Category: Bookish Delights

I’m a bit behind on the Trees of Reverie bookish challenges, but better late than never! So with this in mind one of the daily bookish challenges is to list your top ten favourite words, so here goes.

These are my favourites:

Chortle is a combination of chuckle and snort and was coined by Lewis Carroll in his 1871 novel Through The Looking Glass. I like the sound of the word, it evokes a wonderful sense of laughter and fun.

Dreamscape was coined by Sylvia Path during her 1958 poem, “The Ghost’s Leave taking.” The word sounds dreamy and imaginative.

Knickerblocker. Well, because it sounds funny and is both a sumptuous ice-cream and that has to be good. But it is also a type of loose-fitting breaches, which adds a dual meaning that’s amusing too!

Butterfingers. Charles Dickens used this in 1836 in The Pickwick Papers. It sums up the inability to catch, and I was never very good at sports so that’s why it appeals to me.

Honey trap. This usually applies to a woman luring a man, into revealing information. It was first used in 1974 in John Le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: “You see, long ago when I was a little boy I made a mistake and walked into a honey-trap.”

Scaredly-cat. A timid, cowardly person. First introduced in 1933 by US author Dorothy Parker in a short story The Waltz with this line: “Oh, yes, do let’s dance together. It’s so nice to meet a man who isn’t a scaredy=cat about catching my beri-beri.”

Tween. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien’s Tween was a Hobbit between the ages of 20 and 33, (33 being when Hobbits come of age).

Frenemy. A blend of friend and enemy coined in 1953 by the American journalist Walter Winchell (1897-1972). “Howz about calling the Russians our Frenemies?” This word just rolls off your tongue.

Muggle. A person with no magical powers and regarded as inferior, especially in the workplace. Bound to choose this one as I’m a bit of a Harry Potter fan.

Bedazzled. To be irresistibly enchanted, dazed or pleased.  I love pretty objects especially crystals so bedazzled just had to be on my list. The word first appears in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew when Katharina says: “Pardon, old father, my mistaking eyes, that have been so bedazzled with the sun that everything I look on seemeth green.”

Decided to add some extra ones for fun!

Aloha. This means affection, peace, compassion and mercy in the Hawaiian language. Since the middle of the 19th century, it also has come to be used as an English greeting to say goodbye and hello.

Oh and two Scottish ones too! Well, I grew up in Edinburgh, so of course I’d have to!

Mingin. Horrible/Dirty!

and

Braw. Beautiful.

| #treesofreveriereadathon | #treesofreveriebookishchallenge |

http://treesofreverie.com/post/104999605813/daily-bookish-challenges-day-six-Thursday

Other links to do with words:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/19/top-10-words-invented-writers-authorisms

http://blog.chron.com/bookish/2014/04/popular-words-and-phrases-invented-by-authors/#22632101=3

http://mentalfloss.com/article/24284/10-words-invented-authors

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/17/authors-invented-words-used-every-day-cojones-meme-nerd

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-anthony-jones/13-words-you-probably-did_b_4795071.html