Word-Wednesday for June 1, 2022

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of new words... the trill of frippary... and the apogee of offbeat... the human drama of semantic explication...here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday, June 1, 2022, the twenty-first Wednesday of the year, the tenth Wednesday of spring, and the 152nd day of the year, with 213 days remaining.


Wannaska Phenology Update for June 1, 2022
Wild Plum trees are blooming!
Prunus americana also known as American Red Plum, is now in full bloom. Hopefully, the blossoms will be visited by enough pollinators.

June 1 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special:
Potato Dumpling

June 1 Nordhem Lunch:
Meatball Dinner
    Mashed potatoes & gravy
    buttered corn
    dinner roll
Meatballs & Melted Cheddar on a Toasted Hoagie
    cole slaw
    melon slice
"Bowl" Hamburger Vegetable Dumpling Soup
    sandwich choice: ham, turkey, hamburger


Earth/Moon Almanac for June 1, 2022
Sunrise: 5:25am; Sunset: 9:19pm; 1 minutes, 37 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 6:35am; Moonset: 11:52pm, waxing crescent, 5% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for June 1, 2022
                Average            Record              Today
High             69                     91                     67
Low              47                     32                     46


June 1 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Go Barefoot Day
• National Hazelnut Cake Day
• National Heimlich Maneuver Day
• National Nail Polish Day
• National Olive Day
• National Penpal Day
• National Say Something Nice Day
• World Reef Awareness Day
• National Running Day
• Say Something Nice Day

June 1 Word Riddle
What do you call a lazy kangaroo?*


June 1 Word Pun
It’s been discovered that William Tell and his son  Walter belonged to an early Swiss bowling league. But Swiss historians have not been able to determine the name of nobles who sponsored the league. As such, we may never know for whom the Tells bowled.


June 1 Walking into a Bar Grammar
An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.


June 1 Etymology Word of the Week
spell
/spel/ v., write or name the letters that form a word in correct sequence, from early 14c., "read letter by letter, write or say the letters of;" c. 1400, "form words by means of letters," apparently a French word that merged with or displaced a native Old English one; both are from the same Germanic root, but the French word had evolved a different sense. The native word is Old English spellian "to tell, speak, discourse, talk," from Proto-Germanic spellam (source also of Old High German spellon "to tell," Old Norse spjalla, Gothic spillon "to talk, tell"), from Proto-Indo-European spel- (2) "to say aloud, recite."

But the current senses seem to come from Anglo-French espeller, Old French espelir "mean, signify, explain, interpret," also "spell out letters, pronounce, recite," from Frankish spellon "to tell" or some other Germanic source, ultimately identical with the native word.

Related: Spelled; spelling. In early Middle English still "to speak, preach, talk, tell," hence such expressions as hear spell "hear (something) told or talked about," spell the wind "talk in vain" (both 15c.). Meaning "form words with proper letters" is from 1580s. Spell out "explain step-by-step" is first recorded 1940, American English. Shakespeare has spell (someone) backwards "reverse the character of, explain in a contrary sense, portray with determined negativity."


June 1 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 4000 BC Approximate domestication of the horse in the Eurasian steppes near Dereivka, central Ukraine.
• 1495 First written record of Scotch Whisky appears in Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, Friar John Cor is the distiller.
• 1543 Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius publishes De humani corporis fabrica (On the fabric of the human body) in seven books, a major step forward in understanding human anatomy.
• 1562 Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent sign treaty.
• 1638 First earthquake recorded in US, at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
• 1843 Sojourner Truth leaves New York to begin her career as antislavery activist.
• 1848 Revolutionary newspaper Neue Rheinische Zeitung founded by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and the Communist League in Cologne.
• 1857 Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) is published.
• 1862 African Slave Trade Treaty Act: Bilateral treaty between the US and UK abolishing the slave trade in all US possessions.
• 1869 Thomas Edison granted his first patent for the Electric Vote Recorder (U.S. Patent 90,646).
• 1877 Society of American Artists forms.
• 1951 International Cheese treaty signed.
• 1952 Catholic church puts Andre Gides Labor on the index.
• 1974 The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine.

June 1 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1076 Mstislav I of Kiev.
• 1679 Johan Runius, Swedish poet.
• 1858 William Wilfred Campbell, Canadian poet.
• 1879 Freeman Wills Crofts, Irish mystery author.
• 1881 Charles Kay Ogden, English writer and linguist.
• 1882 John Drinkwater, English poet/playwright.
• 1901 John Van Druten, English playwright.
• 1904 Jaroslav Černý, Czech painter.
• 1909 Hans Vogt, Norwegian linguist.
• 1926, Don Draper, of Mad Men.

