Word

LI

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

--The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
(trans. Edward Fitzgerald, 1st ed.)

Words beginning with the »sn« sound in English are often unpleasant: snide, snob, snigger, sneer, snicker, snub, snert, snotty, snippy, snit, snarl, snore, sneak, snag. »Snow« is a word over which there is debate and even an annual change of heart. The first snowfall is almost always welcomed. Christmas snow is considered magical. But too much of a good thing for too long and March blizzards push »snow« into line with the rest of the »sn« words.

»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«

Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.

»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«


 – Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
 – An Essay on Criticism [1711], pt. II, l. 109

The >>Word of the Day<< today over at dictionary.com is >>oblation<<.

>>Oblation<< comes from the past participle form of the Latin verb* >>offerre<< meaning >>to bring<<.

So, an oblation is an offering or a gift.

__________
* A Latin verb is traditionally cited by giving four forms, in this case: offero, offerre, obtuli, oblatum.

And then some more words come along and a paragraph is born.

There is a purity in words that cannot be sullied by their use.

Words are the best toys you can give your brain.

Which is more useful to you: a dictionary that tells you how to use a word or a dictionary that tells you how a word is used?

“Be careful what you say—you may have to eat your words.”

I don’t think so much about eating my words as about wearing them. When someone sees me, the words come back to haunt like a miasma around me. No matter how colourful my dress, bad words turn everything grey and muddy brown.

mortar my words
with particles
prepositions
adverbs
and conjunctions

»Therefore« is a word the poet must not know.

(Andre Gide)

'Right again, quite right,' said Mr Swiveller, 'caution is the word, and caution is the act.'

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

(Mark Twain)

»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«

Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled.

»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«


 – Horace (65-8 B.C.)
 – Epistles, bk. I, epistle xviii, l. 71