Word Nerd Wednesday – Page 4 – Fiction Aficionado

Word Nerd Wednesday – Quotidian

Welcome, word nerds! I think it’s time for a round of What do you think it means this week, don’t you? I wish I could remember where I read this word recently, but it was one of those ones that I had to look up (don’t you love it when you get one of those?) Quotidian So, what do you think it means? (a) someone who collects quotes; (b) occurring every day; (c) prolific; (d) possessing a large amount of general knowledge. Think you know the answer? I’d love to hear from you in the comments. I’ll have the answer for

21 February 2018

Word Nerd Wednesday – Falling in Love

Happy Valentine’s Day, reader friends! I thought today might be a good opportunity to look at a phrase that I’m not overly fond of: falling in love. Why am I not fond of it? Well, I’ll get to that in a minute. First I thought it might be interesting to have a little look at why we say falling in love.

14 February 2018

Word Nerd Wednesday – Quidnunc

Greetings, fellow word nerds! I couldn’t resist sharing today’s word after thestoryenthusiast shared it with me in last week’s comments. It paints such a great picture, I think we need to have the English equivalent. The word is: quidnunc. As soon as I looked at the word, my Latin knowledge broke the word into its two obvious parts. quid = what; and nunc = now. Therefore, quidnunc equals ‘what now’. Hmmm…. Didn’t exactly help me work out what the word meant. Was it the Latin equivalent of ‘huh?’ 😆

7 February 2018

Word Nerd Wednesday – Droll

Happy Wednesday, word nerds! A few months ago, I did a Word Nerd post about irony. As I explained then, I’m fascinated by different types of humour—partly because I like to be able to describe humour accurately in my reviews, but also just because it’s a fun subject! Well, last week I discovered a new book that had me giggling out loud. Frequently. In fact, my eldest daughter kept asking me to explain what was going on because she wanted to share in the fun. I’ll be reviewing it as part of a Fast Five Review Roundup tomorrow, but once again

31 January 2018

Word Nerd Wednesday – One

Welcome to my first Word Nerd post for 2018. Since it’s the first post for the year, I thought it apt to look at a related word that has always puzzled me: one. Have you ever wondered why we spell it o-n-e when it’s pronounced wun? Chances are, you probably don’t give it much thought, but if you’ve ever had to teach spelling to young children, I’m sure you’ve had the question asked at least once. And that’s another word. Once. Related to one, obviously, and pronounced along the same lines, and yet only—another related word—is not pronounced wunly. Why is this so?

24 January 2018

Word Nerd Wednesday – Christmas

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël! Frohe Weihnachten! Bon Natale! Buon Natale! Feliz Navidad! However you say it, I send you greetings of the season. 🙂 Today’s word nerd choice was a fairly obvious one: Christmas. Do you know how the word came about? What about the phrase ‘merry Christmas’? Or that dreaded abbreviation Xmas? The word Christmas had its beginnings in the Old English term Cristes mæsse, meaning ‘Christ’s Mass’ (Mass meaning the Eucharist—celebration of the Lord’s Supper or Communion). Pretty straight-forward, huh? Masses specifically commemorating the birth of Christ were celebrated on 25th December as early as the 4th Century AD, but it was almost 1,000 years before

20 December 2017

Word Nerd Wednesday – Thank You

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends! Today’s Word Nerd post is inspired by you. 🙂 “Thank you.” It’s a phrase we use multiple times every day, from the ingrained automatic response when we’re handed our change at the shop, to the overwhelming attempt at expressing deeply felt gratitude when mere words feel so inadequate. But have you ever stopped to wonder how the expression came about? I hadn’t until this morning! 🙂

22 November 2017

Word Nerd Wednesday – Irony

Humour is a funny thing, isn’t it? And believe it or not, I didn’t originally intend for that statement to be a pun! 😁 Like most people, I love a good laugh, but the very same scene that makes me break out into gut-busting laughter may simply draw a raised eyebrow from someone else. Something that has me snickering into my hand may leave someone else scratching their head.

15 November 2017

The power of fiction, the beauty of words, and the God who made us to wield them for His glory.