"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."
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Moil
Moil is another old-fashioned word - it means to labour; to work hard; to churn; or be agitated. So I guess if you were turning your butter churn vigorously you could be moiling at moiling the butter!
I have been moiling non-stop since October and desperately need a holiday... but at the moment, there is no way I can plan anything since I am on the job hunt and have no idea where and when I will start somewhere new (where, hopefully, I won't have to moil so much for so little money).
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
I have been moiling non-stop since October and desperately need a holiday... but at the moment, there is no way I can plan anything since I am on the job hunt and have no idea where and when I will start somewhere new (where, hopefully, I won't have to moil so much for so little money).
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