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The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
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Color Synonyms [Archive] - Teenage Writers For when you don't want to say 'black' forty times in one sentence. The stuff in perentheses in italics are kind of cliche and might want to be avoided. Remember to try looking the color up before using it, since most of these names are for different shades. Also, not all names are appropriate at all times. Feel free to add any suggestions I missed. Note also: The Sage has her own opinion on colors, and she might not list the synonym under the color you think it is. Red flame-red (hair), russet, crimson (blood, anything else), carmine, magenta, maroon, tomato, cherry, raspberry (close to purple), amaranth (also pink), burgundy, cardinal, cinnabar, rust (brown), sangria, scarlet, ruby, garnet, vermillion, fire-truck red, oak leaf red, brandy, ember, strawberry lemonade (pinkish), cerise Orange flame, peach, tangerine, apricot, burnt orange, carrot, orange-peel, persimmon (reddish), pumpkin, Blaze/Safety orange, cantaloupe Purple Violet (eyes), orchid, lavendar, plum, heliotrope, mauve (?)

Origins Of Popular Jewish Surnames Correction, Jan. 29, 2014: Some of the sources used in the reporting of this piece were unreliable and resulted in a number of untruths and inaccuracies. The original post remains below, but a follow-up post outlining the errors, as well as further explanation, can be found here. Ashkenazic Jews were among the last Europeans to take family names. Some German-speaking Jews took last names as early as the 17th century, but the overwhelming majority of Jews lived in Eastern Europe and did not take last names until compelled to do so. The process began in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1787 and ended in Czarist Russia in 1844. In attempting to build modern nation-states, the authorities insisted that Jews take last names so that they could be taxed, drafted, and educated (in that order of importance). Until this period, Jewish names generally changed with every generation. Jews distrusted the authorities and resisted the new requirement. MATRONYMICS (daughter of …) Let us close with a ditty:

Josiah Bounderby in Hard Times Bounderby is a successful capitalist who owns a factory and a bank in Coketown. He brags about having grown up an orphan, and marries Louisa Gradgrind hoping to make her a trophy wife. In the end, she leaves him, his stories about his childhood turn out to be lies, and he dies of a fit in the street. The novel doesn't really beat around the bush with this one. Bounderby is awful. And yet, Bounderby is actually just one giant contradiction. Yes, it turns out that Bounderby actually grew up in a normal, loving, probably over-indulgent family that helped him get a start in life. Josiah Bounderby Timeline Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Tips on How to Write a Great Story By Maria Popova The year of reading more and writing better is well underway with writing advice the likes of David Ogilvy’s 10 no-bullshit tips, Henry Miller’s 11 commandments, Jack Kerouac’s 30 beliefs and techniques, John Steinbeck’s 6 pointers, and various invaluable insight from other great writers. Now comes Kurt Vonnegut (November 11, 1922–April 11, 2007) — anarchist, Second Life dweller, imaginary interviewer of the dead, sad soul — with eight tips on how to write a good short story, narrated by the author himself. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.Start as close to the end as possible.Be a Sadist.

“Daniel” In Japanese :: japanesetranslator.co.uk In Japanese, foreign names are normally written using the phonetic katakana alphabet. To see what your name looks like in Japanese, just type it in below and click the “Translate” button. If you like, you can also choose from a few different character styles. Notes This dictionary does not contain Japanese names. Using the Images The images produced by this dictionary are free for personal use. Problems? If you're seeing an error image where your name should be, then maybe your browser isn't working properly. CALLIHOO Writing Helps--Feelings Table Character Feelings You can describe your character's feelings in more exact terms than just "happy" or "sad." Check these lists for the exact nuance to describe your character's intensity of feelings. SF Characters | SF Items | SF Descriptors | SF Places | SF EventsSF Jobs/Occupations | Random Emotions | Emotions List | Intensity of Feelings

