Wordplay Wednesday™ October 21, 2015 – Trick-or-Treat!

Six Weeks of Weird Halloween Words ~ Week #5

Are you a Trickster or a Treater?

‘Fess up … do you fling open your door and greet Halloween visitors with feigned amazement at their creative costumes? OR, are you the Halloween Grinch, porch light off, with only the television light flickering in the shadows?

TRICK-OR-TREAT!: traditional greeting used by a Trick-or-Treater; orig. used with the meaning ‘give me a treat or I will play a trick on you!’

Uttered by millions of children masquerading as anything other than a child, Trick-or-Treat! aims to trick a few pieces of sweetness from you. Not particularly weird … but, why do we say it at all? Trick-or-Treat!Smell my Feet! And follow me …

Wordplay Wednesday™ October 14, 2015 – Jack-o-Who?

Jack-o’-Who? What?

You may think my choice for the fourth week of Weird Halloween Words is rather banal and too commonplace to be weird. Au contraire my little chickadees (a French tribute to relatives heading to Paris* this week!).

All About Pumpkins

JACK-O’-LANTERN (jakʹɘ lantʹɘrn): n. a hollow pumpkin cut to look like a face and usually illuminated inside as by a candle, used as a decoration at Halloween.

Few call it a Jack-o’-lantern anymore. That’s really a shame, because Jack-o’-lantern is way more creative and interesting than “Halloween pumpkin” – which we have come to assume is carved.

Using the name, Jack, probably stepped on someone’s politically correct toes, so the term fell out of favor. But what is a Jack-o’-lantern, really?

Wordplay Wednesday™ October 7, 2015 – Ghostly fears

Six Weeks of Weird Halloween Words ~ Week #3

Boo! Did I scare you?

So, do you avoid the den at Uncle Henry’s because you feel the specter of Aunt Phoebe in the room? Do you quake at the thought of apparitions, and literally run through a “cold spot” in your home? You might have … 

Ghostbusters 1984

PHASMOPHOBIA (fas′mō-fō′bē-ă): n. exaggerated fear of ghosts. [Not in Webster’s dictionary, but that just means they can be a bit behind the times. It appears all over the ‘Net! And we know … if it’s on the ‘Net it must be real! LOL]

Spirits and ghosts have existed in another realm (or in your mind – whichever you believe) since the first human died and returned to finish harassing his or her nemesis. Do you believe …?

Wordplay Wednesday™ September 30, 2015-666=9

Six Weeks of Weird Halloween Words ~ Week #2

A Number by any other name is still a Word!

I chose Six Weeks of Weird Halloween Words, because it’s half the value of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” (if that).

Wait – I feel a premonition coming on – I have a Sixth Sense ya know … I predict … sometime between now and Halloween … you’ll visit 6 websites, enjoy 6 beverages, and gab for a half hour on 6 phone calls! Oh nooooooo, that’s 666!! You know what that means …

666: a number variously associated with Satan, the Antichcrist, the emperor Nero, etc. (Rev. 13:18). [A number by any other name is still a Word!]

Yes, our Wordplay Wednesday entry this week is a number, but ooooooh, it spawns so many wickedly delicious words. As the dictionary says ...

Wordplay Wednesday™ September 23, 2015 – HALLOWMAS Saints-Spirits

Six Weeks of Weird Halloween Words ~ Week #1

“Christmas” is preceded by “Hallowmas”?

HALLOWMAS (halʹō mɘs, -masʹ) n. former name for All Saints’ Day. [Think celebrating sainted spirits …if you lived through the night before hell.]

Painting by Guido di Pietro, 15^th century.

How former, you ask? It reaches back to somewhere between 731-741. And of course, All Saints’ Day is November 1, to honor … well … all saints. [Clever.]

Want to get in the mood? Melanie Rigney’s new book, Blessed Are You: Finding Inspiration from the Stories of the Women Saints is especially appropriate; religious or not, Catholic or not, there is excellent life advice to be gleaned from it.

How does Hallowmas make the Weird Halloween Words list? It’s preceded by All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween) on October 31, a night on which the veil between us and the afterlife is particularly thin.

 

Of course, we don masks so the menacing souls on “the other side,” won’t recognize us, as we feast in preparation for the next two celebratory days. Seriously – they won’t know it’s you under that Star Wars: the Force Awakens Kylo Ren helmet-head, or traditionally sexy Bat Girl mask. And then what happens ...?