Word-Wednesday for November 9, 2022

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for November 9, 2022, the forty-fifth Wednesday of the year, the seventh Wednesday of fall, and the 313th day of the year, with 52 days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for November 9, 2022
November Meteor Showers
As we still see almost three minutes less sunlight per day after the shift from daylight savings time, what better way to take advantage of this seasonal temporal anomaly than to enjoy the night sky?

November 9 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


November 9 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily by 11:00am, usually.


Earth/Moon Almanac for November 9, 2022
Sunrise: 7:28am; Sunset: 4:52pm; 2 minutes, 58 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 5:22pm; Moonset: 8:48am, waning gibbous, 99% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for November 9, 2022
                Average            Record              Today
High             39                     67                    39
Low              20                     -5                    24


November 9 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• World Freedom Day
• Microtia Awareness Day
• National Louisiana Day
• National Scrapple Day
• Feast Day of Benignus of Armagh

November 9 Word Riddle
Where does Christmas come before Thanksgiving?*


November 9 Word Pun
Post-game cake, long a clubhouse tradition for the Mudville Nine, was taken off the menu when new manager Sperb Farquhar made it clear that everybody, including the team’s sluggers, would be called on to sacrifice bundt.


November 9 Walking into a Bar Grammar
A homonym walked into a bar to present a present to all homographs that were present.


November 9 Etymology Word of the Week
forgive
/fər-ˈɡiv/ v., stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake, from the Old English forgyfan, "give, grant, allow; remit (a debt), pardon (an offense)," also "give up" and "give in marriage" (past tense forgeaf, past participle forgifen); from for-, here probably "completely," + giefan "to give" (from Prot-Indo-European root ghabh- "to give or receive").

In On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World, rabbi Danya Ruttenberg notes that the Hebrew language has uses two words to cover this range of this difficult moral act:

In Hebrew, two different words, each with its own shade of meaning and weight, are used in the context of forgiveness. The first is mechila, which might be better translated as “pardon.” It has the connotation of relinquishing a claim against an offender; it’s transactional. It’s not a warm, fuzzy embrace but rather the victim’s acknowledgment that the perpetrator no longer owes them, that they have done the repair work necessary to settle the situation. You stole from me? OK, you acknowledged that you did so in a self-aware way, you’re in therapy to work on why you stole, you paid me back, and you apologized in a way that I felt reflected an understanding of the impact your actions had on me — it seems that you’re not going to do this to anyone else. Fine. It doesn’t mean that we pretend that the theft never happened, and it doesn’t (necessarily) mean that our relationship will return to how it was before or even that we return to any kind of ongoing relationship. With mechila, whatever else I may feel or not feel about you, I can consider this chapter closed. Those pages are still written upon, but we’re done here.

Slicha, on the other hand, may be better translated as “forgiveness”; it includes more emotion. It looks with a compassionate eye at the penitent perpetrator and sees their humanity and vulnerability, recognizes that, even if they have caused great harm, they are worthy of empathy and mercy. Like mechila, it does not denote a restored relationship between the perpetrator and the victim (neither does the English word, actually; “reconciliation” carries that meaning), nor does slicha include a requirement that the victim act like nothing happened. But it has more of the softness, that letting-go quality associated with “forgiveness” in English.

November 9 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1857 Atlantic Monthly magazine first published.
• 1861 First documented Canadian football game at the University of Toronto.
• 1935 Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) labor union forms.
• 1938 Al Capp, cartoonist of Li'l Abner, creates Sadie Hawkins Day.
• 1956 Lou Thesz beats Whipper Billy Watson in St Louis, to become NWA wrestling champion.

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

• 1664 Johann Speth, German composer.
• 1731 Benjamin Banneker, American farmer, surveyor, and author
• 1818 Ivan Turgenev, Russian novelist, poet and playwright.
• 1832 Émile Gaboriau, French writer.
• 1872 Bohdan Lepky, Ukrainian writer and poet.
• 1880 Rudolf Karel, Czech composer.
• 1905 Erika Mann, German-American author.
• 1913 Thelma Hulbert, English painter.
• 1926 Hugh Leonard, Irish playwright.
  
• 1928 Anne Sexton, American poet and Nobel laureate.
• 1929 Imre Kertész, Hungarian writer and Nobel laureate.
• 1934 Carl Sagan, astronomer and author.
• 1937 Roger McCough, British poet.
• 1964 Liam Ó Maonlaí, Irish singer.

