The man dropped the noble's son with a thump to the dock as he paused before a noachian door. It was so rusted constant exposure to the water, that the man doubted even the oldest person in the village remembered that it existed, so well did it blend in with the other rusting pieces on the wall. But the man knew where to look, knew where to press, and soon, a dark opening revealed itself, more slimsy-like steps awaiting to take the careless step down with it. The man heaved the boy up, idly thinking he should turn the noble into a creature that didn't weigh so much. It would make the process easier, but no, he'd promised his buyers they would get him human. They could decide after that if they wanted to keep him like that.
Noachian - 1: of or relating to the patriarch Noah or his time. 2: ancient, antiquated.
History Behind the Word - Students of the Old Testament know that Noah survived the Great Flood by stowing himself, his family, and two of every kind of creature on his ark. "Noachian" is derived from the Hebrew name for Noah. Modern contexts find "Noachian" used in reference to the Great Flood or, more humorously, to describe torrential rainstorms and flooding reminiscent of the Biblical event. It could be said that usage of "Noachian" spans even beyond planet Earth. Astronomers studying the surface of Mars used "Noachian" to refer to the epoch between 3.5 and 4.6 billion years ago when that planet's oldest craters were believed to be formed. This usage is based on Noachis Terra, one of the landmasses of Mars.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
The Word -Slimsy
The man moved quickly to the river that crisscrossed throughout the city. He handled the boy carelessly, giving every corner of a wall, doorframe, and reaching branch the opportunity to exact the revenge of the people. If the boy didn't have a headache from the wine before he went to bed, he certainly was going to feel every knock to the head when he did wake up. Just desserts for this yellowed-bellied skink.
Adjusting his grip, the man moved into a rotting docking area, navigating the slimsy boards with ease of familiarity. Any who tried to follow him would soon find themselves in the cold water below, not that any would try to follow this man. He smirked his blackened teeth showing once more. Who would want to ruin the kidnapping of the fool who got them into a war with no end? Life would be better on the morrow. For the town at least.
Slimsy - flimsy or frail.
Added Info -The reasons why some words flourish and others fall by the lexical wayside are often unclear, but what is clear is that "slimsy" is firmly in the latter category: It has very little current use. This shouldn't stop you from using it though; "slimsy" is a blend of "slim" and "flimsy," and its meaning should be pretty apparent to your audience if you're careful with the context. The word was first used in the mid-19th century and was at its peak of popularity in the early 20th, but who knows? Maybe the 21st century is seeing its revival.
Adjusting his grip, the man moved into a rotting docking area, navigating the slimsy boards with ease of familiarity. Any who tried to follow him would soon find themselves in the cold water below, not that any would try to follow this man. He smirked his blackened teeth showing once more. Who would want to ruin the kidnapping of the fool who got them into a war with no end? Life would be better on the morrow. For the town at least.
Slimsy - flimsy or frail.
Added Info -The reasons why some words flourish and others fall by the lexical wayside are often unclear, but what is clear is that "slimsy" is firmly in the latter category: It has very little current use. This shouldn't stop you from using it though; "slimsy" is a blend of "slim" and "flimsy," and its meaning should be pretty apparent to your audience if you're careful with the context. The word was first used in the mid-19th century and was at its peak of popularity in the early 20th, but who knows? Maybe the 21st century is seeing its revival.
Saturday, January 10, 2015
The Word -Adduce
He pulled the boy off the bed, unceremoniously wrapping him up in the tangled black fur rug before flinging him over his shoulder. "Sorry, no time for you to adduce me on why you shouldn't be kidnapped, noble snobbiness." He remarked, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards. The son hadn't made a peep yet, thanks to the drug running through his system. His arguments wouldn't hold up to the people in any case and he wouldn't be arguing in front of the more sympathetic and just as idiotic rulers in his class either. No, this was the last night for the son to be a noble. After this point...well...
With a quick glance around the room, the man left as quietly as he'd entered, not a soul around to have their last look of the yellow-bellied skink. This he had ensured earlier in the day. No one would know how, when, or just quite how the son had disappeared.
And he knew none would care beyond the parents. Good luck to them tracking him down. Where the son was going, none would know him.
Adduce - to offer as example, reason, or proof in discussion or analysis.
Added Info -We won't lead you astray over the history of "adduce;" it is one of a plethora of familiar words that traces back to the Latin root ducere, which means "to lead." Perhaps we can induce you to deduce a few other ducere offspring if we offer a few hints about them. One is a synonym of "kidnap," one's a title for a British royal, and one's another word for "decrease." Give up? They are "abduct," "duke," and "reduce," respectively. There are also many others, including "induce," which means "to persuade" or "to bring about."
With a quick glance around the room, the man left as quietly as he'd entered, not a soul around to have their last look of the yellow-bellied skink. This he had ensured earlier in the day. No one would know how, when, or just quite how the son had disappeared.
And he knew none would care beyond the parents. Good luck to them tracking him down. Where the son was going, none would know him.
Adduce - to offer as example, reason, or proof in discussion or analysis.
