#word of the week

[thatsbelievable]

[jamietarttsnorthernattitude]

For the @ficwip word of the week: window.

Manchester was lonely. 

The team was fine. Nice even, but it was not the same as when he left. There were a handful of new players, either brought in during the transfer window or signed to new contracts. Some were called up from the academy and were too young to play with him, so he knew them only by reputation and not as teammates. He was the not-so-new guy, expected to be up to speed on everything but he didn’t know half the plays on the pitch or half the inside jokes in the dressing room. 

And Pep was not Lasso. And Pep was definitely not Catrick. Thank God for that, but it also meant Jamie had to work twice as hard for way fewer minutes. In his first match back, his arse doesn’t leave the bench. Dad had something to say about that, of course. He always did. In Jamie’s second match back, his boots finally get to touch the grass, but only in the final minutes of injury time after Johnson pulled a hamstring. 

Jamie does his best to make it count. 

[official-wales]

Official Wales Welsh Word of the Week

llofruddio [ɬov-rith-eeoh] - to murder

[garden-of-thoughts-fruit-of-lips]

(Value) We do not allow our phones to drown in water if, within reach.

God did not allow Noah or his household to drown. (2 Peter 2:5).

Proverbs 20:5 "The thoughts of a man’s heart are like deep waters..."

Sometimes, we drown in our "thoughts." Christ (mediator), who is at God right hand, separated the water. (1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 8:6 and Acts 2:33)

"...Let the dry land appear... God called the dry land Earth, but the collecting of the waters he called Seas..." (Genesis 1:9,10)

[eljefa]

[best-non-english-word-torunament]

Word of the week 1: Cietrzew (Polish)

/ˈʨ̑ɛṭʂɛf/

Translation: Black grouse

The language: Polish is an Indo-European language belonging to the Slavic branch. It’s spoken by 36,7 million people in Poland, where it is the national language. One typical sound feature of Polish is the six s- or sh-like sounds [s, z, ʂ, ʐ, ɕ, ʑ] which are all pronounced closely and similarly to each other. There are also multiple affricatives (sounds combining a stop and a fricative, like the ch in the beginning of ‘church’ being pronounced [t͡ʃ]) made with these sounds. Using that many similar sounds is uncommon in the sound systems of the world’s languages. It is also possible to cluster up to four or five consonants in a row without a vowel.

Why cietrzew? It sounds awesome and it's very Polish: ci, trz and -ew all in one word. The verb “zacietrzewić (się)” comes from it, which means ‘to black-grouse oneself’ if I were to translate it literally. It generally means becoming angry and determined (other Polish speakers feel free to elaborate)

(and the bird is great too)

Submitted by @sierpeek

Do you want to submit your own word or learn more about word of the week? Check out my pinned post!

[cartwrong]

For the @ficwip word of the week: bright.

Louisa rushed towards the sound of River's voice, ignoring the increasing size of blood drops across the hardwood floor. She pushed the door to the bathroom open, finding River sitting on the closed toilet, a towel held to his hand. The blood on it was bright and red and terrifying in its volume.

“River, what happened?” Louisa asked as she rushed to River, crouching in front of him, her hands hovering above the towel. 

“Sliced my hand trying to cut a sweet potato. It was stupid.”

[talefoundryshow]

If saturation causes flooding, what does oversaturation look like??

[ariellewm]

[mhalachai]

new feature: word of the week

I made some new year’s resolutions around posting more frequently, and one of the things I’m going to try is posting a word of the week, ie a word in use (in Canadian English, to be precise) that I've newly encountered. 

I write for a living, and I keep coming upon new words. It’s great. 

So, to start off this month with:

Chamfer

Verb; definition: to cut away (in the carpentry sense) a 90-degree edge to make an angle between two adjoining surfaces.

this is easier for my topographically-challenged brain to describe visually:

Origin: mid 16th-century, from the French chamfrain, from chant ‘edge’ + fraint ‘broken’ (from Old French fraindre ‘break’, from Latin frangere).

I came cross this word in a metal restoration video yesterday and had to backtrack the captions to double-check the word. Here’s to starting the new year with learning new things!

The video in question, of a book press restoration, from My Mechanics on youtube. The chamfering occurs very briefly at 14:44.

Back next week with a new word!

[thatsbelievable]

[jamietarttsnorthernattitude]

For the @ficwip word of the week: leaves

“My son’s in hospital. Why wouldn’t I be here? Bad Dad, that would make me, huh?” James sneered, teeth bared.

