macmcentire

Reading the entire dictionary front to back! Something I’ve always wanted to try. As we get near to wrapping up the letter C, it’s a real cornucopia of words.

.

New words! We all know what controversy is, but there’s an accompanying verb, controvert, meaning to deny or contradict. Then there’s contumacious, meaning “stubbornly disobedient” And contumely, which is a noun and not an adjective, meaning “contemptuous treatment” or “insult.” Words with the con- prefix go on for pages, and a lot of them are negative in nature.

A coroner is a “public official who investigates causes of death possibly not due to natural causes.” That makes them sound kind of cool. The second definition is merely “an officer of the crown,” which also sounds a little cool.

A corset is a “stiffened undergarment worn for support to give shape to the waist and hips.” Interesting that it doesn’t specify female or male. Also nice use of the word “stiffened.”

Would you believe a corvette is not a car? It’s “a naval sailing ship smaller than a frigate,” and “an armed escort ship smaller than a destroyer.”

Time to get technical with coulomb, defined as “a unit of electric charge equal to the electricity transferred by a current of one ampere in one second.” I must admit I can’t picture what this is based on that definition. The internet informs me this relates to Coulomb’s law, about the electrical force between two charged objects. The dictionary chose not to add this.

Part of the amusement of reading the dictionary is how antiquated it often is. But here comes our modern times with Covid-19. This one gets a whole dang paragraph, “a mild or severe respiratory illness that is caused by a coronavirus, is transmitted chiefly by contact with infected material (as respiratory droplets), and is characterized especially by fever, cough, and shortness or breath, and may progress to pneumonia and respiratory failure.” What is the dictionary trying to tell us by using the word “respiratory” three times in one sentence?

Of course we have to see what it says about a cow, which is not just a female bovine, but also “the mature female of cattle of an animal (as the moose, elephant, or whale) of which the male is called bull.” We’re all living in one big cow town.

Cro-Magnon is defined as “a hominid of a tall erect race known from skeletal remains found in southern France and usually classify as the same species as present-day humans.” There are going to be some people who don’t like the idea of the human race originating in France.

More animal fun with cuckoo, a “largely greyish brown European bird that lays its eggs in the nests of other birds for them to hatch.” It’s not an adjective meaning crazy, and there’s no cuckoo clocks in the dictionary.

Cute gets an appropriately cute definition, “daintily attractive, pretty.” But the word also means “clever” and “shrewd.” You’ve got to watch out for the cute ones.

Next: D minus.

* * * *

Want more? My ongoing series THE SUBTERKNIGHTS is back on the Kindle store! A man searches for his missing sister in a futuristic city filled with far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. Only $0.99 or free with KU!

Reading the entire dictionary front to back! Something I’ve always wanted to try. Let’s all have a Coke while we read comics on our computers.

Code has multiple definitions, mostly related to systems and symbols, but it also has to do with a document formed of wooden tablets from the trunk of a tree. Is somebody out there collecting these things?

The dictionary loves animals! A coelenterate is “any of a phylum of radially symmetrical invertebrate animals including the corals, sea anemones, and jellyfishes.”

A coin is obviously a piece of metal used as money, but did you the image on a coin is also named… the coin? I wonder if this gets confusing down at the mint.

Coke is not a soft drink, but “a hard grey porous fuel made by heating soft coal to drive off most of its volatile material.” For the soda, you’ve got to go down on that same page for cola, “a carbonated soft drink usually containing sugar, caffeine, caramel, and special flavoring.”  

Combat has an unusually short definition, either “to fight” or “to struggle against.” Odd that it’s only a verb and not a noun.

Once again the dictionary raises the question of how to define the undefinable. In this case it’s comedy, which gets a very old-timey definition. It’s “a narrative that ends happily,” “a play with a happy ending,” “a light amusing play with a happy ending” (these two definitions couldn’t be combined into one?), “a literary work having a comic theme or comic style,” or “a humorous entertainment.” It’s not until we scroll down to comic for a more telling definition of “provoking laughter or amusement.”

Somebody get Scott McCloud on the line, because it’s time to define comic book. It’s “a magazine containing sequences of comic strips,” which doesn’t strike me as wholly accurate. But then a comic strip is “a group of cartoons in narrative sequence.” Now that strikes me as appropriately McCloud-ish.

Commonweal is short for “commonwealth.” How much time are you saving by dropping the “th” at the end?

To complain is to “express grief, pain, or discontent,” or to “make a formal accusation.” Which of these best describes everyone online complaining about Star Wars?

The dictionary keeps things simple with computer, “a programmable electronic device that can store, retrieve, and process data.” How many years has the dictionary been using this one over and over?

Consanguinity is merely a “blood relationship” with no other details. That’s one for the vampires, I guess.

A constellation is “any of 88 groups of stars forming patterns.” I had no idea there’s only 88 of them. Isn’t space supposed to be endless?

Next: Cow town.

* * * *

Want more? My ongoing series THE SUBTERKNIGHTS is back on the Kindle store! A man searches for his missing sister in a futuristic city filled with far-out tech, strange creatures, and secret magic. Only $0.99 or free with KU!