Christmas Day Cryptic
Woman of the upper classes, friend when Christmas comes round (8)
Answer: ANNUALLY
Verbs of Perception
Evocative verbs are the key to engaging writing. Your characters shouldn't just "hear" the crawling creatures in the dark when they can "catch a whisper of" them.
A
- anticipate
- apperceive
- appreciate
- apprehend
- assay
- attend
- auscultate
B
- be all ears
- be apprised of
- be with it
- beam
- become aware
- behold
- believe
- bite
- breathe
C
- catch
- catch a glimpse of
- catch a whisper of
- catch on
- catch sight of
- catch the drift
- chew
- clock
- consider
- contemplate
- credit
D
- deem
- descry
- detect
- devour
- differentiate
- dig
- discern
- discover
- distinguish
- divine
E
- eat
- eavesdrop
- enjoy
- espy
- examine
- eye
F
- feel
- feel in bones
- feel in gut
- find
- flash
G
- gape
- gawk
- gaze
- get
- get a load of
- get a whiff
- get an earful
- get the drift
- get the idea
- get the impression
- get the picture
- get vibes
- get wind of
- give an audience to
- give attention
- give ears
- glare
- glimpse
- grasp
H
- hark
- have a feeling
- have a hunch
- hear
- hearken
- heed
- hold
I
- identify
- inhale
- inspect
K
- know
L
- lay eyes on
- lick
- listen
- look
- look at
M
- make out
- mark
- mind
N
- nibble
- nose
- note
- notice
O
- observe
- overhear
P
- partake
- pay attention to
- peek
- peep
- peer
- peg
- penetrate
- perceive
- pick up
- pierce
R
- read
- realize
- recognize
- regard
- relish
- remark
S
- sample
- savor
- savvy
- scan
- scent
- scope
- scrutinize
- see
- sense
- sight
- sip
- smell
- sniff
- snuff
- spot
- spy
- stare
- strain
- survey
- suspect
T
- take in
- take notice
- taste
- test
- think
- touch
U
- understand
V
- view
W
- watch
- witness
World Students Day Cryptic
Pass securing science place for some teacher's student (8)
Answer: DISCIPLE
Tiny Stories of the English Language
Many of the words used in today's English language can be traced back to French, Greek, Latin, German, Spanish, and many other languages. Each word has its own genetic makeup that is specifically unique to that one word.These tiny stories are known as Etymology, the study of the origins of words. Below are four words that have interesting stories.
Jumbo
The word Jumbo means extremely large. The word began its call to fame with Jumbo the elephant. In 1882, Jumbo was the world's most famous elephant. Full grown, Jumbo stood twelve and a half feet tall and weighed seven tons. He was the biggest elephant the world had ever seen. On any given day he could eat a barrel of potatoes, 200 pounds of hay, half a barrel of oats, 15 bread loaves, and the occasional whiskey drink. Jumbo became much more a name, it became a word used to describe anything abnormally large like Jumbo the elephant.
Marathon
The word marathon makes its first appearance on the beach of Marathon. In 490 BC, a Persian army decided to be the first to conquer Athens. So they planned to land on the beach of Marathon, kill the entire Athens army, then swing around to the south side and loot the city. It should have been an easy victory, 25,000 Persians against 10,000 Athens. The Athens, realizing that they were completely outnumbered, begged for help from Sparta. Athens sent a military messenger, Pheidippides, to seek help. He ran 140 miles to Sparta, but Sparta refused to send help because they were in the middle of a religious holiday. So Pheidippides ran back.
When Pheidippides returned, Athens decided to just charge into battle. The Persians were completely caught by surprise and suffered massive losses that ended in a retreat.However, they were determined to sack Athens before they fled. On ships, the Persians would have taken 8 hours to reach Athens. Pheidippides sprinted the 26.2 miles all the way to Athens to warn of the oncoming army. On completing his mission, Pheidippides promptly died.
The Athens army had jogged behind Pheidippides to defend their city, battle-weary and exhausted. The Persians arrived and saw the tired troops of Athens waiting for them. They came to the conclusion that these Greeks were either demigods or supernatural beings, and decided they did not want to risk angering the gods. Hence the story behind the word marathon.
Clue
In Greek times, clue was actually spelled as clew and had a completely different meaning. Clew came from the Greek language meaning a ball of yarn. The meaning changed as it was adopted by the English language based on the Greek story of an evil king named Minos and his son, the Minotaur. Minos had built a labyrinth, and every seven years he required a sacrifice of 14 young men and women to be thrown into the labyrinth. No one ever returned from the labyrinth. Then one year a demigod named Theseus decided enough was enough, he was going to kill the Minotaur. Along the way. Minos' daughter fell heels over head in love with him and gave him a clew so that he could find his way out of the labyrinth. Theseus slew the Minotaur and used the clew to escape the depths of the labyrinth. The clew became known as the ball of yarn that points the way, a rough definition of the word clue.
Cell
The smallest building block of any organism is a cell. A scientist by the name of Robert Hooke was very curious about microscopes and designed better microscopes that allowed the viewer to view objects with a magnitude of 50x. He became the first person, in 1665, to actually see a cell. He thought they looked much like cells in prison and named them such. The name has stuck ever since.
Cure Your Ellipsis Addiction
The use of ellipses runs rampant throughout the English language, but never more so than online. You'll notice those three little dots at the end of social media posts, disbursed through blog posts, in professional articles, and dotted (excuse the pun) throughout the written world. But what are they really meant to do?
What Is an Ellipsis?
In appearance, an ellipsis is three dots (…). If you're writing professionally, the style guideline you're using may call for a space between each period or no spaces. There is always a space after the ellipsis.
These marks are traditionally used to indicate missing text. If you were quoting a source, you might use an ellipsis to eliminate unnecessary prose from a longer quote. This can help you pinpoint the idea so that your readers don't get lost.
When you use ellipses to eliminate text, it’s imperative that you don’t change the meaning of the quote by your omission. When implemented correctly, the ellipsis is only meant to help with clarity in this case.
Other Uses of the Ellipsis
The use of ellipses has evolved over time. While an ellipsis can indicated missing text, it can also mean different inflections in speech and even a trailing off of thought from the speaker. These style choices are often made in fiction and personal essay. You can find them in regular use with more informal writing, such as web content and blog posts.
But are you using it correctly? The rules here have relaxed quite a bit. Many people use ellipses at the end of social media posts. This style choice implies a trailing off of thoughts or an open idea. They are also used as a pause in conversation.
Most style guidelines note that ellipses can correctly be used to indicate a pause in speech. This is a grammatically correct way to use the punctuation. However, it’s recommended that you use it sparingly. Overuse can annoy the reader, which is counterproductive no matter what message you’re trying to communicate.
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Hi!
I'm Chris, a software developer from Haverhill, Massachusetts, specializing in linguistics, readability, and NLP.
I've been obsessed with the curios of the English language for as long as I can remember and this blog is my excuse to spend even more time on them.