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

• alieniloquy: /ˌeɪ-li-ə-ˈnɪl-ə-kwi/ n., an instance of straying from the subject one is supposed to be talking about; rambling or evasive talk.
• epithalamion: /ˌep-ə-THə-ˈlā-mē-əm/ n., a song or poem celebrating a marriage.
• gytrash: /ˈɡaɪ-træʃ/ n., a spirit appearing as a horse or a dog that haunts lonely roads.
• lamia: /ˈlā-mē-ə/ n., 1 a mythical monster, with the body of a woman or with the head and breasts of a woman and the body of a snake, said to prey on human beings and suck the blood of children.
• mic drop: /ˈmīk dräp/ n., an instance of deliberately dropping or tossing aside one’s microphone at the end of a performance or speech one considers to have been particularly impressive; used to emphasize that a discussion is at an end after a definitive or particularly impressive point has been made.
• nescence: /ˈne-sh(ē-)ən(t)s/ n., lack of knowledge or awareness; ignorance.
• proceleusmatic: /prō-sə̇-ˌlüz-ˈma-tik/ adj., inciting, animating, or inspiring.
• saurian: /ˈsô-rē-ən/ adj., like a lizard.
• weltanschauung: /ˈvelt-ˌän-ˌSHou-əNG/ n., 1 a particular philosophy or view of life; the worldview of an individual or group; living cult.
• zabaglione: /ˌzä-bəl-ˈyō-nē/ n., an Italian dessert made of whipped and heated egg yolks, sugar, and Marsala wine, served hot or cold.

November 9, 2022 Word-Wednesday Feature
Color Word Considerations for Writers
/ˈkəl-ər/ n., the property possessed by an object of producing different sensations on the eye as a result of the way the object reflects or emits light. As definitions go, this seems to totally miss the sensual impact and emotional meaning that people experience when seeing color. Today's post explores some words that characterize the way that writers of poetry and fine prose craft the world of color.

Let’s start with the associations between colors and different meanings as used in literature. Red conjures associations with anger, passion, and transgressions. Shakespeare uses red throughout Macbeth, and Hans Christian Anderson writes of Karen’s obsessive, possessed enchantment with her red shoes. Then there's green, where the classic example is from Shakespeare's Othello, Act 3, Scene 3:

O beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.

Other colors and common meanings in literature include:

Orange for warmth, energy, vibrancy;
Yellow for joy, hope, cowardice;
Blue for sadness, peace, despair;
Purple for transformation, royalty, mystery;
Pink for romance, sexuality, femininity;
White for purity, sterility, peace;
Black for danger, power, fear;
Gray for stability, boredom, death; and
Brown for comfort, safety, nature.

Some authors make one color the central theme of a story or poem, where the meaning of the color is unique to that work, such as Alice Walker’s, The Color Purple, where purple means the beauty of nature.

Then consider the ways that colors can appear or be changed by the words that an author uses to designate a plot, setting, mood, character, or other narrative variable:

• cast: /kast/ n.,  a change in appearance or color by adding one color over another; also, multiple senses of assigning, depositing, directing, shaping, spreading, turning, or twisting.
• chroma: /ˈkrō-mə/ n., purity and intensity of color, a combination of hue and saturation, or synonymous with saturation.
• coloration: /ˌkəl-ə-ˈrāSH(-ə)n/ n., the condition of coloring, as in skin tone, an arrangement of colors, or the choice or use of colors. Interestingly, the etymology https://www.etymonline.com/word/color of color has always been linked to the notion of skin coloration.
• colorway: /ˈkəl-ər-ˌwāa/ n.,  any of a range of combinations of colors in which a style or design is available.
• contrast: /ˈkänˌ-trast/ n., the degree of difference in colors or light and dark, or their juxtaposition.
• hue: /(h)yo͞o/ n., color, gradation of color, or the characteristic that distinguishes one color from another.
• pigmentation: /ˌpiɡ-mən-ˈtāSH(ə)n/ n., coloration caused by the presence of a natural pigment, a substance that produces a color (or black and white) in a material.
• saturation: /ˌsaCH-ə-ˈrāSH-(ə)n/ n., purity of color; the state or process that occurs when no more of something can be absorbed, combined with, or added.
• shade: /SHād/ n., a color, especially with regard to how light or dark it is or as distinguished from one nearly like it; a color produced by a mixture that includes black dye or pigment, or a color somewhat distinct from another, or, as a verb, to produce such a color; also, various meanings associated with the blocking or minimizing of light.
• tincture: /ˈtiNG(k)-(t)SHər/ n., synonymous with color, where traces of one color can be noticed in a mixture of colors.
• tinge: /tinj/ n., color spread or stained over another color or, v.,   to spread or stain one color over another; also, a figurative sense of a light touch or effect, or, as a verb, to touch or effect lightly.
• tint: /tint/ n., a pale or slight coloration, or lighter or darker variations of a color, or, as a verb, to produce such an effect.
• tone: /tōn/ n., a quality of color, or a shade, tint, or value.
• value: /ˈval-yo͞o/ n., the lightness or darkness of a color, or the difference in lightness and darkness.

