Word-Wednesday for October 9, 2019

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, October 9, 2019, the 41st Wednesday of the year,  the 282nd day of the year, with 82 days remaining.


Nordhem Lunch: Hot Ham Sandwich w/Potatoes & Gravy


Earth/Moon Almanac for October 9, 2019
Sunrise: 7:35am; Sunset: 6:42pm; 3 minutes, 31 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 5:43pm; Moonset: 2:52am, waxing gibbous


Temperature Almanac for October 9, 2019
                Average           Record           Today
High             55                   82                  59
Low              35                     8                  37


October 9 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Leif Erikson Day
• National Pro-Life Cupcake Day
• National Moldy Cheese Day
• National Emergency Nurse’s Day
• National Bring Your Teddy Bear to Work/School Day
• National Stop Bullying Day
• International Top Spinning Day

October 9 Riddle
What word in our language has all the vowels in alphabetical order?*


October 9 Pun

October 9 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1980 Nobel prize for literature awarded to Czesław Miłosz.
• 1989 Penthouse magazine's Hebrew edition hits newstands.

October 9 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1835 Camille Saint-Saëns.
• 1940 John Lennon.
• 1967 Eddie Guerrero, American-Mexican professional wrestler.
• 1972 The Count, Sesame Street.

Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge
Make a single sentence (or poem) from the following words: 

• amatorculist: a little insignificant lover; a pretender to affection.
• cadency: the status of a younger branch of a family.
• disintermediation: reduction in the use of intermediaries between producers and consumers, for example by investing directly in the securities market rather than through a bank.
• martlet: a bird like a swallow without feet, borne as a charge or a mark of cadency for a fourth son.
• obecalp: any medicine that is a placebo [also, an anagram of placebo]
• peristeronic: of or relating to pigeons.
• pinion: noun, the outer part of a bird's wing including the flight feathers; verb, 1. tie or hold the arms or legs of (someone).
• rubato: the temporary disregarding of strict tempo to allow an expressive quickening or slackening, usually without altering the overall pace.
• subsist: maintain or support oneself, especially at a minimal level.
• tocsin: an alarm bell or signal.

October 9, 2019 Word-Wednesday Feature
Shakepeare’s Words
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has confirmed that Shakespeare coined many words now in common usage. According to linguist and Shakespeare researchers David  and Hilary Crystal, Wordsmiths and Warriors: The English-Language Tourist's Guide to Britain, Shakespeare is the first known source for more than 300 un-words alone. Some seem impossible to do without, and it is so interesting to see the words conform to the plays from which each sprung:

addiction, Othello

assassination, Macbeth

bandit, Henry VI

bedazzled, The Taming of the Shrew

belongings, Measure for Measure

cold-blooded, King John

critic, Love’s Labour Lost

dauntless, Henry VI

dishearten, Henry V

dwindle, Henry IV

elbow (as a verb), King Lear

eventful, As You Like It

eyeball, The Tempest

fashionable, Troilus and Cressida

green-eyed (to describe jealousy), The Merchant of Venice

inaudible, All's Well That Ends Well

lackluster, As You Like It

lonely, Coriolanus

manager, A Midsummer Night's Dream

multitudinous, Macbeth

scuffle, Antony and Cleopatra

Swagger, Midsummer Night’s Dream


Here are but a few of the un-words Shakespeare coined:

unaware, Venus & Adonis

uncomfortable, Romeo & Juliet

undress, Taming of the Shrew

unearthly, A Winter’s Tale

unreal, Macbeth


Wannaskan Almanac's own Jack Pine Savage seems to have a gift for coining new words; here are a few of her creations:
aftermirth: the warm feeling that lingers after a long laugh.

anthenticity: the opposite of authenticity.
dribblage: palaver.
emplematic: an emblematic example.
hugget: desirable nugget
humality: the virtually nonexistent shame of the human species.
implistic: so obvious that it does not bare mentioning.
meniverse vs youniverse: the two versions of all marital realities.
motivitions: behaviors modified by nudges.

truthiness: a tone of voice that may or may not correspond to the veracity of what is being spoken.

Please post your own coinages in the comment section.

From A Year with Rilke, October 9 Entry
We Stand in Your Garden, from The Book of Hours III, 8.

Lord, we are more wretched that the animals
who do their deaths once and for all,
for we are never finished with our not dying.

Dying is strange and hard
if it is not our death, but a death
that takes us by storm, when we’ve ripened non within us.

We stand in your garden year after year.
We are trees for yielding a sweet death.
But fearful, we wither before the harvest.


Be better than yesterday,
learn a new word today,
try to stay out of trouble - at least until tomorrow,
and write when you have the time.

*facetiously.