Added Info -We won't lead you astray over the history of "adduce;" it is one of a plethora of familiar words that traces back to the Latin root ducere, which means "to lead." Perhaps we can induce you to deduce a few other ducere offspring if we offer a few hints about them. One is a synonym of "kidnap," one's a title for a British royal, and one's another word for "decrease." Give up? They are "abduct," "duke," and "reduce," respectively. There are also many others, including "induce," which means "to persuade" or "to bring about."
Friday, January 2, 2015
The Word - Lunette
There would be no fancy trappings for the son now. The man smirked, revealing blackend eye teeth, the tips of them broken off. He moved from the unconscious boy, to the warison sitting pretty as a bird on top of the wooden armory. He pulled the gleaming lunette blade from it's sheath. It was a pretty trinket about half the length of his arm. The white gold hilt, gleamed, holding blade in place. It wouldn't have been the best of metals to use, but with the ivory enlaid in it, it would fare well enough. He tested the tip and drew back his thumb with red gleaming on it. Sharp. He smiled as the blood turned blue. Some magic to this as well, it would have to be in order to have such a rare material used as a working handle. The man pulled out a silken handkerchief, wiping the blade clean once more and returned to the son. Chanting softly in his native tongue, the man dropped the point of the blade over the boy's heart, dipping the point into his skin, deep enough to draw the life blood to the surface, but not to kill. Changing the tone of his chant, he watched as the blood flowed up the lunette, it turning blue before working its way back down the other side to return to the boy's body. From the entry , it spread out underneath the skin, keeping its darkened color leaving the mark of bonding there. No matter what he did now, the son would be unable to separate himself from the blade. The man smiled again, as the last words left his chapped lips. It would be the only possession from his old life that he would keep.
Lunette: 1: Something that has the shape of a crescent or half-moon. 2: the figure or shape of a crescent moon.
History Behind the Word- "Lunette," a word borrowed from French, looks like it should mean "little moon" --luna being Latin for "moon" and "-ette" being a diminutive suffix. There is indeed some 17th-century evidence of the word being used for a small celestial moon, but that meaning is now obsolete. Earlier, in the 16th century, "lunette" referred to a horseshoe having only the front semicircular part--a meaning that still exists but is quite rare. "Lunette" has other meanings too rare for our Collegiate Dictonary but included in our Unabridged.Among these are "a blinder especially for a vicious horse" and, in the plural form, "spectacles." (Lunettes is the usual term for eyeglasses in modern French.) The oldest meaning of "lunette" still in common use is "something shaped like a crescent or half-moon," which evidence dates to circa 1639.
Lunette: 1: Something that has the shape of a crescent or half-moon. 2: the figure or shape of a crescent moon.
History Behind the Word- "Lunette," a word borrowed from French, looks like it should mean "little moon" --luna being Latin for "moon" and "-ette" being a diminutive suffix. There is indeed some 17th-century evidence of the word being used for a small celestial moon, but that meaning is now obsolete. Earlier, in the 16th century, "lunette" referred to a horseshoe having only the front semicircular part--a meaning that still exists but is quite rare. "Lunette" has other meanings too rare for our Collegiate Dictonary but included in our Unabridged.Among these are "a blinder especially for a vicious horse" and, in the plural form, "spectacles." (Lunettes is the usual term for eyeglasses in modern French.) The oldest meaning of "lunette" still in common use is "something shaped like a crescent or half-moon," which evidence dates to circa 1639.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
The Word - Warison
The nobleman's son had to think the village was full of idiots to go babbling about his warison in the middle of a crowded bar. With the war going on, only a couple of hills over, and the warison`s mournful cry announcing that the battle had yet again been engaged did not much to boost the already beleaguered town's morale. To think that the yellow-bellied skink of a man had received a reward for engaging in this pointless feud and that he'd been rewarded handsomely for 'defending the king's land'. Well no longer. This idiot could learn the real reason to begin a fight, and not over a spilled drink at a party. Silently the man slipped into the son's room, filled with silk and all sorts of plushness of the soft and stupid. He would soon learn, as the man pressed the point of his dagger into the son's wrist, releasing the toxin stored there that would keep him unconscious, that bragging came at a cost. Methodically he stripped the son of all but the barest of clothing.
Warison: A bugle call to attack.
History Behind the Word - When Sir Walter Scott first encountered "warison" around the beginning of the 19th century, it was a rare word that had been around for 600 years, occasionally used to mean either "wealth or possessions" or "reward." In his 1805 poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Scott used the word to refer to a bugle call ordering soldiers to attack, probably because he misinterpreted what the word meant when he read it in "The Battle of Otterbourne," a ballad found in Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. The original word (which Scott encountered as Middle English waryson) derives from the Anglo-French garisun, which means "healing" or "protection" and is also the source of the English word "garrison," meaning "a military post."
Warison: A bugle call to attack.
