Happy Halloween!

Historical image, Brown Lady Ghost photo. Originally taken in 1936 by Captain Hubert C. Provand (Indre Shire Inc.), and published in the magazine ‘Countrylife’ in the same year – Wikipedia

Whether you’re partying it up, handing out candy, or shutting yourself indoors with some scary movies, I hope that you’re having a wonderful Halloween!  For any readers on the east coast, I hope that Sandy hasn’t caused too much damage in your area and that you’re able to enjoy this day in whatever way makes you happiest!

Now, I don’t know about you, but I am a HUGE fan of Dictionary.com and check out the site (and app) regularly.  They’re a wonderful resource to not only check yourself before you (eek!) improperly use a word in a sentence, but also to learn about the history of words, sayings, and beliefs.  Dictionary.com isn’t just a resource for definitions and synonyms, but also for some very intriguing cultural facts.

With that said, there have been a multitude of Halloween-related specials this week.  Today’s article, What is the precise difference between ghouls, goblins, and ghosts? is definitely worth checking out.  You might THINK that you know the differences, but, well, you might find yourself rather surprised…

And what did I learn today?  Well, I never knew that ghouls found children and corpses so irresistibly delectable.  Yikes!

Happy Halloween!

Fun with Words Friday! Spoony

Spoony: adjective

1. foolishly or sentimentally amorous
2. foolish; silly

Fun with words Friday! Ennui

ennui: noun

a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom.

Fun with words Friday! Macerate

macerate – verb (used with object)

1. to soften or separate into parts by steeping in a liquid
2. to soften or decompose (food) by the action of a solvent
3. to cause to grow thin

Fun with words Friday! extirpate

extirpate – transitive verb

1. to pull by the stem or root
2. to destroy completely
3. to remove by surgery

It was imperative that Harry extirpate Voldemort before Voldemort extirpated the entire world.

Fun with words Friday (on Saturday)! Susurration

 

susurration – noun

1. a soft murmur; whisper

Fun with words Friday! Pandiculation

pandiculation – noun

1. the act of stretching oneself   cats love to pandiculate every chance that they get.

Fun with words Friday! Dystopia vs. Utopia

Nothing says Merry Christmas quite like this – yikes!

 

 

dystopia – noun

1. a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding.

as opposed to…

Nice?

utopia – noun

1. an imaginary island described in Sir Thomas More’s Utopia  (1516) as enjoying perfection in law, politics, etc.
2. (usually lowercase) an ideal place or state.
3. (usually lowercase) any visionary system of political or social perfection.

Fun with words Friday! Apodyopsis

Most of the images that came up were a little too risqué for this blog.  Luckily, I found the above on this Flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ieatglass/5106814354/

I also debated putting up a picture of Molly Ringwald, because, for some reason or another, a picture of her from The Breakfast Club came up in my searches.  While I don’t recall ever mentally undressing her, I did really used to wish that I could dance just like her in that movie.

Happy Friday!

Fun with words Friday! Syzygy

http://psnt.net/blog/2010/04/oh-what-a-beautiful-syzygy/

Syzygy – noun

1. Astronomy. an alignment of three celestial objects, as the sun, the earth, and either the moon or a planet: Syzygy in the sun-earth-moon system occurs at the time of full moon and new moon.
2. Classical Prosody. a group or combination of two feet,sometimes restricted to a combination of two feet of different kinds.
3. any two related things, either alike or opposite.