Vest-Pocket Vocabulary Refo’cillate, v. to strengthen by refreshment. Word in the Wild: After a long bike ride taken at the zenith of the summer’s heat, Laura and Heather went to the pub, where they ordered pints of ale to refocillate their spirits. This is the perfect word for a perfect summer’s day. I think I’ll […]
Lexical Vexations hoard 1. n. items that have been collected and hidden away. 2. v. to collect things and hide them away. horde n. a large crowd or multitude of people. Words in the Wild: He hid his hoard of laundry change under his dirty clothes because he knew if he didn’t, the hordes of […]
Vest-Pocket Vocabulary Quest’monger, n. one fond of lawsuits. Word in the Wild: Lina set out to become the best kindergarten teacher she could be, but seven years and four lawsuits later she feared she’d become a questmonger, too. According to the OED questmonger dates from at least the late fourteenth century. Now a rare word, […]
Proofreaders’ Marks Maybe caps lock was on. Or maybe the author just got a little carried away, capitalizing anything that seemed remotely important. Either way those capitals need to be lowercased. So how do you mark that on your document? It’s easy: you just use a slash:And you don’t have to worry about your lowercase […]
As part of my ongoing training I’ve been taking courses in Ryerson’s Publishing Program, which have often entailed work on manuscripts and other written documents. But this summer I took an excellent course on the fundamentals of book design and had a fantastic time learning how to design both interior page spreads and covers. For […]
Vest-Pocket Vocabulary Pre’dy, adj. cleared and ready for engagement. Word in the Wild: After a bitter defeat at Scrabble, Seamus poured a belt of Scotch, returned the tiles to their gunmetal-grey bag, and demanded that Louis return to the predy game board for a rematch. The OED tells us that predy was historically applied to ships […]
Lexical Vexations cite v. to refer to a source of information, to attribute others’ work to them in a document. sight n. 1. the perceptual sense that recognizes light and the makes sense of patterns of light in a person’s field of vision. 2. something worth seeing. site n. a physical or figurative place. Words […]
Vest-Pocket Vocabulary Obnu’bilate, v. to cloud, to obscure. Word in the Wild: All too often this summer the obnubilated sun has failed to warm us and brighten our way. Obnubilate can also be an adjective. For example, you might say that your obnubilate mind will clear once you’ve had your morning coffee. Although I, for […]
The invention of Gutenberg’s printing press is leading in the moreintelligentlife.com poll for most the most important event of all time. I think it’s telling that even in this age of electronic publishing, 570 years after its invention, the power and influence of the printing press continues to be so keenly felt. So for those […]
Proofreaders’ Marks Unwanted letters, words, and punctuation can seem to crop up out of nowhere when I’m writing. Sometimes it’s just that I’ve realized I don’t really need that sentence or word, and sometimes it’s my errant fingers typing things without permission. You know, like when you arrive somewhere but can’t remember the drive. In […]