting to them, that they make a career studying humor and laughter.

Gelotology is the study of laughter.Gelos in Greek means laughter and hence the word Gelotology.

Gelotologists study the effect of humor and laughter on the human body. They study psychological treatments relating to humor and laughter like humor therapy , clown therapy , laughter therapy etc.There is well documented and ongoing research in this field of study.

Voila!Found something good?!

All of us chance into something once in a while.Sometimes its awful to have discovered something and sometimes its so good that we actually found it.The word to use when you accidently find something and that something is good and a fortunate discover, you call it serendipity.We use serendipity when we actually find something that we were not expecting at all in the first place.

Ex. There have been many serendipitous discoveries in science.
Here its used as an adjective.It could also be used as an adverb.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity  : Use this link to find a list of serendipitous discoveries made in science.Its really interesting to know how many such discoveries have changed our lives so much.

Anklebiter

Ankle-biter means no cannibal but just a small child. There are many meanings to the word ankle-biter.Predominantly, it would means a toddler.Sometimes it could mean a small dog. It could also be used to imply someone who is not in your comparable position but troubles or irritates you often. In the stock market arena, an ankle biter would mean a company that has a market capitalization of less than 500million dollars.

Ghostwriting

Sounds spooky or eerie.

Ghostwriter is a professional writer who writes for somebody else.

There are many who require some documents , reports , essays or some biography to be written.These people may be pressed for time or they may not be capable of expressing themselves as a professional writer.Hence, they hire ghostwriters.The person may or may not acknowledge the ghostwriter for the work.The ghostwriter is paid but the name of the ghostwriter never appears in the work.Hence the word ghostwriter.

Many professional writers use ghostwriting as a source of income.It is lucrative but the writer must be able to compromise the fact that his name would never appear in the work.

Word using animal names Part II

Other words with animal names are :

When a person is made to walk head held down and his hands held behind (like how cops make the culprits to walk) he is said to frog march.
When a person or group of people eat voraciously they are said to pig out.
When you ruin someone's plan, you are said to cook someone's goose.
A coward is called a chicken.
When a person takes back his word or admits his mistake he is said to be an eating crow.

More to follow later.

Words using animal names

Animals have been a man's best friend,companion, threat,food,inspiration,tool to hunt and what not.With time there have been many words in any language that is derived from animals,describing their qualities or a word of comparison etc.As sly as a fox, as faithful as a dog, drink like a fish are examples of common idioms in English.
There are also words/phrases with animal names;these are the animal names that we are going to see today.


A stubborn person is a pig head.
A stupid person is  a birdbrain.
A person who takes the blame for others mistakes or is a target is called a scapegoat.
 An illegitimate child is called a brush colt.
When a person quits an addiction/habit all at once , he is said to quit like a cold turkey.
A troublesome person is called a black sheep.
An easy target or vulnerable person is called a sitting duck.
Anything easy to do is called a duck soup.

Interesting, is it not?
There are many more such words.I will post them in my next post.

Billet Doux!

A love letter is an age old tradition of writing a personal letter to express affection for your loved one.
Billet Doux is obtained from the French language.It means a love letter!


Ex. of a sentence using billet doux :
She kept the billet-doux in a box on the dresser.

A lover of luxury:what to call them?

 

There are a few attracted to the life of luxury, mirth , joy and just fun. Pleasure seeking souls;they want all the luxury and pleasure they can afford and more.Such people are called Sybarites.

Sybarite is derived from Greek Sybarites, from Sybaris, an ancient Greek city noted for the luxurious, pleasure-seeking habits of many of its inhabitants.

SIDEKICK !

Did you associate the word literally to a side kick??

No,I dont intend some violence in my blog.

Can you take a wild guess what a Sidekick could mean??
a blow?a hit? smashing something? a kick in the side? some kind of thrill/adventure/violent act??
No 

Well, it is rather contrary to the above guesses.

Sidekick means a close pal, friend,accomplice,companion
 From wikipedia

A sidekick is a stock character, a close companion who assists a partner in a superior position. 
Examples of sidekicks : Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, Batman's companion Robin, and Xena's partner, Gabrielle are some well-known sidekicks in fiction.


So now you are enlightened about the word sidekick. Sounds funny though!

"Im ill , hence will not attend work today" heard this before??

Well, it is not uncommon that we give excuses based on our health or forged illness to skip some work or meeting.Sometimes, it may be unavoidable but some people use this very frequently to avoid their duty.
English has not spared people who  feign illness or other incapacity in order to avoid duty or work.
They are said to Malinger

Malingering is a medical term that refers to fabricating or exaggerating the symptoms of mental or physical disorders for a variety of "secondary gain" motives, which may include financial compensation (often tied to fraud); avoiding school, work or military service; obtaining drugs; getting lighter criminal sentences; or simply to attract attention or sympathy

Dont malinger...malingering is a disease by itself!

