Word of the Week

The other day I was looking up "war zone," and in so doing came across some interesting tidbits on zone. =) The noun dates to the late fourteenth century, coming directly from the Latin zona, which means "a geographical belt, celestial zone." The Latin in turn comes...

Well, we just got back from a trip to Texas, and I'm still in get-situated-back-at-home mode, so this will be a short one. =) But last week I had to look up when grandfather clocks came to be called grandfather clocks (can't believe I even thought to question that...

Last week I had the pleasure of going over edits of Ring of Secrets with my awesome editor, and she proved her awesomeness by discovering some words I hadn't thought to look up but which were way too new for my 1780-set book. One of the most surprising is lowlife. It...

Waaaaaaaaay back in 2006 when I started submitting a historical manuscript, I had an editor respond saying that some of words were too modern. Like "whatnot." Now, I won't argue that some of my words were indeed too modern. But that she chose that one as an example...

It was a long time ago at this point that my daughter asked me why it was called a neighborhood. At the time, I said something like "Uh . . . well . . . um . . . I don't know. Why do you think?" We came up with a nice, totally fabricated story about the houses all...

One of my all-time favorite Simpsons moments is when the quack doctor, Dr. Nick Rivera, insists when a flaming ring lands on a tank of laughing gas (I think it is...), "Don't worry. It's inflammable." and is  promptly exploded. To which he replies, "Inflammable...

My 4-year-old boy just decided to take the wheel of their little mini John Deere Gator the other day, so you can imagine my inspiration for this week's word. 😉 Reckless is one of those that always confused me as a kid. I mean, why was it reckLESS when you were...

This weekend we had a great time with our out-of-town visitors, my friend (and fellow WhiteFire author and editor, and critique partner) Dina Sleiman and her husband. So in the spirit of enjoyable company, I thought I'd look at the word. 😉 Sine the mid-12th century,...

Since it's Memorial Day, I thought I'd take a look at some appropriate words. =) I know I did "memorial" last year, though, so today we're going with "veteran." I was a bit surprised by how old this one was for some reason. Since 1500 it has carried the meaning "old...

An unexpected cold front and winter storm system is moving through the mid-atlantic--we're only getting rain here, but a few miles to the north and up a few mountains, they're supposed to get a foot of snow. Yikes!  But of course, that means it's the perfect day...

Last Friday I journeyed with the kids, my sister's family, and my parents to the Pittsburgh zoo. We had a great time seeing all the animals, and even the car ride was fun (over two hours away). On the way home, somehow or another we got talking about food, and Xoe...

Since it's Holy Week, I thought I'd try to find a word that looked forward to the path that Jesus walked in these next few days--and I knew "Easter" had some background, so it was the winner. 😉 When Anglo-Saxon Christians first started celebrating the Mass of...

Gotta say, I love the word "balderdash." (Though I have a hard time 'hearing' the word without imagining a top-hatted English gentleman huffing it in an upper-crust accent, LOL.) And it has a long history with the English language. =) Balderdash came into English...

Schedule. It's something we use every day. A time table we keep. An action we perform daily for things like, oh, blog posts. 😉 As both a verb and a noun, it's a word in such common use that I was shocked to discover it didn't take on that oh-so-known meaning until...

"Thank" seems like a pretty basic word, right? It's obviously been around for a while. Say, as long as manners. 😉 Still, there's been some interesting evolution of the word! Interestingly, "thank" and "think" share a root--"thought, gratitude" is the meaning of the...

What a striking figure. No, not that lady over there, the one I figured out for the math problem. Go figure, right? I know, I know--it's just a figure of speech. 😉 Figure obviously has a lot of meanings, both as a noun and as a verb. It entered the English language...

There's little I like more than realizing a word in common use today has come to mean the opposite of what it once did.  Snob is definitely one of those words. It appeared in English from some mysterious place, and scholars aren't sure of its origins--just that...

You get two for the price of one today. =) I can't tell you how many times in historical writing I have the urge to use the word "finagle." You know, like She finagled him up the aisle. Or He finagled his way out of it. Something to convey some tricky footwork, so to...

Cool. It could be argued (successfully, I think) that cool is a word that not only gets used, but over-used. It's the word we use to mean someone is hip, fashionable, or has that certain something that sets them apart as desirable. Or, spinning off that, it's the word...

This ranks as one of those "who'd a thunk?" late arrivals to the English language. Not in every sense, of course, but I think you'll be surprised by some of the years on this! Okay, so "show" as in act or performance is as old as you might expect, coming from the...

As usual, my word of the week comes from last week's writing experience. =) My heroine has just spent weeks preparing a performance, which went off without a hitch. Her father comes up and says, "You were a . . ." Sensation is what I want to say. But that sounds a bit...

My husband has been asking for months and months, "When's my vacation?" Working for himself as he does, he can rarely take a day off. This weekend we traveled a few hours to visit friends for a birthday celebration, and we looked at it as a mini vacation. Which of...

It's the first Monday of 2012, and though we may not all make resolutions, I imagine many of us are thinking about what we want to do differently this coming year, and what we won't want to budge on. We're embracing the idea of a fresh start in some areas and...

I know, I know--what a strange, bizarre word of the week. And now y'all are probably wondering what I got into this weekend! 😉 Actually, it comes up because I'm a cruel author who just seriously injured her hero. I need him to be out of it for a while so said, "Hmm,...

I like the word "kid." I use it with my children (do you know how hard it was for me to write that sentence without using the word "kid"? LOL), I use it for jests. It's a standard part of my vocabulary. But I'll never forget the substitute teacher in high school who...

I've given Halloween a lot of thought since having kids, have debated it and pondered, have looked up its history and tried to decide where I come down on it. Inevitably, I come to the conclusion that, like a Christmas tree or the face of Jesus most often used (stolen...

Yesterday in the car, I looked out at the bright blue sky and had a Mr. Roger's moment--I started singing "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" and my daughter asked, "Why's is called a neighborhood? Does it have anything to do with the hood of a coat?" I'd never...

It's always baffling when I think to look up a word that I take for granted and realize that it's a relatively new addition to the English language. I had this experience with the words fiancee/fiance a couple years ago, when I first began writing Love Finds You in...

It's that time of year again. The leaves are turning colors, the weather is turning cooler, and the pumpkin vines are taking over my yard. Okay it's the first year we've planted pumpkins, so this is a first--and a lesson to us on where NOT to plant them next year!...

My word of the week is "holiday," not only because today is Labor Day, but because this week all my posts are going to be gearing up toward 9/11. Which isn't an official holiday, I know, but I think for all of us it's a day of remembrance. "Holiday" is a fairly...