Wordle

A few weeks ago I mentioned 'Wordle' in one of my posts here. YP explains more about it in his post here.

I play it each day and so far have been reasonably successful and enjoyed it. I've never been unable to find the word but to be fair that's probably not a great accolade because I only know one person who had not had a 100% achievement record. 

I compare results and the words we have used each day with friends in New Zealand, Sweden and the UK. One of us, not me, seems to be just slightly better than the rest who are all pretty much the same standard.

However this game seems to have sparked international rows since it was taken over by the NY Times a few weeks ago, with claims that words have been Americanised,  simplified, 'properfied' (my own word for removing such abhorrent words as, 'wench, 'slave, and 'lynch') and that some were far too esoteric and unusual such as 'caulk' I have to say that the last one mystified me because I got it in 4 lines and thought it was a perfectly ordinary household word.

No doubt that’s the case, but just at this moment it’s difficult to imagine anything more exciting than five squares turning green – the most satisfying five-letter word of all.

Snowflake

We've just come to the end of five days of gloriously sunny and very cold (by our Island standards) clear, icy weather. At one point we even had a few snowflakes. 

When the beautiful snowflakes briefly appeared I wondered how and why the term had been appropriated in the news and social media to describe people. Then it occurred to me that, apart from the fact that the people I know who use it seemed to be regarding it as a derogatory term, I hadn't a clue what it meant. Do you know?

I did some research.

According to Wikipedia the definition is a 2010s derogatory slang term for a person, implying that they have an inflated sense of uniqueness, an unwarranted sense of entitlement, OR are overly-emotional, easily offended, and unable to deal with opposing opinions.

  

However a little further research turned this up from The Independent (UK now online only newspaper): On Christmas Eve 2019 the Donald Trump campaign launched a website called snowflakevictory.com to give guidance to Trump’s supporters about how to deal with their “liberal relatives” over the holiday period. It featured 12 hot-button topics (immigration, impeachment, the environment) and witty comebacks to frequently-cited Democrat arguments.

For someone reading that the year before, it might have seemed odd to include a weather reference. But in the 12 months preceding the website, "snowflake" entered the general lexicon as the epitome of Trump’s opposition. Used to mean everything from weak and wet, to a synonym for the millennial age bracket, snowflake had become a political buzzword.

So it would appear that it can mean all things to all people with one common denominator - it's not a compliment.

I think it is sad that we use beauty to define ugliness.

I had a gift from across The Pond just before Christmas and it greeted all my visitors by hanging in the window of my front porch until this afternoon. It is a crocheted snowflake. In my house a snowflake represents beauty and, of course, uniqueness.

Palindromes

Today is the 2nd February 2020. I noticed when I was writing a letter this morning that the date is 02/02/2020. That makes it a palindrome ie word, phrase or sentence or series of numbers which reads the same backwards or forwards. But then you know that. Sorry. I've just realised that I might seem patronising. Apologies if I did.  In fact it's even palindromic to our friends in North America. What made you do that I wonder? Perversity? A desire to be different? Who cares. It is what it is. It occurred to me that palindromic dates don't happen very often. The next one would have to be 12/12/2121 I think. Unless anyone can tell me differently. After that I'd have to use my noddle and it's a Sunday. I don't work on Sunday. Well not apart from gardening, housework, washing and ironing. As my Dad used to say "The better the day the better the deed."

By the way the spider's web is not palindromic even if it were perfectly symmetrical: which it is not.

Who Can Mong?

I recently came across a website entitled "Drinkmonger".  It mongs, principally, alcoholic beverages.  Interestingly I can never recall the term drinkmonger ever being used before.

However we have fishmonger, ironmonger (who does not sell iron), cheesemonger and I can recall that, in my youth, in the market we had a costermonger (who sold fresh fruit and vegetables) who also had a barrow which went round the streets. 

We also have rumourmongers, fearmongers and scaremongers.

So why do we not have shoemongers, clothesmongers, breadmongers, cakemongers, sweetmongers, tobaccomongers and peacemongers and so on and so forth?

The Scots Have a Word For It

'What a dreich morning' I thought as I opened the curtains to reveal a blanket of grey drizzle hanging bleakly over the roads and houses around me here in Bishopbriggs.   Having made a cup of hot water with lemon I decided that it really was about time that I got myself in gear and wrote a post and 'dreich' provided a useful opening.

It's apparently the Scots' favourite Scots word (as voted for in a Scots Government survey) and a word you are unlikely to hear uttered much in England although, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary it is of Middle English, of Scandinavian origin.  However the other dictionaries seem to place it fairly and squarely as a Scottish word.

What does it mean?   Weather where at least four of the following apply in combination:  dull, overcast, drizzly, cold, misty and miserable. 

The example of the use of the word given in the Urban Dictionary is:  Historically regarded as a dreich corner of Britain, Scotland's very name comes from the Greek word for “dark”.

That reminded me of the story as to how, in New Zealand, Dunedin (the Scots name for Edinburgh) came to be colonised by the Scots and so named.  It is said that a group of Scots arrived in the north of the North Island of New Zealand but, realising that it was hot and sunny set of south down the eastern side of the island stopping at various places along the way but always finding the climate to warm and sunny.  They then crossed the Cook Straight and set off down the east coast of the South Island.  Having passed the temperate lands of Marlborough and discovered that a little England had been established in Christchurh they hurried on down the coast.  When they arrived almost at the southern tip of the country they realised that they had stumbled upon a place which much resembled the north of Scotland in so many ways: not least the fact that its weather was so often dreich.  There they stayed and when one is in Dunedin it is just like being in a little version of Edinburgh.

I'll leave you with a photo I took on the east coast of Harris a few weeks ago on a dreich day:

The Use of Superlatives

I usually switch on the TV a while before The News because if I don't switch it on I'm apt to forget.  So I switch on and usually go to mute.  The programme before The News is Pointless.  The compère is given to completely pointless superlatives on a regular basis and I have to say that I find it quite devalues everything that he says.  His usual is 'you've been brilliant fantastic contestants' to almost every contestant who managed to get bombed out without winning.  Yesterday he managed to make the statement that the jackpot had reached an (emphasising) 'unbelievable £5000'.    Which, in fact, seems to me to be an entirely believable sum.

This evening I decided that I could watch it with the sound on because I had a bit of ironing to do and I thought that I might get a post out of it!  Luck was with me because so far today he's not said 'brilliant' or 'fantastic' and the £6250 jackpot was announced without any emphasis at all.  Someone has, I think, had a word with him!

Friggatriskaidekaphobia

Perhaps after last Friday I should have realised that there would be a word meaning 'fear of Friday the 13th'.  However, not even being superstitious and as it had not even registered with me that it was Friday the 13th, it's not a phobia that I can claim to have.  It was only when I read CJ's blog Words, Words, Words (and Phrases) that I even became aware there was such a word.