APOSTROPHE:  (noun)  a punctuation mark that shows possession or marks the omission of one or more letters (contraction)  .  a figure of speech I have heard academics—mainly religion scholars  strutting their Greek—complain about the limitations of English  when they want to make a distinction in the meaning  of a word so that their audience will better understand what they’re trying to say. They bemoan the fact that English has only one word for love, whereas the Greek has three or four. Well, with the word apostrophe, English has two totally different meanings for the one word. I hope this is  good enough to mollify those scholars. We  know about the…

CLICHE:  (noun) a commonplace or trite expression  .  banality  .  a phrase or opinion that is overused I know you don’t wake up every morning with the word cliche on your mind, and perhaps the closest some of us  have come to thinking about the word may have been that time back in high school when an overzealous English teacher underlined a phrase in one of our essays and wrote “cliche” in the margin, leaving us wondering what a cliche was. Cliches are expressions that were once new and fresh but have been used so often and so extensively that they have lost their impact and are now empty of…

FRAGRANCE: (noun) a pleasant, sweet smell .  scent .  perfume .  aroma .  bouquet This week we have a well-known, easily-recognized word.  Fragrance carries its own aroma;  it appeals to our senses. Some people, both male and female, are perfume aficionados. For them, the perfume counter in department stores is a favorite spot when they go shopping. Even those who aren’t buying anything linger there, attracted by its particular ambiance;  they try out the testers and sample their allure. The perfume industry today is huge, but ancient peoples loved their essences too.  Archaeologists have discovered that Egyptians were big fans of perfume. Hieroglyphics in Egyptian tombs have revealed that people…

PUGNACIOUS (adjective) combative . aggressive . belligerent . antagonistic . defiant . threatening . quarrelsome “I think I have a pugnacious style. My style is not pretty. I don’t use words like “amber” and “opaque.” Ishmael Reed In just a few words, writer Ishmael Reed has  captured the spirit of pugnaciousness that is  true  of both his poetry and his prose. Reed’s brief assessment of his style can be applied broadly  to the word in general.  Pugnacious is not pretty. It has  an arsenal of unpleasantness that can be unleashed on the world to send people scrambling for shelter from its harshness.  I recently came across an article in which…

RHETORIC:  (noun) the art of convincing and persuading people by language through public speaking  or writing .  the art of persuasion used by orators, writers, media The term rhetoric isn’t used much anymore, today mostly in a pejorative way. When someone says that what another person is saying “is mere rhetoric,” it is meant to  dismiss what is being said as just empty  talk, no substance.  However, rhetoric has a respected past, originating with Aristotle and trickling down to modern English.  Perhaps the reason for the slippage in the word’s standing  is related to the decline in an emphasis on quality speech. There was a time when  what was called…

EUPHEMISM: (noun) agreeable or inoffensive word to replace a rude or offensive one . an indirect term substituted for a more direct or unpleasant one . a mild alternative word If you are like me, you find pleasure in knowing about words  and enjoying their unusual qualities. Euphemisms fall into a special class of  interesting words. A  euphemism is “a mild or indirect expression substituted for one that is considered too harsh or stark when referring to something considered blunt or embarrassing.”  Are euphemisms  passe in this anything-goes age of ours? They may not be, but since times change—actually, it is attitudes that change—we might expect to see less effort…

SOMNOLENCE: (noun) the state of being drowsy, drowsiness, sleepiness Sleep goes by a lot of common, familiar  names, such as  cat nap, shut-eye, snooze, forty winks, Z’s and many more. “Somnolence” brings on a state of drowsiness, giving us a gentle nudge to let us know that we should break off what we are doing and go to sleep, but sometimes we  work past this point of sleepiness, ignoring the body’s signal. Sleep gets a lot of attention these days. Articles on the topic abound  in magazines and books.  It’s as if the writers know something about us and are capitalizing on it,  thus giving us a wake-up call.  And…

PERCEPTION: (noun) a mental impression  .  discernment  .  appreciation  .  realization  .  recognition  .  the way you think about  or understand  someone or something  .  impression  .  attitude  .  approach With the many synonyms that perception has,  it is fairly easy to get a good idea of what  the word means.  One of the definitions is “a mental  impression,”  and we constantly have mental impressions of one kind or another.   But can we be always sure that what we perceive is the reality in a given situation? Toward the end of last winter, I noticed that the Bradford pear tree in my front yard had whitish, scabby-looking bark that appeared…

PRECISE:  (Adjective)  definitely or strictly stated  .  defined  .  carefully distinct  .  exact  .  accurate  .  unambiguous   Precise and precision have a variety of meanings, some of which are listed above.  Anyone who desires to be  an effective  writer  or speaker, which is the real goal of communication,  should make an effort to be precise. The language police, those individuals who are always watching for linguistic misdemeanors, ready to put the clamps on offenders, are not popular. They sometimes don’t have a welcome place at a party because they like preciseness  and are not bashful about  trying  to help others use the language effectively.  Looking at  the comments on…

PRESTIGE: (Noun)  status  .  standing  . stature  .  reputation  .  renown  .  fame What comes to your mind when you think of the word prestigious?  Does it conjure up images of  things, or of people,  of position, or of groups?  Maybe all of the  above?  The word has a big draw for most people, although many will be very quick to say, “It doesn’t matter to me.” But the next time you are in a group of professionals, try to talk less and listen more and then come to your conclusion about whether prestige matters. I would like to believe that everyone who reads my weekly post has read my…