There are a few words that get on my nerves and leave a bad taste in my mouth. No, “bitter” is not one of them. But the one word I really hate? The one I absolutely detest?
It’s the one I can’t remember.
The one that gets stuck on the tip of my tongue and I just can’t spit out.
Like the one I couldn’t remember tonight. It’s the word(s) for the old stripey colored thing you used to get on the TV when there was an emergency or when the station went off for the night. You know. The thing. The … coloured thingy.
(Do you remember what it’s called? I’ll tell you at the end of the post. Because if I had to suffer, so will you. Haha.)
Stephen King said once, or maybe a million times, that writers should never use a thesaurus. I’m sure at the time he said it he never had a word he couldn’t remember, because that’s a good 99% of the only use I have for one.
I’m not looking for a better word. I’m looking for THE word.
Photo: A new lawn being laid with a hoe, held by someone out of the picture, evening out the soil to roll out a roll of sod on top of it. Caption reads: “Am I the only one whose eye puts an N between the W and the M whenever they read the word “lawmaker”?”
If you would like to participate in this prompt, feel free to use the âOne-Liner Wednesdayâ title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post, and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday youâre pinging back to is this weekâs! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.
NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If youâre self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.
As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. Itâs bound to be short and sweet.
Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so thereâs no need to stick to the same âtheme.â
The rules that Iâve made for myself (but donât always follow) for âOne-Liner Wednesdayâ are:
1. Make it one sentence.
2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.
3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.
4. Add our lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!
As I sat down to write this post, I realized that my job is basically a game of “spot the difference.” Because what is editing if it’s not finding things that are not what they’re supposed to be? On one hand, you have a tpyo, and on the other hand, you have the dictionary. The word is “typo.” Spot the difference!
And for this I spent thousands of dollars in school fees and hours upon hours of studying. HA!
Speaking of words, have you ever noticed how many four-letter words you can spell out of the letters S-P-O-T?
Sitting on the couch, writing this and eating chips, it occurred to me that if I put a chip on the seat beside me, it would literally be a couch potato.
Couch–such a versatile word. As a verb it can mean how you phrase or word something … how you couch it.
The advice goes that if you want to write a book, you’ve got to get your butt in the chair.
But I sit on the couch to write.
Which means I can couch it “get your butt on the couch.”
Which is what I’m doing now: writing with my couch potatoes.
Inch is one of those words that, if I look at it too long, it stops making sense.
Inches are the only thing that make sense to me when I’m measuring height. Of course, if I don’t want to do math, feet are important too.
I just realized why my 12 times tables were so important in school. Are they still? In countries other than the U.S., that is.
I’d rather measure snow in inches–four inches sounds much better than ten centimetres.
Inches are about as far away I am from going to bed after a very busy day.
Inch is the prompt word for today, brought to us by John Holton. Thanks, John! Here’s the link to his “inch” post. Drop by and say hi to him, if you haven’t already!
“Enigmatic” is, for some reason or another, one of those words I always mix up the meaning of. I don’t know why, but I keep thinking it means the same thing as “charismatic.” Yeah, I know the word “enigma” is right there, plain as day. And I know what that means.
‘Tis a mystery. đ
I enjoy writing both enigmatic and charismatic characters. The combination of the two absolutely delicious. A tall, dark, handsome, and mysterious Prince Charming to whisk away the princess and give her the happily ever after she’s always desired.
Rarely does real life work out that way though, does it? The enigmatic prince ends up hiding his feelings until the princess wants to rip her hair out. Not so romantic.
Nah, I prefer living vicariously through my characters these days. Far less messy.
The closest book to me when I sat down to write this was my own. Since I’m not ready to start quoting myself in any shape or form, I decided to go with the next-closest book–my trusty old thesaurus. Yes, I know Stephen King says don’t use one when you’re writing, but in my defense, I only use it when I have a word on the tip of my tongue that I know what it means but I can’t quite spit it out onto the screen.
Which is a good thing, because my screen would be DISGUSTING! So my thesaurus is there to save my laptop, plain and simple.
You’re welcome for the visual.
Bite me, Stephen King.
…
No, don’t.
ANYwhoo, where was I?
Oh yeah. The word I pointed to.
Ghost.
That’s actually the main word, but the actual word I pointed to under the word “ghost” was either “phantasm” or “semblance.” I’m not sure which one it was: I either have fat fingers or the print is small. Let’s go with that last one.
On the surface, these two words seem to have nothing to do with one another. I’ve always loved the word “phantasm.” It sounds to me like an extra-exciting way to say “ghost.” Maybe it’s the “ph” sound … that, for me, has always made for an interesting way to spell things.
Fun fact: when I was a teenager, I wanted to call my firstborn child “Phred.”
Anyway, the word “phantasm” should be in the news more at the moment, what with that woman who claims to be engaged to a ghost …
Yeah …
So! “Semblance.” Anyone? Let’s look it up in Merriam-Webster.
Who knew? I certainly didn’t before this morning. I love the word “apparition,” too.
Here’s a song by Canadian, Matthew Good.
Okay, wanna hear something really weird?
Of course you do.
I took the time to listen to the song (because I love it) and while the screen was black I could see the reflection of the screen in my glasses with the black rectangle in the reflection, making it seem like I was
This post that I’m slightly self-conscious (ha!) over now is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday. (I MADE IT ON TIME! GO ME!) If you’d like to join in the fun and read all the other posts, go to the following link and find all the particulars. https://lindaghill.com/2018/11/02/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-3-18/
I admit it: I wasn’t thinking straight when I came up with today’s SoCS prompt. If I had, I’d have realized that because my real favourite word isn’t fit for a family-friendly blog, I’d have to come up with another “favourite” word that wasn’t really my favourite. If I’m nothing else, I’m honest. However, the real reason I wanted to use this prompt was to see what other people’s favourite words are.
The question comes from my memory of watching “Inside the Actors Studio.” (The lack of an apostrophe is something I’d never noticed before. My editor’s brain has given me new insight–love it when that happens.) I remember thinking that if they asked me the same ten questions they ask the guests on the show, my favourite word would be the same as my favourite curse word. And I also remember thinking that if I answered the question honestly, I’d blush. I loved watching that show – I’m amazed to find upon researching it that it’s still running. Twenty-two seasons and counting.
I found this from the show:
I have so many second-favourite words, I can’t pinpoint one. Phenomena, because it reminds me of the “Me na me na” song from the Muppets; moist, because it’s the underdog of all words for some strange reason; coffee, by association; magic, because of what it represents to me; there are so many!!
“Fantastic” is one of my go-to words when I’m describing something that I think is great. I think there should be more synonyms for fantastic, though.
I’m not worried about not having enough ways to talk about how miserable I am, when I am. And there are SO many ways to describe something that’s bad. I can get downright creative, in fact, when something angers me. So why are there so few ways to say how wonderful something is? After all, we NEED words to show our enthusiasm! I don’t understand why it’s not easier to say how delighted I am with something than how stinky I find something to be.
Have you ever been bothered by this? I am, constantly.
