Tag: English

Freestyle

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 2 Comments

Good morning everyone! The sun is shining bright, the temp was -20 C first thing this morning and it did indeed feel cold! However, it’s expected to rise to -6 C by this afternoon, which means spring-like snow-melting in the sunshine. 🙂

Our Ragtag Daily Prompt this morning is FREESTYLE.

Not a word I’m very acquainted with, though I have heard of freestyle skating. According to Merriam Webster, FREESTYLE is used in connection with some sports competition where more than usual liberty of movement is allowed at such events.

When I Google “freestyle verse” I see that this indicates some types of music (rap?) and I wonder if “freestyle verse” isn’t also used to describe the flowing, un-rhymed type of poetry so common now?

Oxford English Dictionary claims it can be used as a verb, too, meaning:
To dance, perform, or compete in an improvised or unrestricted fashion.

My Word of the day, which I’ve just posted over at Word Buds, is VICARIOUS. I can say that I derive a vicarious thrill out of watching young and energetic sorts participating in active sports, but I am happy to cheer from the sidelines. Today I shall expend my energy sitting at the sewing machine, piecing together a blanket top. I’ll see how fast and how well I can do it — with no freestyle inserting of odd patches here and there. 🙂

Defalcation

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 5 Comments

Hello dear readers. I’ve recently come across another new word, DEFALCATION, and I’m going to share it with you.

Money.CharlesThompson
Charles Thompson  —  Pixabay

This is what public officials, treasurers, and mutual fund managers sometimes fall into, or are accused of. The primary meaning is to misappropriate or divert funds, especially public money, to embezzle. According to Merriam-Webster, another meaning is to fail to meet a promise or an expectation.

I’ve demonstrated its use in these two senryu:

defalcation
that trickle to the slush fund
taxpayers’ tears

defalcation
those expense account holes
auditors look through

 

Go For It!

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 10 Comments

The Ragtag Daily Prompt this morning is GO.

“To be or not to be?” might be the pertinent question of life, but it’s one we’ve never debated at our house. “To go or not to go?” frequently comes up.

For example, today my husband wants to go to the city, but the thermometer reads -33 C. “To stay home where it’s warm or to go out in the extreme cold and risk freezing my nose?” That is the question — and the answer isn’t hard to guess. 🙂

Interestingly, the post that appeared in my In-Box right after this one was the poem “FLY”, by Bill at The Write Idea. In a flash my mind jumped to phrase, “Go fly a kite.” Common when I was young, it’s probably considered antique by now.

GO is a basic word, yet my dictionary has over a whole page of variations in meaning as well as idioms formed with GO. Makes me think of a mother duck with her bunch of offspring trailing after.

Ducks.IanWilson
Photo credit:  Ian Wilson — Pixabay

Get the go-ahead
Go back on…
From the word go
From the get-go
Go great guns
Go out with
Going together
Go off in a huff
Go for it!

Nice chatting with you. Now I’d best get going…

The Bedazzled Shopper

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 5 Comments

The Ragtag Daily Prompt this morning is EVANESCENT

The primary meaning of this word, according to the Oxford Dictionary:
soon passing out of sight, memory, or existence; quickly fading or disappearing.

Which makes me think of last Christmas. Do you remember it? So this quickly composed verse shall be my response to the prompt.

The Bedazzled Shopper

Whither fled the season
of good cheer, holly and ivy,
red bows and candle glows
and don’t be a Scrooge,
spend, spend, spend!

How did the tinselled trees,
twinkling lights and
red bows vanish evanescently
in December’s puff and stuff?
A distant memory now

as to my wondering eyes appear
all these chicks, fluffy cute,
and pastel plastic eggs
pulled from their nest in
stockrooms, with the signs
Sale! Sale! Sale!

What Goes Around…

~ Christine Goodnough ~ Leave a comment

The Ragtag Daily Prompt this morning is BOOMERANG

Friendship’s like a boomerang
when you give a friendly smile
you’ll find it coming back to you
as you trudge some weary mile.

–Author unknown to me
Verse from an old Friendship Book

The word BOOMERANG comes from an Australian aboriginal language; its appearance in the English language was in the 1820s. However, the concept of things coming back to you is ancient.

In Galatians 6:7 the Apostle Paul writes, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that also shall he reap.” Whether you’ve done good or bad; the Lord rewards you for your actions.

Even farther back, Solomon wrote “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.” Eccl 11:1 This being written in the more positive sense.

Hinduism and Buddhism teach a system of karma, whereby the good you do sets in motion a chain of actions that rewards or punishes you by your lot in the next life. In general, “Good or bad luck, viewed as resulting from one’s actions,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

In our day we’ve boiled it down to “What goes around, comes around.” We could even mention Bobby Burns’ “The best laid plans of mice and man go oft astray.”

Boomerang, in my mind, carries a more negative sense. Like getting hit in the back of the head by the boomerang you threw at someone else. Or like the fellow who planned to rob a store by crawling through the heating duct late one Saturday night. Plans went awry when he got stuck and there he stayed until the store opened Monday morning and police were called to investigate.

A New Blog for Word Fans

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 2 Comments

As you will all realize by now, I enjoy poetry…and quotes…and idioms…and WORDS in general. When I was invited to join the Ragtag Community and provide the Sunday morning prompt, I was delighted. “Over the moon,” as they say in England.

I immediately began to collect a list of words, some ordinary, some obscure, from various quotes, poems, and writings. my list grew until I realized it would take several years of Sundays to post all these words. So I’ve decided to re-purpose my dormant poetry blog and dedicate it to the exploration of words that intrigue me.

Fr.Title.Sleeping Cat

I’ve given it a new name, WORD BUDS and a new tag line,“A choice blend of fine words and phrases to inspire you.”

For the rest of this year I’ll post words along with the brief verse or quote I’ve taken it from and maybe something about the word’s origins. Sundays I’ll post the Ragtag Daily Prompt there as well. I’m doing this for my own enjoyment, but if you love words like I do, you may want to check it out.

Since I’ve reworked Swallow in the Wind, a blog once dedicated to Quotes, Anecdotes, and Nature Notes, you’ll find a lot of these in the ARCHIVES from June 2012 to Jan 2015. As time goes on, I’ll probably post a few more now and then.

As I’m doing now with the RAGTAG DAILY PROMPT, I plan to cross-post the word only, with the link, here as well. (Did you know cross-post is actually a dictionary word?)

Click here to view the site. I’m making this a temporary venture; at the end of the year I’ll decide whether to continue. Life is full of changes, but I think I have enough words to post for a good while. 🙂