Sunday 26 April 2015

Some Things Never Change, or, Some Words You Will Probably Never Use

It is always worth it, I feel, to have a dig around in ex library books, opshops and nature strips top look for some literary gems just waiting to be found. If you are in dire need of some knowledge imparted to you today here it is! I will be sharing with you (vous form) from 'A Handbook of Literary Terms' (1950) and then later the 'Penguin Modern Guide to Synonyms and Related Words' (1968). These two are gold in my library and you'll never know when you'll need to impress someone with an excellent word. There are truly so many interesting things out there to find in old (ish) books. That's the upside of hardcopy, you can find insightful things even when you don't know what you're looking for.
 
So! From a random selection from the former verbatim:
 
Crown of Sonnets: A poem consisting of seven interlinked sonnets. The last line of each stanza become the first line of the next. The final line repeats the first.
 
Burden: The refrain or chorus of a song.
 
Encomium: In Greek literature, an ode in praise of a person; now simply any speech or writing in laudatory nature. It is also known as eulogy and panegyric.
 
Malapropism: The use of a word in a wrong context, usually instead of another somewhat similar form.
 
Prolixity: The enumeration of unnecessary facts which obscure the main point, resulting in a tedious style.

Prosody: The science of versification. Prosody includes the rules governing quantity and accent and the analysis of metre.

Verbiage: The use of superfluous words, wordiness, also called verbosity.

And from the latter:

Disfigure: blemish, deface, deform, mar

Flimsy: frail, insubstantial, tenuous

Heedless: careless, incautious, inconsiderate, insensitive, thoughtless

Moron: dullard, dummy, idiot, imbecile, numskull, simpleton

Pseudonym: alias, nom de guerre, nom de plume, pen name

Relinquish: abdicate, cede, renounce, resign, surrender, yield



Now go impress someone. Go!
 

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