Musing & Muted Monologues...

Trying to Make Sense of It All...

Thursday, August 28, 2003

Words from Webster...

As some of you may know, I truly enjoy reinforcing my vocabulary and expanding it. To do so, I often travel to Webster's online dictionary and hit up the word of the day to keep me sharp. This particular word I wanted ya'll to see was used in one of my poems a while back, as I learned of it during my college years. However, I never heard of the word "doggerel"...definately going to have to use it in the future, though.
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poetaster • \POH-uh-tass-ter\ • noun
: an inferior poet

Example sentence:
"Germaine Greer, Chair Of Judges For The National Poetry Competition 2000, Invites Entries From Readers, But Be Warned: Poetasters Need Not Apply" (Headline, The [London] Independent, May 7, 2000)

Did you know?
In Latin, the suffix "-aster" indicates partial resemblance. In both Latin and English, that often translates to "second-rate," or maybe even "third-rate." Not surprisingly, "poetaster" often goes hand in hand with "doggerel," meaning "verse marked by triviality or inferiority." "Most of the people who send me thick sheaves of handwritten or word-processed doggerel," Ms. Greer tells us, in the Independent article we quote above, "appear never to have read any poetry, good or bad. . . . Every week poetasters, like literary flashers seeking to amaze and appal hapless passers-by with the sight of their grey flaccidities, send their effusions to people like me." Are there are other kinds of "-asters" out there? Yes indeed—we have criticasters, philosophasters, and politicasters, among others.

Thought this was interesting as well... Drew, you and For'nique would probably find this intriguing (if you didn't already know, that is).
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pidgin • \PIH-jun\ • noun
: a simplified speech used for communication between people with different languages

Example sentence:
Creole, which is now spoken in parts of southern Louisiana, originated as a pidgin spoken between French-speaking colonists and African slaves.

Did you know?
The history of "pidgin" begins about the early 19th century in the South China city of Guangzhou. Chinese merchants interacting with English speakers on the docks in this port sometimes pronounced the word "business" as "bigeon." By the century’s end, "bigeon" had degenerated into "pigeon" and finally "pidgin," which then appropriately became the descriptor of the unique communication necessitated when people who speak different languages meet. Pidgins generally consist of a small vocabulary (Chinese Pidgin English has only 700 words), but some have grown to become the native language of a group. Examples include Sea Island Creole spoken in South Carolina’s Sea Islands; Haitian Creole; and Louisiana Creole. The alteration of "bigeon" to "pigeon" also gave us "pigeon," meaning "an object of special concern" or "accepted business or interest."
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