19 amazing English words we've totally forgotten about 1. Twirlblast A tornado, according to people in the 1700s. Why we switched to tornado, I’ll never understand. 2. Chork The act of making the sound your shoes make when you’re walking in them and they’re full of water. 3. This actually does not refer to the activities of a successful third date, but rather refers to a specific punctuation mark that is a mixture of a question mark and an exclamation mark (‽). 4. This amazing word refers to the Medieval belief that a woman in labor could be made to feel better by giving her some cheese. 5. Poor handwriting. 6. One who gives their opinions on things they don’t know about. 7. To put a live eel up a horse’s butt. 8. Things that look nice, but are actually pretty worthless. 9. A dishonest public official. See 10 more amazing forgotten English words on page 2 >>

Virtual Domicile of Steven K. Baum Physical Descriptions - List of Hair Colors Hair Color List (Note: an updated and expanded version of this list appears in my 15K-word book How to Describe Hair and Skin. See below.) [First, my profound apologies to the vast majority of readers who don't steal content, but I have to state the following. This article and all content on this website belongs to Val Kovalin, copyright © Obsidianbookshelf.com, except where noted. I'll admit it – hair colors are fun, even for someone like me who advocates keeping description to a minimum. Natural human hair color comes in these basic shades: blond(e), red, light brown, dark brown, black, gray, white. Don't forget about highlights! What are the nouns that apply to people with certain hair colors? Also, sometimes words pick up additional shades of meaning over time that are irrational but exist, and you won't find these connotations listed in the dictionary. Please check for frequent updates to this list! Blond – ash Blond – bronze.

Why does fall/autumn have 2 names? Ambivalence over the name of the third season of the year reflects its status as a relatively new concept. As natural as it seems today, people haven't always thought of the year in terms of four seasons. Fifteen hundred years ago, the Anglo-Saxons marked the passage of time with just one season: winter, a concept considered equivalent to hardship or adversity that metaphorically represented the year in its entirety. According to "Folk Taxonomies in Early English" (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003) by Earl R. Summer is also a time-honored concept, though perhaps never quite as weighty a one as winter, and this is evidenced by greater ambivalence over its name. Incidentally, Chinese culture also had a two-season framework, but there, the major seasonal polarity was autumn (symbolizing adversity) and spring (symbolizing regeneration), with little importance given to the extremes of summer and winter. Related on Life's Little Mysteries:

The Phrontistery: Obscure Words and Vocabulary Resources 12 Letters That Didn't Make the Alphabet You know the alphabet. It’s one of the first things you’re taught in school. But did you know that they’re not teaching you all of the alphabet? There are quite a few letters we tossed aside as our language grew, and you probably never even knew they existed. 1. Have you ever seen a place that calls itself “ye olde whatever”? Thorn, which was pronounced exactly like the "th" in its name, is actually still around today in Icelandic. 2. Another holdover from the Futhark runic alphabet, wynn was adapted to the Latin alphabet because it didn’t have a letter that quite fit the “w” sound that was common in English. Over time, though, the idea of sticking two u’s together actually became quite popular, enough so that they literally became stuck together and became the letter W (which, you’ll notice, is actually two V’s). 3. Yogh stood for a sort of throaty noise that was common in Middle English words that sounded like the "ch" in "Bach" or Scottish "loch." 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Unusual, Neglected and/or Lost Literature [ home ] Major update during Aug.-Oct. 2014. Quite a bit of new material that's of course not marked in any way as the newer stuff so you'll just have to poke around. Major update during Nov. 2008 including reformatting (e.g. what was I thinking using all those HTML lists?), many new entries, and adding new material to old entries (although I've not yet found the motivation to check for all the dead links). Contained herein are links and books in my personal collection (well, a few aren't...yet) in the general category of unusual literature, for which the best definition I can come up with at the moment is: stuff I like that's a little or a lot different than most of the stuff you'll find down at the local Books'R'Us. I've chosen/pinched/pilfered reviews basedly almost entirely on their informational content rather than their opinion of the book, on the theory that the more you know about the author and the book the more you'll be able to appreciate it. Enjoy. Meta, i.e. Meta-Books Authors

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