Wordplay Wednesday™ September 14, 2016 – Sennet | Sennight | Sennit

3-fer: E, I, E, I, Oh! 

It’s Hump Day, and if you don’t have enough confusion in your life … here … let me help!

Pretend this is an Elizabethan drama and I’m heralding the entrance of your Wordplay Wednesday three-fer!

SENNET (senʹit) – n. a trumpet call used as a signal for ceremonial entrances and exits in Elizabethan drama. [WW #77; 3-fer/1]

SENNIGHT (senʹit) – n. (Archaic) a week. [Think seven and night mash-up; WW #77; 3-fer/2]

SENNIT (senʹit) – n. 1) a flat braided material made by plaiting strands of rope yarn; 2) plaited straw, grass, etc. used for making hats. [WW #77; 3-fer/3]

The English language is full of this type of confusion – their identical pronunciations compound our chaos – like we don’t have enough already! 

Homonyms can be harmful to your Hump Day (and the rest of your week)!

Watch your spelling or you could try to ask someone for some plaited yarn (sennit) to weave a fun gift, and end up spending a week (sennight) with them! [Then again … you might sennet (trumpet) the thought!]

Word Challenge: SENNET | SENNIGHT | SENNIT. Hear the herald for you to weave these lovable words into your week of writings!

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

                       

@PenchantForPen

@Irishwriter

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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? ...