Mock Latin Words 3

Mock Latin Words 3

by | Sep 7, 2020 | Word of the Week

Time for the third installment of the Mock Latin series!

Omnium gatherum ~ So technically, this one is only partly “mock.” 😉 Omnium is indeed a Latin word for “of all things.” Kind of like miscellaneous. In the 1520s (this one is OLD!), people came up with the humorous addition of gatherum to put with it, just from the English “gather.” So of course if you gather all things, you end up with a motley collection, which is exactly what this phrase means. =)

Harum-scarum ~ This phrase actually originated in the 1670s as harum-starum. The harum part is taken from the verb “to harry or harrass,” and then the scarum was added mostly just to rhyme. The -um endings are abbreviations of “them,” the whole phrase meant to be a humurous mock-Latin that would quite literally mean “to harrass and scare them.”

 

Two installments left in my Mock series!

 

 

Throwback Thursday – When History Was Tragedy

Throwback Thursday – When History Was Tragedy

by | Sep 3, 2020 | Throwback Thursdays

This week…I am taking a MUCH needed vacation. So I pulled something from the archives to share today. Typically, when I pull an archived post, I pull a Thoughtful post…but this one struck me today. Post first published 8/10/2014.

 

Much of my last week has been consumed by Veiled at Midnight, the next book WhiteFire will put out–and the last one this year, other than my A Soft Breath of Wind. I know I already touched briefly on this in my Word of the Week post, but it bears talking about more. Because oh my goodness. This book…
 
In the first book of Christine Lindsay’s Twilight of the British Raj series, I was introduced to India, with all its vastness, its crowds, its spices and colors and dizzying politics. I got a taste of the British Raj (rule) and what it meant to the Indians, and I met a villain who kept the characters on their toes. In the second book, I learned more about the struggle between the Sikhs, the Muslims, the Hindus, and the minority of Christians. About the sweeping epidemics and the lingering effects of World War I.
 
In this book, I saw a nation destroyed by its cry for independence. I saw neighbor turn on neighbor because of their religion, places of peace become fields of battle. The author, in her historical note, says that low estimates of the number of civilians killed in the riots surrounding the Partition that separated India and Pakistan was 20,000. High estimates are close to 1,000,000.
 
This is not a happy backdrop. It’s tragic, it’s suffocating, and it’s…true.
 
So why do I love the book? For the same reason I usually love a book. Because somehow there’s hope amidst the tragedy. Somehow there’s the power of love–our love for each other and Christ’s love for us–overcoming, here and there, the power of hate. Somehow the characters find their true identities, their true worth, their true strength, when the streets are flowing red with blood.
 
That’s one of the themes of the book, actually. Red. Dassah, our Indian heroine, wanted a red sari for her wedding, because red is the color of Joy. But as violence took over her land, red became associated with blood instead. The color of violence, of death, of tragedy. But then, eventually, another thought occurs. Red is also the color of Another’s blood that was shed, and shed to save us.
 
I didn’t know much about the Partition before I read Veiled at Midnight, but wow, did I learn a lot–in that organic way that has always been why I love historical fiction. I got to meet some historical figures, and I got to view the riots through many sets of eyes, all with different views but a shared love for India, a shared pain at her suffering.
 
Best-selling author MaryLu Tyndall had the right of it when she said, “Rarely do I find a book that touches my soul in such a deep place.” This one’s going to stick with me for a long, long time.
Mock Latin Words 2

Mock Latin Words 2

by | Aug 31, 2020 | Word of the Week

Today we’re continuing our Mock Latin series with a few more totally fabricated, totally joke words that make me smile. =)

Cruciverbalist – Our first word is actually quite new, dating from 1977. If you look at the parts of the word, we have the roots crux which means “cross” and verbum which means “word.” So…yep. Crossword. A cruciverbalist is someone who creates crossword puzzles! How fun is that?!

Olde – Okay, this isn’t mock Latin per se, but it is mock-archaic. Did you know that this form of “old” was totally made up in the 1880s?? I had no idea! But yep, olde was never actually a spelling of old. People came up with it solely to be cute while imitating archaic spellings.

