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Focusing on Words Newsletter #8

A newsletter that will enhance your English-vocabulary knowledge and skills!

Experience the wonder of words by focusing on the Latin and Greek elements used in English. This newsletter is produced whenever time can be found; so, there is no regular schedule.


Your Senior Scribe is busy trying to file more documents into his miscellaneous files.


“Education is not a product: mark, diploma, job, money—in that order; it is a process, a never-ending one.”

—Bel Kaufman, 1967







The four greatest risks to your mental health:

1. Excessive consumption of television.
2. Neglect of reading challenging materials.
3. Lack of stimulating conversation.
4. Avoidance of challenging word (vocabulary) acquisitions from a variety of perspectives.

It’s not what you get, it’s what you keep that counts!


— John Rayoa

Table of Contents

Palindromes activity
Sesquipedalian Challenges
Logical Sequence Activity
Educational Sources
Golden-Oldies Poems
Links to all newsletters.
Access to Search Areas
E-mail Form newsletter@wordexplorations.com


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Palindromes

Any word or name that is spelled the same forward and backward is called a palindrome (from Greek palindromos, literally “running [back] again”) [palin = “again, backwards” and dromos = “course”].

Such words as “madam” and “sees” are examples of palindromes.

There are many common English words that fit the category of palindromes. Below are ten definitions of such words followed by a number in parenthesis that indicates how many letters there are in each English palindrome.


See how many of these “everyday” words you can solve.
  1. A notable achievement; a feat or exploit. (4)
  2. Even; not sloping. (5)
  3. More blood-colored. (6)
  4. Twelve hours after midnight. (4)
  5. Males and the females; genders. (5)
  6. One who resuscitates another. (7)
  7. To peek; to peer through a crevice. (4)
  8. Pertaining to public affairs, or to a city. (5)
  9. Made wet with dew. (5)
  10. To blow, as a horn, in rapid blasts. (4)

The above palindrome answers are available at solutions.


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“A dictionary is merely the universe arranged in alphabetical order.”

“The finest words in the world are only vain sounds if you cannot comprehend them.”

-Both quotes are from Anatole France


“Emotional outbursts do need to be properly scripted, and I find that the impromptu, in particular, requires prior practice.”
-Matthew Parris, former member of the British Parliament,
who was criticizing the current state of British oratory.


“The vocabulary of science and medicine is the language of Greece and Rome. Lack of knowledge of Greek and Latin roots hampers the mastery of scientific terminology.”
-Dean John Pomfret


“To be a power one must know how to use language; and how can you place words together unless you know their derivation and their real meaning?”
-Henry Kraemen


“Words play an enormous part in our lives and are therefore deserving of the closest study.”
-Aldous Huxley

Sesquipedalia Verba or Sesquipedalians

A reference to the use of long words; especially when verbal construction utilizing less amplification might represent a more naturally efficacious phraseology and as a result, verba obscura.

The following are easy compared to over thirty other verba obscura sesquipedalians that are available at the (much larger) Latin-Greek Cross References search dictionary.

This unabridged version of the Latin-Greek-English Cross-References search dictionary may be accessed by going to Cross-References Search.

Enjoy your play with words by translating these into their “simple-English proverb” forms.

  • Verba Obscura #1

    Those of deficient intellect usually press forward where members of the heavenly host dread to venture.

  • Verba Obscura #2

    The time to smite the ferrous metal is when it is at a super thermic temperature.

  • Verba Obscura #3

    A vociferous domesticated carnivorous animal belonging to the genus Canis generally is not prone to put his dental equipment to use.

  • Verba Obscura #4

    The feathered creature that appears before the usual time captures the small, creeping, legless animal.

  • Verba Obscura #5

    The upsetting of a container of a white, nourishing fluid does not call for expressions of bereavement.

  • Verba Obscura #6

    Conduct a careful survey before you commit yourself to a springing, forward movement.

  • Verba Obscura #7

    It is one thing to conduct a hooved, four-legged animal to a colorless and odorless fluid but it is another matter to force it to imbibe.

  • Verba Obscura #8

    It is impossible to create a small money receptacle made of a soft, tenacious thread from the auricle of a female porker.

  • Verba Obscura #9

    The Creator lends valuable assistance to those who practice self-aid.

  • Verba Obscura #10

    An intermixture or succession of different things seasons and flavors a person’s existence.

The translations of the “verba obscura” are located at this sesquipedalia page.

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Test of “Fact and Logic” Activity

A fun way to see if you are paying attention. This activity consists of simple questions with tricky answers and may be found by going to Logical-Challenge Quiz.




Do You Like “Golden-Oldies Poems” and Significant Quotations?

This site should be of interest to you. Visit Best Clips for some hard-to-find materials.

This Web site has some of the very best of poems with exceptional messages that we don’t see very often anymore:

The first poem is at Best Clips. For example, the poem titled Richard Cory is about a man who was thought to “have everything going for him”. The ending is a shocker.

There are also links to other poems: “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert Service; “If” by Rudyard Kipling; “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley; “I Have a Rendezvous with Death” by Alan Seeger; “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost; and ESPECIALLY: “The Ballad of Salvation Bill” by Robert Service which presents,“A smoker in agony and his desperation to satisfy his nicotine fit.”

“The Ballad of Salvation Bill” was written before 1958 which was before antismoking became a popular trend. Don’t miss this one! You can not help but laugh and and have sympathy for the main character at the same time.

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