Word-Wednesday for December 10, 2025

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for December 10, 2025, the twenty-sixth Wednesday of the year, the twelfth Wednesday of fall, the second Wednesday of December, and the three-hundred forty-fourth day of the year, with twenty-one days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for December 10, 2025
Redpoll
The Common Redpoll, Acanthis flammea — in Anishinaabe, ozaawaabineshiins — are small, arctic finches irrupting south into the Wannaskan winters, visiting feeders for seeds like nyjer and sunflower, known for their red caps, black chins, and energetic behavior, often seen in flocks as they forage on birch/alder seeds and can even store food in a special throat pouch to survive extreme cold. Redpoll songs are mainly a combination of their call notes given in a long string, lasting up to half a minute. Redpolls also form vocal, chattering flocks characterized by three main calls: a chatter of several sharp, zapping notes; a nasal, rising whistle lasting nearly half a second, and a rattle or trill that lasts nearly a second - ze-zeze-ze; chich-chich-chich; che-che...che-che-che.

December 10 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


December 10 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for December 10, 2025
Sunrise: 8:07am; Sunset: 4:27pm; 1 minutes, 0 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 11:42pm; Moonset: 12:21pm, waning gibbous, 63% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for December 10, 2025
                Average            Record              Today
High             19                     50                     17
Low               3                    -29                      1

To a Wreath of Snow
by Emily Brontë

O transient voyager of heaven!
⁠ ⁠ ⁠ O silent sign of winter skies!
What adverse wind thy sail has driven
⁠ ⁠ ⁠ To dungeons where a prisoner lies?
Methinks the hands that shut the sun
 ⁠ ⁠ ⁠So sternly from this morning's brow
Might still their rebel task have done
⁠⁠ ⁠ ⁠ And checked a thing so frail as thou.
They would have done it had they known
⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠The talisman that dwelt in thee,
For all the suns that ever shone
⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠Have never been so kind to me!
For many a week, and many a day
⁠⁠ ⁠ ⁠ My heart was weighed with sinking gloom
When morning rose in mourning grey
⁠⁠ ⁠ ⁠ And faintly lit my prison room
But angel like, when I awoke,
⁠⁠ ⁠ ⁠ Thy silvery form, so soft and fair
Shining through darkness, sweetly spoke
⁠⁠ ⁠ ⁠ Of cloudy skies and mountains bare;
The dearest to a mountaineer
⁠⁠ ⁠ ⁠ Who, all life long has loved the snow
That crowned his native summits drear,
⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠Better, than greenest plains below.
And voiceless, soulless, messenger
⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠Thy presence waked a thrilling tone
That comforts me while thou art here
⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠And will sustain when thou art gone

December 10 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Lager Day
• Dewey Decimal System Day
• Jane Addams Day
• International Human Rights Day
• Feast Day of Thomas Merton

December 10 Word Pun

Sven just tried some frog-flavored beer.
He said it could really taste the hops.

December 10 Word Riddle
What word best describes a party composed of the far right and the far left?*

A Chairman Joe original

December 10 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
EGOTIST, n., A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.

    Megaceph, chosen to serve the State
    In the halls of legislative debate,
    One day with all his credentials came
    To the capitol's door and announced his name.
    The doorkeeper looked, with a comical twist
    Of the face, at the eminent egotist,
    And said: "Go away, for we settle here
    All manner of questions, knotty and queer,
    And we cannot have, when the speaker demands
    To be told how every member stands,
    A man who to all things under the sky
    Assents by eternally voting 'I'."


December 10 Etymology Word of the Week
chemistry
/KEM-ə-strē/ n., the branch of science that deals with the identification of the substances of which matter is composed; the investigation of their properties and the ways in which they interact, combine, and change; and the use of these processes to form new substances; the complex emotional or psychological interaction between two people, from circa 1600, "alchemy," from chemist + -ry; also see chemical (adj.). The meaning "natural physical process" is from 1640s; the sense of "scientific study of the composition of material things and the changes they undergo" is by 1788. Chemistry in the European mind disengaged itself from alchemy in the mid-1600s; The Academy del Cimento was established in Italy in 1657, the Royal Society in London in 1660, and the Academy of Sciences in Paris in 1666. The figurative sense of "instinctual attraction or affinity" is also attested by circa 1600, from the alchemical sense.


