Stephanie Whetstone – Page 37

A Restless Language

Stephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:10:01-05:00

A Restless Language One of the delights – and occasional frustrations – of English is its protean quality, its limitless capacity to embrace and abandon words and usages. In 2011, an article in Science, “Quantitative Analysis of Culture Using Millions of Digitized Books” (courtesy of Google), estimated that our lexicon grew by some 8,500 words per year between 1950 and 2000, though many of these additions will never make it into a dictionary. Even as words are born or employed in new ways, others wither from disuse, and what was familiar and acceptable to our grandparents may well be alien to us, and vice versa. Take the [...]

A Restless LanguageStephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:10:01-05:00

ennui (ŏn-WĒ)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-03-28T12:00:25-04:00

Definition (Noun) The feeling of mental weariness and dissatisfaction produced by want of occupation, or by lack of interest in present surroundings and employments. In Context "Young men reaching maturity in deferential and patriarchal societies found a soldier's career attractive precisely because it promised release from the restraints or ennui of the familiar." Dennis Showalter and William J. Astore, Soldiers' Lives Through History: The Early Modern World, 2007.

ennui (ŏn-WĒ)Stephanie Whetstone2016-03-28T12:00:25-04:00

alliaceous (ăl-ē-Ā-shəs)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-03-21T12:00:15-04:00

Definition (Adjective) Of a smell or taste: resembling that of garlic or onions, garlicky; also having such a smell or taste. In Context "In the Middle Ages in southern Europe, food tended to be alliaceous because garlic helped disguise the fact that warm temperatures had turned some of the ingredients bad." Mark Morton, Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities, Second Edition, 2004.

alliaceous (ăl-ē-Ā-shəs)Stephanie Whetstone2016-03-21T12:00:15-04:00

taciturn (TĂS-ĭ-tûrn)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-03-14T12:00:20-04:00

Definition (Adjective) Characterized by silence or disinclination to conversation; reserved in speech; saying little; uncommunicative. In Context "There were times when she was taciturn, but I thought she was still grieving for her mother." Julia Miles, Editor, WomensWork: Five New Plays from The Women's Project, 1989.

taciturn (TĂS-ĭ-tûrn)Stephanie Whetstone2016-03-14T12:00:20-04:00

paucity (PÔ-sĭ-tē)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-03-07T12:00:48-05:00

Definition (Noun) Smallness of quantity or size; thinness; the presence of something in only small amounts; scantiness; a small or scant quantity. In Context "He had the best library for miles around, yet still there was a paucity of books, a paucity that he turned into an opportunity." Robert L. Dorman, A Word for Nature: Four Pioneering Environmental Advocates, 1845-1913, 1998.

paucity (PÔ-sĭ-tē)Stephanie Whetstone2016-03-07T12:00:48-05:00

The Baron in the Trees (1959) by Italo Calvino

Stephanie Whetstone2016-03-01T01:00:04-05:00

Critical Assessment "Calvino, it seemed to me, had managed effortlessly what no author in English could quite claim: his novels and stories and fables were both classically modernist and giddily postmodern, embracing both experiment and tradition, at once conceptual and humane, intimate and mythic. Calvino, with his frequent references to comics and folktales and film, and his droll probing of contemporary scientific and philosophical theories, had encompassed motifs associated with brows both high and low in an internationally lucid style, one wholly his own." Jonathan Lethem, "Italo for Beginners," The New York Times, November 20, 2005. First Excerpt "I have mentioned [...]

The Baron in the Trees (1959) by Italo CalvinoStephanie Whetstone2016-03-01T01:00:04-05:00

A Celebration of Student Writing

Stephanie Whetstone2016-02-29T15:09:57-05:00

In this post, Maha Al Fahim '19 describes a new initiative that Princeton Writes is sponsoring – one that will showcase the remarkable work that student writers on our campus are producing outside the classroom. A Celebration of Student Writing, to be held from 7:00-8:30 p.m. on Monday, April 11, in the Hamilton Murray Theater in Murray-Dodge Hall, is open to all current and admitted students, who may obtain free tickets at the University Ticketing box office in Frist Campus Center or, in the case of current students, by logging in online at tickets.princeton.edu, beginning March 28. Any remaining tickets will [...]

A Celebration of Student WritingStephanie Whetstone2016-02-29T15:09:57-05:00

Roundtable with Amy Rowland on February 23

Stephanie Whetstone2016-02-20T11:59:27-05:00

Novelist and National Endowment for the Arts Literary Fellow Amy Rowland will lead a dinnertime discussion entitled "Finding Your Novel in Real Life" in Mathey College's Firestone Room on Tuesday, February 23, from 7:00-8:00 p.m. Rowland, whose debut novel, The Transcriptionist, earned her the Addison M. Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters last year, will explore the relationship between fiction and reality. How, she will ask, do novelists choose what to take from life when constructing a fictional self, a character, or an imaginary world? Is all writing autobiographical, as the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Donald Murray famously [...]

Roundtable with Amy Rowland on February 23Stephanie Whetstone2016-02-20T11:59:27-05:00

corpulent (KÔR-pyə-lənt)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-02-15T12:00:59-05:00

Definition (Adjective) Large or bulky of body; fleshy, fat. In Context "In a documentary I once saw on the BBC about British expatriates in Spain, there was an unforgettable image -- a corpulent Englishwoman in the tiny kitchen of her restaurant on the Costa Blanca, serving up English dinners with roast beef, gravy, three veg, and Yorkshire pudding, the poor woman pink and sweating in the heat of a Spanish summer." Paul Richardson, A Late Dinner: Discovering the Food of Spain, 2007.

corpulent (KÔR-pyə-lənt)Stephanie Whetstone2016-02-15T12:00:59-05:00

William Jennings Bryan on Eloquence

Stephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:11:20-05:00

William Jennings Bryan on Eloquence William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic nominee for president and secretary of state in Woodrow Wilson's first administration, was among the foremost public speakers of his day. His "Cross of Gold" speech of 1896 has been described as "one of the greatest pieces of American political oratory ever," and he played a starring role in the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. In In His Image (1922), he devoted a chapter to "The Spoken Word" and the attributes of eloquence. Here is an excerpt: "Eloquence may be defined as the speech of one who knows what he is [...]

William Jennings Bryan on EloquenceStephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:11:20-05:00

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