David Zapatka We’re doing something different this month. We’re going to explore getting a new word into dictionaries. Reader Debbie M. writes, “Hello, I enjoy your column and want to offer a suggestion. ‘Orbisculate’ is a word not yet in the dictionary. I think we should help the young people who are trying to get…
Tag: Word of the month
Features, June 2021
Word of the Month: Enough
David Zapatka Have you had enough? How much is enough? Enough of what? Enough stuff? Enough politics? Enough religion? Enough of some person? Enough of some activity? What does enough really mean? Reader and sister, Judy Haberstroh, says, “I came across this excerpt and thought the word ‘enough’ may be a good one for your…
Features, May 2021
Word of the Month: Ontology
David Zapatka Last month’s column on “negentropy” elicited this response from a reader, “My thermodynamics class was at 8 a.m. and I slept through that particular law. Thanks for the review albeit a little late to do anything with it.” There’s an art to scheduling university classes and avoiding 8 a.m. classes was one of…
Features, April 2021
Word of the Month: Negentropy
David Zapatka While reading Starseed Transmissions by Ken Carey, I ran across the word negentropy. I’ve always been fascinated by the word entropy and its meaning so I was immediately intrigued by this related word driving me to research it for this month’s issue. Entropy: noun /ˈentrəpē/ 1. thermodynamics: a measure of the unavailable energy in a…
Features, March 2021
Word of the Month: Librettist
David Zapatka Commenting on the January WOTM column, reader Tom from Arlington, Va., writes, “Here’s a Washington Post article where your word of the month ‘jeremiad’ is used by the paper’s reporter Michael Scherer. In this case, the reporter uses it to describe the words of the chairman of the Nye County Republican Party in…
Features, January 2021
Word of the Month: Sublime
David Zapatka My friend Mike Schneider and I were discussing this quote from The Urantia Book recently: “Such spirit-born individuals are so unmotivated in life that they can calmly stand by while their fondest ambitions perish and their keenest hopes crash; they positively know that such catastrophes are but the redirecting cataclysms which wreck one’s temporal creations…
Features, January 2021
Word of the Month: Jeremiad
David Zapatka Dear friend and Wisdom Seeker moderator, Ellen Engel, suggested the word jeremiad for this month’s WOTM. Jeremiad: noun jer·e·mi·ad | ˌjer-ə-ˈmī-əd, -ˌad 1. a prolonged lamentation or complaint 2. a cautionary or angry harangue. 3. a long, literary work, usually in prose, sometimes in verse, where the author bitterly laments the state of society and its…
Features, December 2020
Word of the Month: Cool
David Zapatka After reading last month’s WOTM “groovy,” my sister and reader, Debbie Zapatka, wrote, “That was cool, man! Does ‘cool’ have the same sort of history as groovy? A friend at work uses the word groovy all the time.” Sister and reader Judy Haberstroh wrote, “Interesting. The only person I know who still occasionally…
Features, November 2020
Word of the Month: Groovy
David Zapatka The “59th Street Bridge Song”, known by many as the “Feelin’ Groovy” song by Simon and Garfunkel, came on the radio. I was asked if I knew the history behind the word “groovy” which led to this month’s WOTM, “groovy.” Groovy: ˈgrü-vē Adjective 1. marvelous, wonderful, excellent 2. hip, trendy Origin and Etymology: “pertaining to…
Features, October 2020
Word of the Month: Petrichor
David Zapatka Following a good rain after a long, dry spell one evening on the pickleball court with friend Natasha Thompson, that luscious smell we are all familiar with danced in our noses. Imagine that fresh, earthy smell we all know so well as you read this column. Tash said, “There’s a word for that…