What colour is a verdant vesture?
It’s the same colour as a verdant pasture and a verdant forest. Verdant ultimately derives from the Latin word viridis, which means “green”.
So a ‘verdant vesture’ is a garment of green colour.
Because vegetation is green the word verdant has taken on the meaning of vegetation. Verdant fields may mean they are green or that they are lush with vegetation. Hence we sometimes see people talk about the verdant greenery, or the verdant, green jungle undergrowth. In such cases the sense of lush vegetation has displaced the notion of ‘green’ and so the word ‘green’ is also inserted.
The Irish, at least those who aren’t Orange, spend at least one day of the year clad in verdant array. The Irish wear green to celebrate St Patrick’s Day.
Logophile – A spot test
How good is your command of English words?
Here are a few questions about words which you have probably heard. Do you know what the words mean or where they come from? Answer all the questions before checking your answers. Note your answers. I will post the answers, one each day for a week – so you will have reviewed them all in a week’s time. If I have piqued your interest to do your own word searching that’s fine too.
What colour is a verdant vesture?
From whom would one normally expect an afflatus?
To what does halcyon best refer?
Which sense identifies what is canorous?
Where will you most easily find a maelstrom?
Where is xenophobia normally directed?
Which substance is behind the word aplomb?
Be sure to get the answers sent to you by clicking the link on the lower left of the blog page, to get these posts sent to you by email.
Learning – extra 3 R’s
You’ve heard of the 3 R’s – Reading, Writing and ‘Rithmetic. That’s the junior school learning that we all have to undergo. But once we’ve moved on from the first 3 R’s there’s an extra 3 R’s that enhance our learning. Many of the posts on this blog site have the extra 3 R’s in mind.
The extra 3 R’s are: Reasoning, Repetition and Recall.
Reasoning is the ability to think clearly and to see through the bluff and guff that is thrown at us all the time. If a person cannot reason well they will fall prey to the mind games and delusions of others. This site helps you reason things out by presenting clearly stated Biblical and other insights in a simple and reasoned manner. You don’t have to agree or disagree with what is posted, but the posts will stimulate your thinking and help you foster good reasoning processes.
As an instinctive teacher, Repetition and Recall are favourites of mine. Long ago I discovered that the way to master things and to lock them away for long-term access involves hearing things multiple times (that’s where Repetition comes in) and being prompted to bring something back from the back our your mind (that’s the Recall component). Good exam preparation, for example, should involve repetition, but also test questions that force the student to recall what they have learned. Spot quizzes, revision questions and similar tests are great for recall.
As I prepare various posts I am naturally inclined to remind you of things that I may have not spoken about for a while. That process prompts both repetition and recall. With the logophile, vocabulary subject, I’d like to get you doing some daily repetition and recall. The same goes for the church history posts.
That’s why I recommend that you subscribe to the daily email service built into this blog. Click the link on the lower left of the homepage and subscribe to receieve an email each time a new posting is made. Those frequent repetitions and reminders will be part of your on-going learning experience.
You’re never too old to keep learning and growing – so activate those extra 3 R’s by subscribing to the email feed of this blog.
Logophile Mania – Fighting Words
Having introduced you to my interest in words I now offer a rather over-the-top collection of verbal bric-a-brac. The only purpose is to put a few lesser known words into a sentence of two in the hope of getting something of a grip on the terms themselves.
For the sport of it, see how many words you would not need to look up to be sure to use them correctly.
Here ’tis:
“Though I am a crapulous dilettante and ignorant parvenu with no virtu, I will with alacrity provide munificent titivation to this apothegm (or is it a pablum?) with some salutary simulacrum of the ululation of an aubade.
Though this is outside my métier please do not be a hortatory martinet but show benignant acceptance of my rebarbative panoply of fustian. If you, as a cognoscente, deny me fulsome acclaim and force me to rusticate in the desuetude of my métier I will seek equipoise through aspersions cast at your turgid and otiose persona. I will attack your cupidity with every appurtenance at my disposal. I will not derogate from this execrable objective until I remove every patina around you and expose you as a harridan, and defenestrate your reputation with edacious cupidity.”
Logophile – Nehemiah Story
A logophile is a lover of words – so posts with this label will involve discussion of vocabulary, word meanings and the like. I guess I’m a logophile, as part of my modest poetic inclinations. I like evocative words and turns of phrase which convey much in a short phrase. I like catchy titles, alliteration and fancy permutations of well-known expressions.
My friend, Ray, in Dallas, put me on to Dictionary.com and I have received their daily word definitions for several years. What I found missing, however, was the opportunity to apply the words I was being presented with. I find it easier to learn and remember things in packages, than as discrete pieces of information. So I created the occasional bizarre collection of words to have an excuse for applying them.
Now, Nehemiah, a 500BC leader of the Jews as they resettled in their homeland after 70 years of exile, was not known as a word lover. But I decided to create a short summary of the situation he faced as an excuse to bring a few less frequently used words into a package. There is nothing particularly intimidating about my word choice here, so I am using it simply to tune you in to my logophile activities. You may like to reply to this post, with your own extensions and expansions on the starter text I now present.
Here ‘tis:
“Under what aegis and whose imprimatur did Nehemiah defy the concatenations of Sanballat and Tobiah who lambasted his ambitions? It was not that of the Persian kings, Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, who are but mere mortal minions to him in whose tutelage he stood.
The chimera of obstruction stayed him not, much to his nettlesome opponents’ chagrin.
His own amanuensis, he recounts the duel, his perdurable spirit and his ultimate triumph.
Audaciously he declares that God, Himself, blessed all he did and gave the copasetic outcome.”
Now, if you are so inclined, send me a reply with your own obtuse choices inserted.