Wordplay Wednesday™ October 26, 2016 – Numen

High Spirited for Halloween! 

How many ways can you define “spirit”? So many that its definition takes up three inches in teeny-tiny type in the dictionary!

Of course, this time of year, thoughts go to Halloween and thinning of the veil between the spirit world and the living.

And I’m floating over them with the perfect word to impress your friends at your Halloween party! When you think “spirit” is overused, whip out …  

NUMEN (nōō'mɘn) – n. an indwelling, guiding force or spirit. [WW #83] 

For added spookiness, Words With Friends’ definition: “divine power or spirit; a deity, esp. one presiding locally or believed to inhabit a particular object.”

Crystal balls and Ouija boards, witches’ cauldrons and magic wands, party hearty or nostalgia night, prayer for the dearly departed or feast of fall (bountiful with chocolate!)—however you celebrate Halloween, be sure to put lots of numen into it!

Word Challenge: NUMEN. Make friends with your inner numen and keep it close to you this Halloween! Can you fit more numen into your week of otherworld writings?

 

'Til next time ... cheers to a weird, wonderful "wordful" week …

                       

@PenchantForPen

@Irishwriter

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Wordplay Wednesday™ October 19, 2016 – Tyro

Forecast: High Pressure System with Chance of Clouds!  

By the end of October we begin to move from the unpredictable weather of fall into the even more erratic meteorological elements that dog us through winter.

 

Are you a novice meteorologist, or like most of us, don’t know (or often care) about the difference between cumulus and nimbostratus clouds? (Although the latter sounds kinda kinky.)

 

In view of the extreme weather conditions that may or may not be attributed to climate change or climate control—take your extreme choice—it’s good to know how and when your cumulus clouds could turn into a mind-twisting tornado. To begin …

TYRO (tīʹrō) n. – a beginner in learning something; novice; syn., amateur. [WW #82]

Put on your tyro hat—no, not the pointy one—and explore the world of clouds at Encyclopædia Britannica. Besides peaceful to observe, and great for spotting divine, heavenly animals, cumulus clouds can turn wicked in the right (or way wrong) conditions.

 

And before you say the pretty, puffy cumulus clouds couldn’t possibly be evil, read on dear tyro. According to Wiki: “A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that revolves while in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud.”

Short-and-sweet is my mantra today (or rather tonight, by the time this is posted!) … so that’s our weatherized version of Wordplay Wednesday for this week! After another week or so of “Indian Summer,” we tyros will have an intelligent comment to make in casual conversation!  (Please, no racial complaints—it’s just a term that has been in use for more than two hundred years.)

Word Challenge: TYRO. Remember, there is a difference between stupid and ignorant. The latter means you’re simply uninformed—don’t be the former—learn something new every day! Can you fit tyro into your week of cloudy writings?

'Til next time ... cheers to a wonderful "wordful" week …

                       

@PenchantForPen

@Irishwriter

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Wordplay Wednesday™ October 12, 2016 – Quale

Do You Sense It? Spooky … 

If you play Words With Friends, it’s very likely you (like me) frantically poke at letters to create words you’ve never heard of, hoping to hear the WWF trill of a “good” word. You play it, rarely caring what the hell it means.

In full disclosure (in case you’re about to splash my indiscretion across social media with Donald and Hillary), I clap in glee with these words; but I began this weekly word odyssey for innocent reasons: 1) I wanted to learn the meaning of an unfamiliar word; 2) I wanted to call WWF’s bluff.

Early on in my WWF game days, I quickly discovered their oft-used “fallback” definition blurb “… is a valid Words With Friends word. Sorry, no definition is available at this time!” Uh-huh.

In other words, you’re bluffing dude! Of course, if I played the word … well, ok. Especially if it resulted in twenty points or more! ;-)  Obscure but high-scoring works … but when it isn’t in a common dictionary, I feel just a little guilty … only a little.  

QUALE (kwāʹlē, kwäʹ-; pl. qualia) n. – (Philosophy) a quality, as whiteness, loudness, etc., abstracted as an independent, universal essence from a thing. [WW #81]

Although quale is in the dictionary and often a high-scoring WWF word, after playing it more times than I can count, its unique philosophical qualia finally caught my attention.

 

Consider it the sense datum of your perceptions … or, as we head into Halloween, quale might be a good word to spook the spirit of your psyche. Behold … your eeriness element. Boo!

Word Challenge: QUALE. We talk about our senses often … but do we really think about them? Can you fit quale into your week of ethereal writings?

 

'Til next time ... cheers to a wonderful "wordful" week …

                       

@PenchantForPen

@Irishwriter

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