Gyrations

Today's word is very, very common. But it does continue to cause confusion in my mind. Specifically,  every few months, I get confused about which of the two pronunciations of it lodged in my mind are correct? Is it gyrations (pronunciation begins akin to the first syllable of Jimmy), or is it guy-rations? Based on numerous web sources, the correct pronunciation is the former. So to remember it, maybe I should think of Jimmy Kimmel whirling about in a ballerina's costume, and attach the tag "Jimmy gyrates" to it!

PS-As I am from cow-country, and the term cow is referred to as "guy" in my native country, I should remind myself that not every word is about cows (or their sanctity), and therefore, "gyrations" can NOT be pronounced as guy-rations :-)

Till the next time I mis-remember this word's pronunciation!

Swoop

"Pug made a slight peremptory move of a thumb, and Rhoda got off her stool. ..He held open a door for her and in a whipping wind, they walked to the stern where gulls swooped and screeched, and passengers clustered at the rails."- Winds of War by Herman Wouk.

Swoop (v): When a bird descends from flight, it is called swooping.

In that regard, it is similar to the word "alight", which too means settle or stay after descending although alight is also used when a person steps out of a vehicle, dismounts from a horse, etc.

Jocund

Word of the day: Jocund

Jocund is a formal word that means jolly.
Here is Dictionary.com's definition:

cheerful; merry; blithe; glad:

It is similar in meaning to jovial, a word I am more likely to remember :-)

Words of the day: Beam and Girder

Words of the day are related to construction:

Beam: When I think of the word beam, I think of a beam or ray of light, or a long, long pole of metal held horizontally. I am not sure if this is an accurate description but it has been persistent in my mind for a while. Today I wanted to know if my mental images of these words are accurate or not. So here are the definitions of these words:

Beam: According to dictionary.com, the following are possible definitions of this word, all of which do, indeed, suggest the image of a long, horizontal rectangular piece of metal or concrete.

Beam (noun): 

1. any of various relatively long pieces of metal, wood, stone, etc.,manufactured or shaped especially for use as rigid members or partsof structures or machines  

1. Building Trades. a horizontal bearing member, as a joist or lintel. 

1. Engineering. a rigid member or structure supported at each end,subject to bending stresses from a direction perpendicular to itslength.

 Usage example: "Reflect on selfies, and they seem totally different. Rather than plunging us into innocent love with an apparent stranger, they beam our conscious self-regard back at ourselves. At first glance, this makes us seem even worse than Narcissus. Selfies seem less like love at first sight and more like yet another round of masturbation."

"Her door stands ajar, halving the room with a beam of light."

 

GIrder: a large beam, as of steel, reinforced concrete, or timber, forsupporting masonry, joists, purlins, etc.

2.

a principal beam of wood, steel, etc., supporting the ends of joists.

The conundrum of love

As I read through an excellent book by a stalwart (Love in the times of cholera), while relishing deliriously joyous and enthralling passages, a thought peers through the glass-door of my mind, its patient wait clouding my door and misting my concentration. Finally, having been disturbed by its wait and a little intrigued by the mural it has fashioned on my door, I give the book a rest and run my mind through this intrusion. Unlike the perception of the word love that I've been handed down through various books, magazines, sitcoms, movies and the like (which primarily talks of love as an emotionally- draining, though spiritually-enriching state where one gives oneself up for the sake of another-be it a lover, a family member or even a pet), Marquez (the auther of the afore-mentioned text) uses the word much more fluidly, with various connotations attached to it based on the person and the circumstances of its use. Whereas love is meant as a euphemism for sex in some instances, in others its meaning oscillates between the unflinching passion and infatuation of one protagonist to the casually curious feelings of another. So, in celebration of and contrast to the simplicity of the use of the word by the celebrated Columbian, I have decided to list some words that we associate with or use in lieu of the word "love" (with the word being used most often to describe the emotional state I spelled earlier in the post)and their commonly-cited definitions:

Courtly Love: It refers to medieval-style love, which was conducted as a ritual dictated by the Church and society, right from how often one could glance at another to the duration of the sighs one could let out in the recognition of hitherto hidden yearnings- carnal and otherwise.

Calf-Love: See the entry that immediately follows this one.

Puppy-Love: The ephemeral affectations that grip pre-pubescent, neo-pubescent and young adolescents is reffered to as puppy-love, equating it with the all-embracing, ready affection that puppies and pets often shower on one and all.

And finally, the last entry is the most commonly-known one: Lust, which Merriam Webster Online describes as "usually intense and unbridled sexual desire". At the end of this not so long post on the words describing the exalted state of love, I'd like to quote a famous Indian poet, whose verse so adeptly describes the liberated feel of love (unlike what most people will have us believe it to be- a binding, wasting emotion)- "where the mind is without fear and the head is held high". Tagore used this verse and the ones that followed it in his antology of poems called Gitanjali to describe freedom which his countrymen had been cruelly cheated off, but love to me spells just as much freedom and security as the patriotic fervor for one's homeland.

The Wonder of Words

Did you know that being called corpulent is akin to being referred to as obese, though it isn't necessarily an affront?

Would any in the audience know what a quadroon means? A person with a quarter black blood.

What would you be like if you have a prostration? Or if the economy of war-ravaged Afganistan were referred to as a prostration by news channels? The word itself means abasement that is, being in the worst possible state or a decrepit state. Thus, we can conclude that the economy of war-ravaged Afganistan is in doldrums.

Being disingenuous or using your influence in such a manner is a more challenging and inventive reference to throwing your weight around. Specifically, the word disingenuous is synonymous with calculating. So, I would desist from being that way, if I could help it :-))

Finally, to wrap up this first introduction to my wonderous awe of words, I'll leave with borrowed lyricism- In Love In The Time Of Cholera, one of the protagonists refers to camellia as a flower of promises. I too will end this post with the promise of many more, embellished with newer glistening words to add to my hopefully-not-for-long emaciated vocabulary and that of my fellow word lovers.