 

Installment three will come next week!

Big, God-Inspired Dreams

Big, God-Inspired Dreams

by | Aug 27, 2020 | Thoughtful Thursdays

I’m a dreamer.

I’ve always been one. I’ve dreamed of everything from being a princess with a magical winged unicorn to being a teacher who inspires kids to love learning. I’ve dreamed of discovering new species of dinosaurs and of striking it rich with a diamond mine hidden on my property.

I’ve dreamed of writing books for a living. Of getting married and starting a family.

I dream of making a difference in the world.

If you were to listen in on the conversations my husband I have during the course of a normal week, you’d realize we’re still both big dreamers. We dream of growing our publishing company, of starting a film company, of traveling the world telling stories. We dream of being the hands and feet of Christ, of inspiring others to dig deeper, to #BeBetter, of joining together to change our culture. We never want for dreams.

We’ve both been reading Dream Big by Bob Goff the last couple weeks and have been loving it–because Mr. Goff puts words and actionable steps to what we’ve always been trying to do, and to inspire others to do. To know who you are, to know where you are, and to know where you’re supposed to be going.

This requires self-awareness…and it also requires vision. It requires never being content with where you are NOW, but instead always looking toward where you’re going. Because we’re never called to a stagnant life, right? We’re called to go. We’re called to walk worthy of our calling. We’re called to act.

But how do we know what we’re supposed to do? Where we’re supposed to go?

Well, you can read Dream Big to get a more thorough explanation, LOL, but as I was pondering how we know which dreams are worth pursuing…which dreams are inspired by the Lord…I remembered a line from Hannah Currie’s Heart of a Princess. Toward the end of this amazing book, the heroine has this epiphany:

It wouldn’t be a God-dream if you could do it alone.

I wrote that down on a sticky note when I read it, because it’s something I know is true, but something I sometimes forget.

God rarely ever calls us to a totally solitary path. The dreams He instills in us are meant to be shared with others. To be built with others. To be sought and lost and cried over and rebuilt with others. Because ultimately, He isn’t out to build a person here and a person there–He’s out to build a Church, a Kingdom.

We all have dreams small and large, silly and serious, material and eternal. How do we choose which ones to pursue? The question I’m going to be asking as I look at each of mine is, “How can this help others? How can this build community?”

The fun thing is that as I view things through this lens, I’m starting to get ideas for how to take the humdrum and turn it into something that can impact other people. Have you always dreamed of owning a hot rod? Maybe you could use it to give rides to underprivileged or ill children (or adults!). Do you love to collect books? Maybe you could start a Little Library in your neighborhood and fill it with titles that could touch hearts. Do you love to bake? Maybe (when the world isn’t pandemic crazy) you could make it a point to take something to a neighbor once a week.

What’s a dream you’ve always had that you’ve been waiting for “the right time” to chase? Or given up on? What’s a dream you’re chasing now?

How can you make it lasting and impactful? How can it help others to #BeBetter?

Mock Latin Words 1

Mock Latin Words 1

by | Aug 24, 2020 | Word of the Week

After looking at circumbendibus last week, I decided it would be fun to do a series on Mock Latin words ~ words deliberately made up to sound like Latin even though they’re not. Since they’re completely fake, LOL, the etymology on these isn’t very long, so I’m going to just feature a couple in each post for a few weeks. =) Not much history to learn about them, but fun words to work into a conversation!

So here’s our first installment.

Boxiana – created in 1819, this word has to do with fighting/boxing and is meant to mean “the lore and annals of prize-fighting.” I can just imagine Regency gents talking about boxiana, can’t you?

Crinkum-crankum – this one almost sounds like a Harry Potter-esque magic word, doesn’t it? LOL. But in fact, it’s mock-Latin for “anything full of twists and turns; a winding or crooked line.” This word was created in the 1760s and is just so much fun to say that I’m going to have to make it a point to start using it. 😉 Or if it’s too much of a mouthful, you can shorten it to…

Crankum – This shorter form means “a twist” as per the word it’s shortened from, but it can also mean “an eccentricity.” Crankum dates from the 1820s.

 

Come back next week for the second installment!

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