How else to say Kiss!

Kiss is a lovely 4 letter word and i guess it is one of the most widely used words or widely desired words i must say!!

Well, I was curious what  other words can be used to mean kiss.
Here is the list of words which could mean a kiss...its always good to know!

pucker up : means to kiss , to pursue the lips to give a kiss
osculate : means to kiss
butterfly : I gave her a butterfly on her cheeks, means a butterfly kiss.
Butterfly kiss : means a  kiss that does not involve the lips.Its like a pecker on the cheeks or while fondling children etc.
French : when used in the context, it would mean a French kiss
Peck : is a brief kiss mostly on the cheeks, it would signify a platonic relationship or a brief kiss that may not be sexual
Endearment : is a display of affection generally a caress or by a small peck
Osculation : is the act of kissing or denotes a kiss
Smooch : is an enthusiastic kiss
To spoon : would mean to kiss and cuddle
Smack : could also mean a peck or a smooch but be careful of the context because it could also mean a spank
Graze : would mean a light and momentary contact of the lips or skin

Happy osculation!!
(It does sound so obscure.)

Biopic

Yesterday , my husband and me watched an Oscar winning movie called the Last Emperor. It was about the Last Emperor of China , Puyin . The story was a biography of the emperor and the word biopic came to my mind.

What is a biopic?

We've heard of biographies where the life of a person is written by another person.
We've heard of autobiographies where the life of a person is written by himself/herself.
Biopics is actually  biographical motion picture

Biographical Motion Picture (Biopic)

It is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their lives.

Example of  Biopics : Man on the Moon  is a biopic on the American Entertainer Andy Kauffman played by Jim Carrey. , The Last Emperor is a biopic on the last emperor of China , Meryl Streep plays the part of Julia in Julie and Julia .

Sleep Walking

 
Somnambulism or Noctambulism

It is  a disorder that occurs when a person walks or does another activity while they are still asleep.
Sleepwalking is called Somnambulism or Noctambulism.


Somn : It is the Latin root word for sleep.
Other words from the same root word are cacosomnia , insomnia etc
Noct : is the root word to indicate night
Other words from Noct are nocturnal

ambulate : is to move around

Hence the words somnambulism and noctambulism

To know more bout Sleep Walking Click here

 

Strolling with your baby in the perambulator?!!

Well,today's baby carriages were actually called perambulator in  the yesteryears.
Pram , the word to denote a baby carriage is also derived from the word perambulator.

Perambulator : It can be broken up into per + ambulate , per is used to show free movement like permissable, permeate,perculate etc and ambulate is to walk from place to place; move about.

These are pictures of the early perambulators.

 

Perambulator is also known as baby buggy, baby carriage, pram, pushchair, stroller, go-cart, pusher, carriage,bassinet

Interestingly , there is one of a kind perambulator museum in the world : VICTORIAN PERAMBULATOR MUSEUM It has more than 200 different kinds of these perambulators.

The picture below shows a pram of today 

Can you beleive that thee is a magazine called the Perambulator Times !! It was called Perambulator madness before.

Wordophilic

Offcourse!How can i write a blog without having to say anything about the word used to describe the blog.
My previous post says about the phobia's.The antonym for phobia is philia meaning love or attracted to.
I couldnt deny the fact that I have a philia for words.So here it is wordophilia!

There is many a mention of the usage of words like wordophilia, wordophillic etc but i havent been able to find out if the word officially exists.

The phobia's

One of the most fascinating words are different phobia's or fear of something.These phobia words have always caught my attention. English has a word for almost all kinds of fear.
Some interesting phobia's are listed below:

Agyrophobia- Fear of streets or crossing the street.
Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth   ( WOW!)
Bathmophobia- Fear of stairs or steep slopes.
Chronomentrophobia- Fear of clocks. 
Dishabiliophobia- Fear of undressing in front of someone.
Eisoptrophobia- Fear of mirrors or of seeing oneself in a mirror.
Frigophobia- Fear of cold or cold things.(Cheimaphobia, Cheimatophobia, Psychrophobia)
Gynephobia or Gynophobia- Fear of women.
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia- Fear of long words.
Iatrophobia- Fear of going to the doctor or of doctors
Kainolophobia or Kainophobia- Fear of anything new, novelty.

Usually phobia words are coined from root words and suffixing "phobia". 
Ex 
Altophobia : fear of heights 
[Alt is the root word for heights]
Euphobia  : phobia of hearing good things
[Eu :means good saying , praise ...like in Euphism]


Some words like Ombraphobia donot originate from root words.

Ombrophobia- Fear of rain or of being rained on

There is a website in which the author has accumulated all the different phobia's, which I found to be vey interesting. Click here to see the website.
Its exciting to know how many phobia's we all have.Check them out.
Happy Phobia hunting!