By way of practice, use the following beautiful photographs by Stephen Strom to come up with words that reflect the ways his colors appear.

Last, but not least, some colors simply sound better that some of their kin. Perhaps you wish to customize a setting or a character with a nuanced departure from the common color associations listed above. If so, there are plenty of colors from which you can choose:

Aureolin: /aw-REE-uh-lin/ n., a pigment used in painting, consisting of potassium cobaltinitrite and characterized by its brilliant yellow hue, transparency, and permanence.

Bole: /bohl/ n., any of a variety of soft, unctuous clays of various colors, used as pigments; a medium red-brown color made from such clay.

Coquelicot: /KOHK-li-koh/ n,  a shade of red, originally a French vernacular name for the wild corn poppy, Papaver rhoeas, which is distinguished by its bright red color, and orange tint.

Eminence: /ˈɛ-mɪ-nəns/ n., dark purple color.

Fulvous: /ˈfʊl-vəs/ n., a colour described as dull orange, brownish-yellow, or tawny.

Gamboge: /ɡæm-ˈboʊʒ/ n., a partially transparent deep saffron to mustard yellow pigment.

Harlequin: /'hɑr-lɪ-kwɪnn/ n., a color that is halfway between green and chartreuse green.

Inchworm: /ˈin(t)SH-wərm/ n., a medium light shade of green.

Jasmine: /ˈjaz-mən/ n., a color that is a pale tint of yellow.

Keppel: /keh-pl/ n., a saturated light cold bluish cyan.

Mindaro: /min-DA-rō/ n., a light shade of yellow-green.

Nyanza: /nī-ˌan-za/ n., a very light shade of green.

Onyx: /ON-iks/ n., black, especially a pure or jet black.

Puce: /pyo͞os/ n., an earthy, pale pink that comes from mixing purple, pink, white and brown, from the French word for flea.

Quinacridone magenta: /kwə-ˈnak-rə-ˌdōnn mə-ˈjen-(t)ə/ n., a medium dark shade of pink.

Razzmatazz: /ˌraz-mə-ˈtaz/ n., a rich shade of crimson-rose.

Skobeloff: /ˈskō-bə-lȯf/ n., a moderate bluish green that is greener, lighter, and stronger than porcelain green or sea blue.

Tickle Me Pink: /ˈtik-(ə)l mē piNGk/ n., a light shade of pink.

Ultramarine: /ˌəl-trə-mə-ˈrēn/ n., a vivid blue pigment prepared by powdering lapis lazuli.

Verdigris: /ˈvər-də-ˌgrēs/ n., a green or greenish-blue poisonous pigment resulting from the action of acetic acid on copper and consisting of one or more basic copper acetates.

Wisteria: /wə-ˈsti-rē-ə/ n., a light shade of purple or violet.

Xanadu: /ˈzan-ə-ˌdo͞o/ n., dull malachite green.

Zomp: /zɔmp/ n., a shade of green-cyan.


From A Year with Rilke, November 9 Entry
Arriving at Rodin’s Place in Meudon, from Letter to Clara Westhoff Rilke

He has received me, but that means nothing until I tell you how. Thus: the way a beloved place receives you on your return through many tangled trails. A spring which you sang and lived for day and night while you were gone. A grove over whose leafy canopies the birds cast shadows as they fly back and forth. A path along the roses that never ceased to lead you where you needed to go. And like a great dog did he receive me, recognizing me with peaceable, caressing eyes. And like an eastern god, moving only from within his noble calm, and with the smiles of a woman and the eager hands of a child. And he led me around to see the gardens and houses and studios.

photographer unknown

Caption Contest: What is Rodin saying to Rilke?



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.







*In the dictionary.