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Mrs Morgan's Blog

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December 21, 2007

WORD OF THE DAY: (Courtesy of yourDictionary.com)

EXTRA CREDIT - 2 points

Post a response on your Wiki Page using the word of the day in an original sentence proving you understand its meaning.

Rhinorrhea (noun)

Pronunciation: [rI-nê-'ree-ê]

Definition: No, not a rhino with an upset tummy but the medical term for a runny nose.

Usage: "Rhino-", a prefix meaning “nose”, combines in many English compounds. “Rhinoplasty” refers to a nose-job. "Rhinorragia" is a nose-bleed and "rhinophonia," as I'm sure you've been told many times, is not an orchestra of nose-blowers, but the resonance of the nose, which causes the speech of some of us to sound a bit nasal.

Etymology: From the Greek words "rhinos "of the nose" (from rhis, rhin- "nose") and rhoia "a flow." "Rhinos" is most famous for rhinoceros, the nose-horn, based on "rhinos" + keras "horn." In fact, "keras" and "horn" derive from the same original Proto-Indo-European root. Greek karoton "carrot," which entered English via Latin carota "carrot," also comes from the same root, which suggests a horn-like shape. We know far less about the relationships of "rhinos."

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: Although the Mayflower landed at Cape Cod on November 21, 1620, the pilgrims aboard the ship didn't disembark. Believing the land unsuitable for farming, they waited four additional weeks before leaving the ship. Even then, only a small, exploratory group decided to go to Plymoth and establish a colony. The pilgrims were English separatists dissatisfied with the state of the church in England. However, this group didn't travel from England to the New World. First, they moved to Holland to try to establish a community of believers. Fearing that their children were becoming too Dutch, they decided to leave the Old World altogether to establish a community where they could live according to their beliefs without fear of societal contamination. After a harsher winter than they were prepared for, the pilgrims who survived worked very hard to eek out a life in this new world. Nearly 400 years later, here we are.

Quote of the Day: Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.

Baltasar Gracian

How often do you consider the challenges in your day to day as a chance to develop great ability? When we voluntarily endeavor to do something difficult, it is easy to see the benefit of doing so. But how often do we see those challenges that are thrust upon us by circumstance or other people in the same light?

Learning to do anything new can challenge even the best of us. We must exercise muscles we had forgotten we had (or never knew we had in the first place). We must create or find new talents; forge new paths. When we face a challenge, we stand at a crossroads - like Frost's "two roads...in a yellow wood." One will be the easy path - doing the same old thing the same old way - because it is easy and requires no change on our part. I mean, let's face it - change is scary, especially when what we are changing is ourselves. The other road is overgrown and requires great effort to create a path. We must hack away any vegetation that gets in our way; we must walk an unsure route wondering where to step next. But when we advance - whether of our own free will or by someone else's prodding, we prove and improve ourselves. Our great ability develops and reveals itself in the place where the overgrowth once stood.

In our class, many times I present you with "assignments" that are very foreign to you. In order to rise to the challenge, you must reach very deep to find or sometimes create skills that weren't there before. At first, this is frustrating, infuriating, overwhelming. But when you perservere, try again and again until you get it right - you emerge a more competent student than you were before. As when you were learning to skate or ride your bike, you couldn't learn the skill until you just went out and did it. With any skill, no matter how much we mentally prepare for the task, no matter how long we stand at the crossroad - the ability we must develop won't develop until we begin the task. We must act as if we already possessed that which we seek. When we do, then we can develop that "great ability" that we must.

What I am Reading: Here There be Dragons, by James Owens See it on Amazon.com

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamilo See it on Amazon.com

DECEMBER 24, 2007

What I am Reading: Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne (translated by Walter James Miller)

See it at Amazon.com

January 5th, 2008

Word of the Day (English): courtesy of www.YourDictionary.com

Carfuffle (noun)

Pronunciation: [kah(r)- or kê(r)-'fê-fêl]

Definition: Uproar, agitation, commotion, brouhaha, fuss.

Usage: Today's lexical oddity is used mostly—you guessed it—in Scotland, home of the most intriguing words in English. It is a colloquial expression, spoken more than written. As a result, no one really knows how it is spelled: "kerfuffle," "curfuffle," and a few others may be found in the Oxford English Dictionary, both with and without the [r]. The Macquarie Australian dictionary adds "kerfoofle," "kafuffle," and "kafoofle."

Suggested Usage: When someone raises a brouhaha over something, a comment like "What is all the fuss about" is likely to be ignored. "What is all the carfuffle about?" is much more likely to get the attention the comment deserves. Try it yourself and see. I am sure you find yourself in situations where, "I hear, she raised a big stink over the alimony," is grates sensitive ears too much. In those situations, "I hear she raised a big carfuffle over the alimony," will positively soothe the ear.

Etymology: Today's word probably came from Gaelic car "twist, bend, turn about" found in other combinations such as car-fhocal "a quibble, prevarication," car-shúil "rolling eye," and car-tuaitheal "wrong turn." "Fuffle" originated as a verb meaning "to jerk about, throw into disorder." It may be a blend of "fuss" and "shuffle," an onomatopoeic creation on the order of "piffle," or of almost any other origin. We simply are not sure. The spelling "kerfuffle" probably results from the influence of the prefix ker- found in "kerplop," "kerthump," "kersplash."

What I am Reading: The Book of Story Beginnings by Kristin Kladstrup