word of the week

kulturkampf - conflict between civil government and religious authorities espically over control of education and church appointments. particularly: the struggle (1871-1883) between the Roman Catholic Church and the German government under Bismarck for control over school and ecclesiastical appointments and civil marriage.

i don't have a sentence for this word, it is way to early in the morning, but i just like the word so much i wanted to share it with everyone.

word of the week

i haven't done this in a little bit so i thought i would bring it back. this week's word is: dirigible.

dirigible - capable of being steered.

so here's my sentence with it: 'though the truck was stalled, it was still dirigible.' not the best sentence but it's 10:30 at night, so cut me a little slack.

the power of words

before i get into my post, i would like to say that i did feel the earthquake last night. it shook my bed and i could hear the whole house groan.


so on to my post. yesterday at work a co-worker comes up to me asks if i knew the difference between mosey, sashay and saunter. now they all sound like they would mean the same thing, but if they really meant the same thing then there wouldn't be three different words.

MOSEY: to move in a leisurely or aimless manner.
SASHAY: to strut or move about in a ostentatious or conspicuous manner. to proceed or move in a diagonal or sidways manner. walk, glide.
SAUNTER: to walk about in an idle or leisurely manner, stroll.

so there are your definitions and each word brings a different visual of how you would do all of those. my co-worker said that he thought to do a sashay you would need to put your hands in your pockets. i will say that a synonym for mosey is saunter. so that is why both of those are closely related. though they are still different words and have different visuals. to me this all just shows the power of words. three different words that are closely related but all mean different things. each word is good at different times when trying to describe something and aren't interchangable. using the right word when writing can make a big difference when you are trying to get your point across.

word of the week

we are going to move away from r words now. lets use this word:

diploma mill -
1. an institution of higher education operating without supervision of a state or proffessional agency and granting diplomas without the usual required courses and attendence.
2. provides a fake degree from a real college.

word of the week

ritornello-
1.an instrumental interlude before or after an aria, scene, etc. in early, esp. 17th-cent., operas
2.a tutti section recurring in a concerto grosso or rondo

word of the week

so as a writer one must use the language in which they write in to convey what they want you to feel (a little obvious i know, i'm getting there).  but when all you have is words, what words you use are important. and in one of my writing books, it has an exercise where you randomly open the dictionary and write down every word you don't know from that page. it's to help build your vocabulary. you would think that you would know a bunch of words, but trust me, there are many that you don't. well, at least i don't. so i thought i would share a word once a week that i didn't know. i've discussed this in a different way in this post. so here's this weeks: rive.


rive: 1) to rend or tear apart
2) to break into pieces, as by a blow; cleave or split asunder.
3) to break or distress.