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

• altricial: /al-ˈtri-SHəl/ adj., (of a young bird or other animal) hatched or born in an undeveloped state and requiring care and feeding by the parents.
• bathetic: /bə-ˈTHed-ik/ adj., producing an unintentional effect of anticlimax.
• goster: /GAW-stuhr/ v., to behave in a rowdy, disorderly fashion; to act boldly or boisterously; to waste time conspicuously especially by talking and gossiping; to laugh uncontrollably.
• lidar: /ˈlī-där/ n., a detection system which works on the principle of radar, but uses light from a laser.
• mandarin: /ˈman-də-rən/ n., a powerful official or senior bureaucrat, especially one perceived as reactionary and secretive.
• obloquy: /ˈäb-lə-kwē/ n., strong public criticism or verbal abuse.  
• pan-loafy: /ˈpæn-loʊ-fi/ adj. (and adv.), affectedly refined, pretentious; posh.
• quomodocunquize: /KWOH-moh-doh-KUHN-kwyz/ v., to make money in any way possible.
• serein: /suh-RAN/ n., fine rain falling after sunset from a sky in which no clouds are visible.
• vatic: /ˈvad-ik/ adj., describing or predicting what will happen in the future.

June 1, 2022 Word-Wednesday Feature
Scripps National Spelling Bee
An annual Word-Wednesday tradition, today we present words from the 2022 Words of the Champions study page. As a simple courtesy to our readers, the twenty-six practice words are presented in alphabetical order, which saves some guessing on the words beginning with X or with Z. As always, these words for readers to practice their spelling skills are presented phonetically, just as the spelling bee participants would hear them, with each word defined. Correct spellings appear at the end of today's post.

• /ˌa-nyə-ˈlä-dē/ n., pasta squares stuffed with a variety of fillings.
• /bä-ˈlä-bəˌlā/ n., a dance in classic ballet performed by the corps de ballet by itself or with the principal dancers.
• /ˌkän-t(y)o͝o-ˈmē-lē-əs/ adj., (of behavior) scornful and insulting; insolent.
• /ˌdü-bi-ˈtan-tē/ adj., having doubts — used of a judge who expresses doubt about but does not dissent from a decision reached by a court.
• /ˌes-kə-ˈbe-CHā/ n., a dish of fish that is fried then marinated in vinegar and spices.
• /fär-ˌfäl-ā/ n., small pieces of pasta shaped like bows or butterflies' wings.
• /ˈɡrad-ə-ˌkyo͞ol/ n., a network of lines representing meridians and parallels, on which a map or plan can be represented.
• /hi-ˈpal-ə-jē/ n., a transposition of the natural relations of two elements in a proposition, for example in the sentence “Melissa shook her doubtful curls”.
• /i(m)-ˈmi-sə-bəl/ adj., (of liquids) not forming a homogeneous mixture when added together.
• /ˈhi-kə-mə/ n., the crisp, white-fleshed, edible tuber of a Central American climbing plant of the pea family ( Pachyrhizus erosus, family Leguminosae ), cultivated since pre-Columbian times and used especially in Mexican cooking.
• /ˌkwäSH-ē-ˈôr-kər/ n., a form of malnutrition caused by protein deficiency in the diet, typically affecting young children in the tropics.
• /lī-'mik-ə-ləs/ adj., living in mud.
• /ˌmær-ən-ˈɡwæ̃/ n., a mosquito, especially a large swamp mosquito.
• /nī-ˈdik-ə-ləs/ adj., another term for altricial.
• /ˈä-blə-kwē/ n., strong public criticism or verbal abuse.
• /pɔːˈwɪɡəl/ n., another name for a tadpole.
• /ˈkwä-kə/ n., a small, short-tailed wallaby with a short face, round ears on top of the head, and some tree-climbing ability, native to Western Australia.
• /ˈred-iN-Gˌɡōt/ n.,     a woman's long coat with a cutaway or contrasting front; a man's double-breasted topcoat with a full skirt.
• /ˌsō-pī-ˈpē-yə/ n., (especially in New Mexico) a deep-fried pastry eaten with honey or sugar or as a bread.
• /ˈti-nē-ənt/ adj., having a clear or ringing quality.
• /yo͝o-ˈro͞o-SHē-ôl/ n., an oily liquid which is the main constituent of Japanese lacquer and is responsible for the irritant properties of poison ivy and other plants.
• /ˈvil-ə-ˌpend/ v., regard as worthless or of little value; despise; vilify.
• /ˈwenz-lē-ˌdāl/ n., a light-yellow, firm-textured cow's milk cheese made in England.
• /ˈzif-ē-əs/ n., a genus (the type of the family Xiphiidae) of large scombroid fishes comprising the common swordfish.
• /ˌyō-sə-ˈnä-bā/ n., a soup consisting especially of seafood and vegetables cooked in a broth.
• /'tso͞oɡ-ˌtsvaNG/ n., in chess, a situation in which the obligation to make a move in one's turn is a serious, often decisive, disadvantage.

From A Year with Rilke, June 1 Entry
Springtime People, from Early Journals

We are no longer innocent; but we must make every effort to become primitive so that we can begin again each time, and from our hearts. We must become springtime people in order to find the summer, whose greatness we must herald.



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.



*a pouch potato.


**
agnolotti
ballabile
contumelious
dubitante
escabeche
farfalle
graticule
hypallage
immiscible
jicama
kwashiorkor
limicolous
maringouin
nidicolous
obloquy
porwigle or porwiggle
quokka
redingote
sopapilla
tinnient
urushiol
vilipend
Wensleydale (must be capitalized)
xiphias
yosenabe
zugzwang