August 2015 – Princeton Writes

euphony (YŌŌ-fə-nē)

Stephanie Whetstone2015-08-31T12:00:09-04:00

Definition (Noun) The quality of having a pleasant sound; the pleasing effect of sounds free from harshness; chiefly with reference to combinations of words in sentences, or of phonetic elements in spoken words. In Context "When a prime minister starts talking with relish about iron and blood (the phrase was later – perhaps, for euphony – turned round to read 'blood and iron') in his second speech in office and in connection with the rectification of his country's frontiers it is only fair to take him seriously." Edward Crankshaw, Bismarck, 1981. This word was suggested by Jeff Bergman in the Office [...]

euphony (YŌŌ-fə-nē)Stephanie Whetstone2015-08-31T12:00:09-04:00

Splitsville

Stephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:17:03-05:00

Splitsville One of the great controversies of English grammar is whether a full infinitive – to eat, to sleep, to play – can be split by an adverb or other interloper. Beginning in the nineteenth century, many grammarians, reinforced, in time, by innumerable teachers, condemned this practice, asserting, as Henry Alford did in 1864, that "we ever regard the to of the infinitive as inseparable from its verb." Thus, Alford deprecated "to scientifically illustrate" when "scientifically to illustrate" and "to illustrate scientifically" would do. What should have been treated as a matter of taste became a litmus test of quality. As [...]

SplitsvilleStephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:17:03-05:00

castigate (KĂS-tĭ-gāt)

Stephanie Whetstone2015-08-24T12:00:20-04:00

Definition (Verb) To chastise, correct, inflict corrective punishment on; to subdue by punishment or discipline, to chasten; now usually, to punish or rebuke severely. In Context "Most groups – ethnic or religious, national, clan, or tribe – think of themselves as good and worthy, and they tend to castigate their own members who might question these assumptions." John Borneman, Political Crime and the Memory of Loss, 2011.

castigate (KĂS-tĭ-gāt)Stephanie Whetstone2015-08-24T12:00:20-04:00

rumbustious (rŭm-BŬS-chəs)

Stephanie Whetstone2015-08-17T12:00:36-04:00

Definition (Adjective) Boisterous, turbulent; unruly. In Context "The man who emerges from this book is rumbustious, challenging, infuriating, childish yet utterly grown-up, at times short-tempered, at times possessing an almost visionary generosity of spirit." Roger Mosey, "King of America," The Guardian, April 6, 2002.

rumbustious (rŭm-BŬS-chəs)Stephanie Whetstone2015-08-17T12:00:36-04:00

susurrus (sŏŏ-SÛR-əs)

Stephanie Whetstone2015-08-10T12:00:32-04:00

Definition (Noun) A low soft sound as of whispering or muttering; a whisper; a rustling. In Context "Presently our faithful blackbird will try out a splash of liquid notes in the dimmened and newly oppressive air, and then will come the first and faintest susurrus of rain, like the sound of a blind man's fingers reading braille." John Banville, The Infinities, 2010.

susurrus (sŏŏ-SÛR-əs)Stephanie Whetstone2015-08-10T12:00:32-04:00

mountebank (MOUN-tə-băngk)

Stephanie Whetstone2015-08-03T12:00:16-04:00

Definition (Noun) A charlatan, a person who falsely claims knowledge of or skill in some matter, especially for personal gain; a person who pretends to be something he or she is not, in order to gain prestige, fame, etc. In Context "Whether patriot or scoundrel, military mountebank or tactical genius, epic hero or unwelcome ghost of a repressive society best forgotten, he remains what he always was: a fascinating story and a fascinating storyteller who must be approached obliquely, stalked with the same guerrilla tactics that he made famous during the Civil War." Paul Ashdown and Edward Caudill, The Mosby Myth: [...]

mountebank (MOUN-tə-băngk)Stephanie Whetstone2015-08-03T12:00:16-04:00

Euphoria (2014) by Lily King

Stephanie Whetstone2015-08-01T12:00:21-04:00

Critical Assessment "It's the rare novel of ideas that devours its readers' attention. More often . . . we work our way through these books carefully and with frequent pauses, rather than gulping them down in long, thirsty drafts. It's not a literary form known for its great romances, either, although of course love and sex play a role in most fictional characters' lives. Lily King's 'Euphoria,' a shortish novel based on a period in the life of pioneering anthropologist Margaret Mead, is an exception. At its center is a romantic triangle, and it tells a story that begs to be [...]

Euphoria (2014) by Lily KingStephanie Whetstone2015-08-01T12:00:21-04:00