"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."
Saturday, 8 January 2011
Quidnunc
A quidnunc is a busybody; someone who attempts to know all that happens, but who is not careful of the facts. The word is now out of fashion - a pity!
By using it every time we come across a quidnunc, we could bring the word back into fashion. There have been many other revivals (for instance, the dreaded 80s look has been back for 2 or 3 years already), so, why not this one?
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
That is a pity - the television and magazines are full of them :)
ReplyDeleteBy using it every time we come across a quidnunc, we could bring the word back into fashion. There have been many other revivals (for instance, the dreaded 80s look has been back for 2 or 3 years already), so, why not this one?
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of bringing the use of quidnunc back into vogue!
ReplyDelete