December 10 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1520 Martin Luther publicly burns Pope Leo X's papal bull Exsurge Domine which demanded that Luther recant his writings.
• 1672 New York Governor Lovelace announces monthly mail service between New York & Boston.
• 1684 Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum (On the motion of bodies in an orbit), is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley.
• 1718 Laurence Eusden is appointed British Poet Laureate under George I.
• 1831 Spirit of the Times, the premier sports journal of the nineteenth century, begins publishing in New York City.
• 1854 Hector Berlioz premieres his oratorio L'enfance du Christ (The Childhood of Christ).
• 1869 Women suffrage (right to vote) granted in Wyoming Territory (US first).
• 1882 Johannes Brahms' choir and orchestra piece Gesang der Parzen (Song of the Fates) premieres.
• 1884 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is first published.
• 1896 Alfred Jarry's play Ubu Roi premieres.
• 1898 The first western pilgrims welcomed at The House of `Abdu'lláh Páshá.
• 1902 Women are given the right to vote in Tasmania.
• 1907 Rudyard Kipling receives the Nobel prize for literature.
• 1909 Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf is the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• 1911 Belgium poet and playwright Maurice Maeterlinck is presented in absentia with the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• 1913 Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore becomes the first non-European to be presented with the Nobel Prize for Literature for "Gitanjali".
• 1922 Spanish playwright Jacinto Benavente is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• 1925 Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• 1946 German/Swiss novelist Hermann Hesse wins the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1959 Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to Sicilian writer Salvatore Quasimodo for his lyrical poetry.
• 1964 Nobel Peace Prize presented to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• 1966 Israeli Shmuel Yosef Agnon wins Nobel Prize for literature.
• 1967 Guatemalan author Miguel Ángel Asturias is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• 1970 Soviet novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn chooses not to claim his Nobel Prize in Literature for fear that the USSR would prevent his return afterwards. Accepts in 1974 after he was deported.
• 2016 Bob Dylan is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

December 10 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1538 Giovanni Battista Guarini, Italian writer,
• 1691 Cornelis Pronk, Dutch portrait painter and cartoonist.
• 1741 Aagje Deken, Dutch writer.
• 1764 Louis-Sébastien Lebrun, French composer.
• 1813 Errico Petrella, Italian composer.
• 1821 Nikolay Alekseyevich Nekrasov, Russian poet.
• 1822 César Franck, Belgian composer.
• 1823 Wilhelm Kuhe, German composer.
• 1824 George MacDonald, Scottish poet and science fiction author.
• 1830 Emily Dickinson, American poet.
• 1868 Louis Victor Saar, Dutch-American composer.
• 1870 Adolf Loos, Austrian post-modern architect.
• 1870 Pierre Louÿs, French novelist and poet.
• 1870 Rudolf Wilhelm Canne, Fries playwright.
• 1872 Johann Babtist Thaller, German composer.
• 1876 Anton Mauve (Jr), Dutch painter.
• 1884 Zinaida Serebriakova, Russian painter.
• 1885 János Hammerschlag, Hungarian composer.
• 1885 Marios Varvoglis, Greek composer.
• 1891 Nelly Sachs, German-Swedish poet and playwright.
• 1893 Walter Rein, German composer.
• 1894 Gertrud Kolmar, German lyric poet and writer.
• 1897 Karl H. Waggerl, Austria writer.
• 1898 Yuri Nikolayevich Libedinski, Ukrainian writer.
• 1903 William Plomer, South African-British author.
• 1907 Michael Blankfort, American writer.
• 1907 Rumer Godden, English author.
• 1908 Olivier Messiaen, French composer.
• 1919 Alexander Courage, American composer of original Star Trek theme.
• 1919 Sven-Eric Emanuel Johanson, Swedish composer.
• 1920 Clarice Lispector, Ukrainian-Brazilian writer.
• 1922 Allen Sapp, American composer.
• 1923 Abelardo Quinteros, Chilean composer.
• 1923 Jorge Semprún, Spanish-French writer.
• 1925 Carolyn Ashley Kizer, American writer.
• 1946 Thomas Lux, American poet.
• 1950 Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Irish pianist.
• 1950 Desmond Hogan, Irish writer.
• 1952 Jitka Štenclová, Czech painter.
• 1955 Jacquelyn Mitchard, American novelist.
• 1982 Zuzana Čížková, Czech painter, sculptor.

Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge 
Write a story or pram from the following words:

• amplection: /am-PLEC-shun/ n., an act of embracing or clasping (literal and figurative); an embrace.
• dubiety: /do͞o-BĪ-ə-dē/ n., the state or quality of being doubtful; uncertainty.
• elutriation: /ē-lü-trē-A-shən/ n., the removal of substances from a mixture by washing and decanting; the separation of finer lighter particles from coarser heavier particles in a mixture by means of a usually slow upward stream of fluid so that the lighter particles are carried upward.
• mingy: /MIN(d)-ZHē/ adj., mean and stingy.
• nithering: /NIDH-uhr-ing/ adj., shivering or trembling, as with cold. Also: that causes a person to shiver; chilling, freezing.
• poody: /POO-dee/ n., a fit of sullen or petulant ill temper; a childish sulk.
• quoin: /k(w)oin/ n., an external angle of a wall or building; a wedge or expanding mechanical device used for locking a letterpress form into a chase; v., provide (a wall) with quoins or corners; lock up (a form) with a quoin.
• vetiver: /VED-ə-vər/ n., a fragrant extract or essential oil obtained from the root of an Indian grass, used in perfumery and aromatherapy.
• vongole: /VÄNG-ɡə-lā/ adj., denoting pasta served with clams and a light sauce of olive oil, garlic, and sometimes tomatoes.
• wain: /wān/ n., a wagon or cart.

December 10, 2025 Word-Wednesday Feature
2025 Words-of-the-Year
The word-of-the-year for 2025 has been posted by the major dictionaries — mostly. Once again, internet communications — such as they are — dominate this list of words-of-the-year. Please submit your selection for word-of-the-year in the comment section.

OED
rage bait: /rāj bāt/ n., Online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media account.

Cambridge Dictionary
parasocial: /per-ə-SŌ-SHəl/ adj., denoting a relationship characterized by a one-sided, unreciprocated sense of intimacy felt by a fan or follower for a well-known or prominent figure (typically a media celebrity), in which the fan or follower comes to feel that they know the celebrity as a friend.

Macquarie Dictionary
AI slop: /Ā Ī släp/ n., digital content made with generative artificial intelligence, specifically when perceived to show a lack of effort, quality or deeper meaning, and an overwhelming volume of production.

Collins Dictionary
vibe coding: /vīb KŌD-iNG/ v., the use of artificial intelligence prompted by natural language to assist with the writing of computer code, i.e., basically, telling a machine what you want rather than painstakingly coding it yourself.

Dictionary.com
6 7

Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Hasn't yet decided.


From A Year with Rilke, December 10 Entry
The Island of Sirens, from New Prams

When his hosts would ask him late in the evening
to tell of his voyages and the perils they brought,
the words came easily enough,
but he never knew

just how to convey the fear and with what startling
language to let them perceive, as he had,
that distant island turn to gold
across the blue and sudden stillness of the sea.

The sight of it announces a menace
different from the storm and fury
which had always signaled danger.
Silently it casts its spell upon the sailors.

They know that on that golden island
there is sometimes a singing—
and they lean on their oars, like blind men,
as though imprisoned

by the stillness. That quiet contains
all that is. It enters the ear
as if it were the other side
of the singing that no one resists.

Ulysses and the Sirens
by John William Waterhouse

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.






*Idiotsyncratic.