"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."
Sunday 17 October 2010
Hippogriff
The hippogriff is a mythical creature with an eagle’s head, claws and wings, and a horse’s body.
It was also the name I gave to my first motor scooter - a 90cc Vespa on which I used to ride from Liverpool to London on a Friday night after work and return on Sunday evening. I'm not sure I'd want to do that in my comfortable modern car these days!
My daughter Helen commented in November 2008 in her Blog that she was now keeping a notebook of new words that she came across during her reading. "This week I bought a lovely little leather bound book to write new words in as I read them . I've added a few from "1984", but my favourite has to be persiflage (from the French persifler) which means banter." I later discovered that my older daughter, Bryony, also kept a similar notebook.
This inspired me to create a Word blog. This will include both new words, favourite words and the origins of phrases that we commonly use. A definition and some comment, perhaps even a relevant quotation, will acompany the word or phrase.
“I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me.” - Winnie the Pooh
It was also the name I gave to my first motor scooter - a 90cc Vespa on which I used to ride from Liverpool to London on a Friday night after work and return on Sunday evening. I'm not sure I'd want to do that in my comfortable modern car these days!
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