The Word Of Jeff

Book Review: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

This is, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story when it comes to our history in dealing with Native Americans in the 1800’s as we moved across this land making promises that we broke and signing treaties we had no intention of honoring.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee in front of the Wounded Knee Memorial on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Because I am in the area  for a few…

Word Of The Week – Rambunctious

A couple of weeks ago I took my three oldest grandchildren to Orlando International Airport to give them a tour of the main terminal and all the shops, eateries and entertainment locations. I would say they were slightly rambunctious, though overall very well-behaved. We had a good time!

Rambunctious

[ram-buhngk-shuh s]

adjective

1.difficult to control or handle; wildly boisterous: a rambunctious…

Word Of The Week – Clandestine

With the release last week of the Ashley Madison hacked database, making clandestine the Word Of The Week seemed like a natural choice.

  clandestine

[klan-des-tin]

adjective

1.characterized by, done in, or executed with secrecy or concealment, especially for purposes of subversion or deception; private or surreptitious:

Their clandestine meetings went undiscovered for two years.

Origin of…

Word Of The Week – Anastrophe

You may be looking at this word and thinking you have no idea what it is, but if you’re even passingly familiar with Star Wars then you DO know it without realizing it.

Anastrophe

\uh-NASS-truh-fee\

noun

Definition: inversion of the usual syntactical order of words for rhetorical effect. The name for this kind of syntactical inversion is anastrophe, from the Greek verb anastrephein, meaning “to…

Have You Written Anything Yet?

Dilbert is hoping to coax himself into writing that novel by employing the unspoken pressure that results by telling everyone he’s writing a novel. His goal is that he will be held accountable to his writing by telling all of his family and friends that he is putting words to paper or perhaps words to screen.

  But we all know how that turns out.

Book Riot’s “10 Scariest Books You’ve Read” Survey

A few weeks ago Book Riot ran the results of a survey they took about the “10 Scariest Books You’ve Read” and while the outcome was not all that surprising (Stephen King books grab the majority), I thought I’d throw my 2 cents into the mix.

The Shining by Stephen King (199 votes)

It by Stephen King (176)

Salem’s Lot by Stephen King (102)

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty (99)

Pet Sematary by…

Word Of The Week – Libertine

I have never seen the Johnny Depp movie “The Libertine”, nor have I eaten at a restaurant named “The Libertine” (real), or had drinks at a bar (real) or pub (real) named “Libertine”, or enjoyed the taste of a “Libertine Ale” (real), or, to the best of my knowledge, inhaled the fragrance of White Musk Libertine (real) perfume.

But I do remember, when first stumbling across the word in my late…

Word Of The Week – Vexillology

The recent situation with the Confederate Flag and its origin, history and place in modern culture reminded me of a word I first discovered way back in my junior high school (better known as the Stone Age to modern readers) Social Studies class.

Or, to be more precise, I discovered it in the school library.

In Social Studies, on a Friday, we were discussing flags of the world and I asked the…

Word Of The Week – Interpellate

Here’s a word, if you’re an American, that you would be more apt to find in news accounts, books or magazines from elsewhere in the world because it is seldom used in the U.S. but is common in international language. The definition explains why;

interpellate   \in-ter-PELL-ayt\ Definition

verb

:to question (someone, such as a foreign minister) formally concerning an official action…

Word Of The Week – Sere

While reading Dan Simmons’ “Hyperion” last week, I came across the word “sere” and one of the cool things about reading an ebook is that you can highlight a word in question and see the definition IF you have a wireless connection. At the time, I did not and I had to use my iPhone, which always has a data connection, to look up the meaning of this word.

Sere

adjective \ˈsir\

Definition of SERE

1:

Word Of The Week – Jiggery-Pokery

Language is so wonderful! Even as you think you have a pretty wide-reaching vocabulary, someone, usually a writer, but in this case a very intelligent and well-read justice of the Supreme Court, will introduce you to a new word or phrase that you had never heard before.

This past week Justice Antonin Scalia wrote a scathing dissent of his co-supremes majority decision to uphold the Affordable…

Word Of The Week – Gossamer

The word “gossamer” has always been one of my favorite words. I know that I first read it somewhere as a child and even though the context (the passage was about a spider’s web) made it pretty clear what the word meant, I still, as was my habit when confronted with new words, looked it up in the dictionary and so discovered that it could also refer to a light, delicate material, such as a…

Word Of The Week – Inculcate

inculcate

[in-kuhl-keyt, in-kuhl-keyt]

verb (used with object), inculcated, inculcating.

to implant by repeated statement or admonition; teach persistently and earnestly (usually followed by upon or in):

to inculcate virtue in the young.

to cause or influence (someone) to accept an idea or feeling (usually followed by with):

Socrates inculcated his pupils with the love of truth.

Word Of The Week – Prefatory

For some reason, I prefer this word over the modern-day “Introduction” that is so familiar to most of us.

prefatory

adjective pref·a·to·ry \ˈpre-fə-ˌtȯr-ē\

: included at the beginning of a book, speech, etc., as an introduction

Full Definition of PREFATORY

1:  of, relating to, or constituting a preface <prefatory remarks>

2:  located in front

Examples of PREFATORY

The speaker made some prefatory…