“You are a bad father, James. Always have been,�� Georgie said.

“You should leave. Jamie doesn’t want you here.”

“Well, Jamie can tell me that himself, can’t he?”

“I’m telling you,” Roy said in a tone the allowed for no argument, though from what he could tell about Jamie’s father, he wasn’t exactly one to take a hint.

[official-wales]

Official Wales Welsh Word of the Week

amlosgfa (f) [am-losg-va] - crematorium

[smallumbrella369]

Necklace

@schittscreekdrabbleblog

David returns from the bar’s restroom, delighted to find his drunk husband being hit on. 

She purrs, “Do you like my necklace?” A long gold chain dips between her breasts. 

Oblivious, Patrick stares down her cleavage and shrugs, unmoved. “It’s okay.”

“What would you think of pearls?” Her fingers flutter across her chest. 

She’s bold! David snorts. Patrick turns and lights up.

“Hiiii, husband! This is my David. David, my husband.” Patrick hugs him. “I love my husband’.”

David smiles at the woman over Patrick’s shoulder. “Sorry. My husband is really gay.”

She chuckles, “Lucky you.”

David grins. “Lucky me.”

[auraspoetry]

Funeral

In the silence of my room, a single candle lit.

I saw your spirit leave my items and exit my room

I felt your fingers let go of my chest through my shaky breath 

I scattered your ashes, by the water I once asked you to take me to

I said my final goodbye and I grieved you 

I shed my last tear for you

Just like that your face was now distorted  

A dead person and I saw the body

I sat there at first pulling at my hair in denial 

I rocked back and forth asking for forgiveness 

The memorial was beautiful and the eulogy was silent

I watched the doves fly off the rocks 

If I ever see you again, I will witness a corpse walking

I will look once and I will not look again

I was the only one to attend your funeral

I alone know of your death. 

[best-non-english-word-torunament]

Word of the week rules and submissions!

What is this?

This is no longer a tournament as that takes too much time and admin. We have also already decided that многоꙮчитїй/ mnogoočitii from Old church slavonian is the best word, so no need to do that again. Instead, I will use this blog to highlight a word (or a couple of words) every week (or other time period if the queue runs out) from languages which aren't English. This will be based on reader submissions with me editing for clarity and adding a blurb about the language, much like in the tournament.

In short, tell me about your favourite words! Let's all learn something new! (My favourite phase of the tournament was definitely research/round one)

Who are you?

I'm a linguistics student and language nerd from Sweden who decided to run a tournament of non-English words because I wanted to highlight language diversity. My native language isn't English, so please be kind if my posts are worded weirdly sometimes (or my username is misspelled lol)

What makes a word good?

There are many ways that a word can be good, but here are some examples: it sounds good/feels good to say, the script looks nice, it denotes an interesting concept, it denotes a concept you like, it does something interesting grammarwise, usagewise or soundwise, it's funny, it's an interesting/fun compound, it has an interesting/fun etymology, it just has good vibes... The possibilities are endless

Rules:

No words in English, but loanwords from English are allowed with good motivation

No conlangs (I love them but the focus is on natural language)

Words from signed languages are allowed and encouraged as long as you can provide an explanatory picture or film for the sign

Words from pidgins are allowed

Words from extinct languages are allowed

Usage should be widespread within a language community (if it isn't/wasn't used in the language it doesn't belong, neither does words only your family/friend group uses, but slang words are allowed)

No words that have appeared in the tournament or previously on word of the week (search for the word on my blog, all words are tagged)

How submissions and posting work (read these before submitting):

Each person is can make two submissions at a time. Please wait until yours have been posted before you submit more

The submission form is currently open. It will remain so until I have too many unposted submissions, then open again when those have been scheduled

If you're able to, please provide an IPA transcription for your word (the International Phonetic Alphabet has a sign for each sound used in any language, which makes transcription of exact pronounciation possible)

You will need to provide a translation/explanation of the word in English since that is the language used on the blog for ease of communication and reach. If the exact translation of a word is part of what makes the word good, please provide that too

It is possible to be credited for your submission if you want to

If more than 5-6 words in the same language are submitted, all of them might not be posted until some time has passed to avoid one language dominating

I reserve the right to pick which words I want to share if I have many submissions and don't want to do all of them. I do this in my very limited spare time because I think language is fun and if it doesn't spark joy I won't do it

Submissions will be fact-checked, edited for clarity and get a short text about the language. If I find something interesting while researching I might add a note about that as well

Have fun! I can't wait to see your submissions and learn something new!

Submit your word(s) through this form