History Behind the Word - When Sir Walter Scott first encountered "warison" around the beginning of the 19th century, it was a rare word that had been around for 600 years, occasionally used to mean either "wealth or possessions" or "reward." In his 1805 poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Scott used the word to refer to a bugle call ordering soldiers to attack, probably because he misinterpreted what the word meant when he read it in "The Battle of Otterbourne," a ballad found in Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. The original word (which Scott encountered as Middle English waryson) derives from the Anglo-French garisun, which means "healing" or "protection" and is also the source of the English word "garrison," meaning "a military post."
Friday, May 16, 2014
Not Expected
I returned to the cave, as my other half would put it, 'empty handed.'
I stalked in quietly, ears laid back in distaste as I shook the snow fall off my coat.
In the end, the storm had forced me to come back, it had only gotten heavier, making visibility nearly impossible even with my vision.
You'll want to shift back to human, unless you want to give Jake a heart attack again. My other self smugly said.
Lose the fur coat, or give the human a heart attack. I would prefer to keep the former, but as I stalked further back, I returned to the awkward human shape, shivering once with the change in temperature.
"Human?" I called out.
His name is Jake.
I still didn't care. I tilted my head listening for a response.
Nothing. I couldn't even hear breathing. If I didn't know better, I would think this cave empty.
Jake wouldn't be foolish enough to leave, its still snowing.
He followed us into the forest, he's been foolish before. I shifted back to my form to use my senses in a more familiar way. The human's scent covered the cave, most of it recent, but it got stronger towards the back of the cave, which admittedly I hadn't thoroughly checked to see how deep it went. He could just be out of sight, though out of hearing was still unlikely for me.
I trotted deeper into the darkness, following my nose. And stopped at a blank wall.
He's not here. My other form whispered.
Obviously. So he was a foolish human. Though, I didn't believe it. The scent had only gotten stronger as I moved further back. If he'd left, I would have scented it. The snow couldn't cover all traces of a human passage.
But last I checked, he couldn't walk through walls either.
I touched my nose to the wall. It was solid.
Maybe there's something higher up? A crevice he could slip through?
I growled. Humans. I changed back, using the added height, to see. Nothing. It's still blank.
You sure?
Yes. I snapped. It's solid. Look. I placed my hands on the wall, only to have them sink in. I stiffened with a growl. What the? I jerked back, but my hands didn't budge. The wall loomed in front of me, pulling me in.....everything went black.
Catchya on the Flip Side!
-Danny
I stalked in quietly, ears laid back in distaste as I shook the snow fall off my coat.
In the end, the storm had forced me to come back, it had only gotten heavier, making visibility nearly impossible even with my vision.
You'll want to shift back to human, unless you want to give Jake a heart attack again. My other self smugly said.
Lose the fur coat, or give the human a heart attack. I would prefer to keep the former, but as I stalked further back, I returned to the awkward human shape, shivering once with the change in temperature.
"Human?" I called out.
His name is Jake.
I still didn't care. I tilted my head listening for a response.
Nothing. I couldn't even hear breathing. If I didn't know better, I would think this cave empty.
Jake wouldn't be foolish enough to leave, its still snowing.
He followed us into the forest, he's been foolish before. I shifted back to my form to use my senses in a more familiar way. The human's scent covered the cave, most of it recent, but it got stronger towards the back of the cave, which admittedly I hadn't thoroughly checked to see how deep it went. He could just be out of sight, though out of hearing was still unlikely for me.
I trotted deeper into the darkness, following my nose. And stopped at a blank wall.
He's not here. My other form whispered.
Obviously. So he was a foolish human. Though, I didn't believe it. The scent had only gotten stronger as I moved further back. If he'd left, I would have scented it. The snow couldn't cover all traces of a human passage.
But last I checked, he couldn't walk through walls either.
I touched my nose to the wall. It was solid.
Maybe there's something higher up? A crevice he could slip through?
I growled. Humans. I changed back, using the added height, to see. Nothing. It's still blank.
You sure?
Yes. I snapped. It's solid. Look. I placed my hands on the wall, only to have them sink in. I stiffened with a growl. What the? I jerked back, but my hands didn't budge. The wall loomed in front of me, pulling me in.....everything went black.
Catchya on the Flip Side!
-Danny
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Searching
And being in control meant that I did not have to listen to my human half.
I continued to follow the game with half of my attention.
The other half searched the terrain, searching for a more suitable shelter for the human.
After all, I had no idea how to build a shelter, and thanks to my other half, I didn't think that the human would be able to do that either. Couldn't build a fire, couldn't skin an animal, couldn't build a shelter, this human needed to find a pack if he wanted to survive.
We are his pack out here.
I didn't need that reminder. I was searching for shelter wasn't I?
Catchya on the Flip Side!
-Danny
I continued to follow the game with half of my attention.
The other half searched the terrain, searching for a more suitable shelter for the human.
After all, I had no idea how to build a shelter, and thanks to my other half, I didn't think that the human would be able to do that either. Couldn't build a fire, couldn't skin an animal, couldn't build a shelter, this human needed to find a pack if he wanted to survive.
We are his pack out here.
I didn't need that reminder. I was searching for shelter wasn't I?
Catchya on the Flip Side!
-Danny
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