Word

Words beginning with the »sn« sound in English are often unpleasant: snide, snob, snigger, sneer, snicker, snub, snert, snotty, snippy, snit, snarl, snore, sneak, snag. »Snow« is a word over which there is debate and even an annual change of heart. The first snowfall is almost always welcomed. Christmas snow is considered magical. But too much of a good thing for too long and March blizzards push »snow« into line with the rest of the »sn« words.

»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«

We shall never understand one another until we reduce the language to seven words.

»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«


 – Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)
 – Sand and Foam [1926]

Words derive their meaning from the surrounding words, just as human beings derive their meaning from interacting with other humans around them.

LI

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

--The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
(trans. Edward Fitzgerald, 1st ed.)

on Mar 22nd 2001, 02:07:31, Natasha Jordan wrote the following about

word

Think how much acceptance Mary showed when she said:

»Let it be done to me according to thy word.«

================================================

And how much courage.

A word has the power to define, to bind, to create, to destroy. Truely, a poet has power undreamt of by kings.

What I feel for you,
I can't put in words,
language won't hold
my desire.

Spaces define which letters go together to make up a word.

»Therefore« is a word the poet must not know.

(Andre Gide)

The >>Word of the Day<< today over at dictionary.com is >>oblation<<.

>>Oblation<< comes from the past participle form of the Latin verb* >>offerre<< meaning >>to bring<<.

So, an oblation is an offering or a gift.

__________
* A Latin verb is traditionally cited by giving four forms, in this case: offero, offerre, obtuli, oblatum.

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

(Mark Twain)

»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«

Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled.

»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«


 – Horace (65-8 B.C.)
 – Epistles, bk. I, epistle xviii, l. 71

And then some more words come along and a paragraph is born.

Spaces define which letters to together to make up a word.