e . bul . lience/noun/ enthusiasm,  exuberance, elation, vivacity, zest   It has been quite some time since I read Chenua Achebe’s powerful novel, Things Fall Apart, but the grandeur of what he created in it has lingered with me.  The book has been considered the finest  written about Nigeria at the end of the 19th century. It dramatizes the devastating changes that had occurred in Nigerian culture under British rule.  It’s a story that makes us think of other parts of the  world  where dramatic changes caused cultures to “fall apart,” their centers unable to hold. The title of Achebe’s book is taken from William Butler Yeats’ poem, “The Second Coming,” the first two lines of which are often quoted:…

ex . pe . dite/ verb/ accelerate, hasten, step-up, quicken Time, you old Gypsy Man, will you not stay? Put up your caravan just for a day.                                                                                                              Ralph Hodgson Isn’t it ironic that people want Old Father Time to slow down, but at the same time they want things to move at a fast pace? Individuals today tend to be impatient with slow. This week’s word, expedite,  is quite  popular nowadays. It is most often  used in the commercial world and fits in well with the stepped-up version of life that we are experiencing. “Free Grocery Pickup– Save Time”  read the sign I saw in front of a  nearby grocery store,  part of a nationally known chain. Customers…

e . phem . . er . al /adjective/ lasting only for a short time, transitory, fleeting, short-lived The other day I met a fellow shopper in the supermarket aisle.  She was looking for a particular brand of dishwashing detergent. I had looked for the same brand the week before, but didn’t find it, so I looked again with her, and when we didn’t find it, we  grumbled together about the unnecessary changes that stores make. On the shelf was a different version of the product we wanted–new and improved, I should imagine.  Instead of the powder to pour, there was a smaller box of little square pods with built-in drying agent. All-in-one, the box proclaimed.…

tem . per . ance /noun/ abstinence, abstention, sobriety, self-restraint, moderation, self-control especially in eating and drinking.   Someone suggested to me sometime ago that it would be a good thing to  bring back some of the old words that have gone out of use. I thought that was a great idea. For instance, when was the last time you heard “fandangle” or   “spectacles” or “petticoat” used in normal conversation or in the media?  These words were once in regular use but no longer are. Words go out of fashion just as dress styles do. That is part of the nature of language. A word that used to be popular at one time fades from…

ep . i . logue /noun/ afterword, postscript, , addendum, conclusion This week we’re looking at a word that is most often related to a literary work, where it serves as a concluding section that rounds out the piece. An epilogue, as you can see from the definitions, is an addition. Sometimes a story has reached its resolution; the denouement has occurred; the loose ends have been tied up neatly. From all appearances, the book is complete, but there is something yet to be said that doesn’t fit neatly into the end of the story. That is where the epilogue comes in. In my book Breaking Away,  the main character, Lola McIntyre, severs ties with New Lebanon College, marries…

trep . i . da . tion /noun/ fear, apprehension, dread, worry, anxiety, nervousness uneasiness As you can see from the definitions above, trepidation has multiple denotative meanings, and it also has  as many connotative ones as there are people. Two of the meanings, fear and anxiety,  can have really severe consequences. Fear has the power to be crippling; anxiety can be incapacitating as psychologists and psychiatrists will attest, but these  intense effects are not the focus of this week’s comments. Trepidation applies to our daily experiences in other ways. Yesterday I saw the first yellow school bus that heralded the new school year, and my thoughts ran to the children who had got on the bus that morning–…

dap . pled /adjective/ marked with spots or rounded patches, variegated, covered with spots of color that are lighter or darker than the main color If you have forgotten ever having heard the word dapple, then these lines from a well-known nursery rhyme might jog your memory: “I had a little pony/his name was Dapple Gray/ I lent him to a lady/to ride a mile away.”  Little Dapple Gray was so named because he was gray and covered with colored  spots. The word dappled appears in a  poem titled “Pied Beauty,” by Gerard Manley Hopkins. There’s something about poets that makes them see things in a different light from the rest of…

so . bri . quet /noun/ nickname, pen name, epithet, pseudonym, handle, moniker   NAMES – PART TWO Today I was at the checkout counter in a store when the manager came by rolling a shopping cart. He asked the cashier, “Where’s Billy?” The young woman looked puzzled. “Who’s Billy?” she asked.  The manager repeated, “Billy. Billy.” She said she didn’t know a Billy who worked at the store. The gentleman sounded annoyed when he asked her again about Billy before wheeling the cart toward an aisle. In a little while, a young man came in and went to the register next to the clerk’s. “Do you know a Billy?” she asked him.…

ap . pel .  la . tion/noun/  name, designation, title If you love words–their sounds, their meanings, their origins– you do know that exploring one word can lead you to another, which is not a bad thing, as long as you don’t go down the rabbit’s hole, which sometimes happens. I started looking at  the fleeting nature of words–their evanescence–and ended up thinking about something else. As children we were told to choose our words carefully because words once spoken can’t be hauled back in like a kite. This idea is true for us in adulthood as well. We, too, need to be careful how we use words, although from observation, I have concluded that some grownups, especially in high places today,…