Tuesday 3 February 2009

Save the Words Meme

...
Betty, of Howling in Silence, sent me the link to Save The Words over the weekend.

Every year hundred of words are dropped from the dictionary, to make room for newer words. Save The Words is a website campaigning to save obscure or old words before they vanish from the English language forever. Once you join you can adopt any word you want and even have it printed on a T shirt! :-) I went with the free option of having them send me my adoption certificate only. Once you adopt a word you also promise to use it.

I am going to use that idea to create a new meme.
Go to Save The Words and adopt a word, then find a way to use it in a sentence or as a theme for a blog post or photograph. This time I will be tagging some friends at the end, but anyone else wanting to join in is most welcome to steal the idea and run with it - as long as you let me know so that I can add you to my list of tagged bloggers, please.

My first word turned out to be absolutely perfect. To explain why I'll have to back up a bit. I recently wrote on my blog about my dad's father, the sacred clown of the family. After he died his son, my dad, took on the role of clown in the family. My dad's a terrible tease, but last year that finally caught up with him.

One of my dad's jokes is to bray like a donkey. The guys at his last job caught him doing his best donkey impression on their cell phones and threatened to put him up on YouTube. They didn't... as far we know, but at least two of them have kept his donkey bray as their phone tone!

Last Saturday my dad went out to do some shopping. He bumped into someone he knew from where he was working last. This guy had his little niece with him. He told her, pointing at my dad, "This is donkey man." and the little girl giggled and giggled. It seems dad's donkey call has become a favourite amongst all his little nieces and nephews.

When my dad came home and told us the story we all laughed, not realising it was going to become even funnier. Saturday night I went to browse the Save The Words website. There were so many words to choose from that I just shut my eyes, swirled the mouse around, and clicked....

n. the loud and harsh cry of a donkey.
"The oncethmus coming from next door can only mean happy hour has ended."
What are the odds on me picking THAT??? In honour of my perfect word I am posting a photo that seems to sum up the whole spirit of dad making an ass of himself. ;-)

photo kindly shared by Ray Forester of Morguefile

I decided to adopt another lost word, but this one was deliberate. It sums up the other side of Scotland, that travel books rarely mention...
adj. full of prickly shrubs or bushes.
"The veprecose desert is not a great place to play hide and seek!"
I have often commented to hubby that Africa may have dangerous beasts, but Scotland has dangerous plants! Prickly thistles, spiky brambles, lethally thorny gorse bushes, stinging nettles... a walk through the countryside can be quite an experience in open sandals! I don't have any photos of summer spikes so I am posting a recent picture of gorse bushes covered in frost. It is now titled "Frosted Veprecose Fantasy." ;-)


I am tagging...
1. Shastri
2. Russell
3. Mimi
4. Cliff
5. Daisy
6. Derik
and finally...
7. ALL crows (you know who you are!), because all crows love collecting unusual sparklies, including words. :-D

EDITED TO ADD LINKS
Shastri adopted jussulent
Pete adopted latibule
Russell adopted aretaloger and tremefy
Daisy adopted stiricide
Martha adopted crocitation
...

19 comments:

  1. Ironic- my Dad also has a donkey call as his ring tone.. a loud one I might add. He often answers his phone with "Mule Barn" :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a fun tag, Michelle! I'll take it on. I'll have to see what I can come up with. I'll come back and comment again when I have posted it.

    Love the donkey story about your Dad--so funny! HA! And those prickly bushes---oh my---OUCH! Great post! :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. You've missed a good opportunity here - you choose the words for us!

    Russell

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Tamantha
    Your dad too? Can you imagine a room of the with their phones ringing? LOL

    Daisy
    I look forward to that. :-)

    Russell
    tsk tsk - I'm not picking a word for you, half the fun is hunting your own. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. (I hope this doesn't post twice...tried to send it a few minutes ago.)

    What a shiny, sparkling challenge! Of course I'll take it!

    Sofie

    ReplyDelete
  6. I can't wait to do this! What fun.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you, Michelle.

    Could go and save Jussulent ;-)

    Captcha: luesessu

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks Shastri!

    Terry and Sophie... let me know when they're posted, please. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'll be glad to. I have already adopted my word - but have yet to get a moment to reflect on the post. I had a ball over at that site - I had to keep going there just to hear the voices LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Michelle! :D Just stopping by to let you know I have my Save the Words post up at my dancing blog.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am your veprecose-brother. I adopted it too, earlier this evening. That's how I found your site.

    I now feel a deep kinship with you.

    Bye now.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I've adopted two words and begun their use...

    ReplyDelete
  13. Michelle, I adopted three words and have started writing about them. I don't know how to link back to your blog, so I'm leaving a message for you here.
    Martha

    ReplyDelete
  14. I couldn't help smiling when reading about this. WOW!!!! Now I'm speechless he he...LOVE the pics! ;-D

    ReplyDelete
  15. I love words, and I love this post! Can't wait to go adopt some old words. Being an adopted person and a "wordmonger," as my ex-husband used to call me, it's hard to imagine something more natural for me. My friends also call me The Queen of Synchronicity, and the donkey bray word draw tops some of my best! Finally, as a baby boomer who does not want to become antiquated, I'll adopt some of those words just to prove we can put new life into old models, whether words or people.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi Joyce and welcome!

    Please come back and add your link when you adopt a word so I can come read. I'm betting you'll do a wonderful job on it. I've been browsing your blogs and enjoying them immensely. :-)

    I see on your profile you're a Virgo. No wonder you're a wordmonger, what Virgo can resist words? ;-) I have Mercury in Virgo, thank goodness. Otherwise I'd overload on emotion with no outlet to express myself through! I have Leo Sun and Venus, Saggy Ascendant and Pisces Moon... need I say more? :-X

    ReplyDelete
  17. I love that your blog exists. My friend used your word for her 3 Word Thursday and when I Googled it to get a better definition I came upon your site. Thank you for saving words. I will have to join as well.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hi OJM

    Welcome to my blog! :-) Thanks for stopping by, I hope you come around again some time. I see you're thinking of moving your blog to Word Press? Good luck with that.

    ReplyDelete

Hi,

Older posts are moderated to stop spammers, so replies will go up, but please be patient. :)