Wordplay Wednesday™ January 27, 2016 – Cabal

Wordplay Wednesday returns! Happy belated NEW YEAR!

Resolution tip: If contemplating a major move, I would not recommend relocating through the Holidays and into the first of a New Year – what a mess! So everything has been belated since the middle of December.

Back on track, it’s time to resume a New Year of cute, cantankerous, clever and crazy Wordplay Wednesday words. Onward!

Some would say this year’s lineup of political contenders for the 2016 election of United States President is a small group of persons joined in a secret, often political intrigue ... aka WW#44:

CABAL (kɘ bälʹ) – n.: 1) small group of persons joined in a secret, often political intrigue; junta; 2) intrigues of such a group; plot | vi. caballing to join in a cabal; plot. [A little history trivia: popularized in England from initials of the ministers of Charles II].

And you thought I was going to get into a political opinion debate. Nah. Though cabal about fits the scenario, doesn’t it?

Wordplay Wednesday™ July 8, 2015 – CARK: Worry not

Worry not lexicographers … it’s all in how you say it!

Do you wonder why certain words lose popular favor and fall into the “Archaic” category?

Language is mutable and transient by decades, fads, cultures, and eras. Sigh. Nothing ever stays the same. So, what’s changed in your vocabulary?

You're not thinking fourth dimensionally!

Is today’s language making you long for a back to the future trip? There’s a word for that …

Ah, don’t CARK your pretty little head about it … yep, this week’s word is rarely used. Even dear ol’ Webster calls it archaic.

CARK (kärk) – (archaic; vt., vi.) to worry or be worried; n. distress; anxiety. [Worry not!]

Why do archaic words continue to hang out in current dictionaries, taking up space? Good question – Mr. Webster, are you reading this?

For obvious reasons, Noah Webster is one of my heroes. Not only was he the epitome of lexicographers, but he was considered a fringe Founding Father of the United States. (Appropriate for one of this month’s Wordplay Wednesday entries, right?)

A teacher following the American Revolution, Webster abhorred how outdated the school system had become. Children still read primers from England, with books’ text “… often pledging their allegiance to King George. Webster believed that Americans should learn from American books, so in 1783, he wrote his own textbook: A Grammatical Institute of the English Language.” Do you know it by its nickname? ...