Word of the Week: Obtuse
Word: obtuse
Pronunciation: əb-T(Y)OOS / ahb-T(Y)OOS
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: annoyingly insensitive or slow to understand
Source: Oxford Dictionaries
Tails: What luck! This rock would make a perfect focusing lens for my hyper-exo-madifier! All I need is a refracting chamber and an influx reflector! Right, Knuckles?
Knuckles: Do you use big words just to make me feel… um… what’s that word that means ‘not smart’?
Tails: Obtuse?
Knuckles: Yeah, see? That’s what I’m talking about.
– Sonic Boom (Season 1, Episode 31 – Closed Door Policy)
Okay, so maybe I watch Cartoon Network once in a while just to unwind, and maybe I’ve gotten a little hooked on the newest Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon. But that’s not really important. The point to focus on now is this week’s vocabulary word in the above dialogue from an episode of Sonic Boom. In this scene, young inventor fox Tails is going on about a complex gadget he plans to build, and the brawny but not-too-bright echidna Knuckles has a hard time keeping up with his friend’s “techno babble”. When Tails offers an uncommon definition for a slowness to understand things, Knuckles hilariously proves yet again that he’s a little too “obtuse” to grasp such big words!
An “obtuse” person is someone who is slow to understand things or is otherwise annoyingly insensitive. The word arose in late Middle English in the sense “blunt” and comes from the Latin adjective obtusus “dull”, which in turn derives from the verb obtundere, meaning “to strike”. This verb comprises the preposition ob “against” and the verb tundere “to beat”.
There are a handful of definitions for the word “obtuse”. Aside from the above meaning used for people, it can also refer to something that is difficult to comprehend or an object that is blunt as opposed to sharp-edged. Of course, anyone who paid attention during trigonometry lessons in Math class remembers that “obtuse” also defines an angle between 90º and 180º. So if you ever find yourself writing about dull people and/or objects (or even about math problems), “obtuse” may be a word you’ll want to work into your stories!
What are your thoughts on this word? Any suggestions for future “Word of the Week” featured words?
Risen
(What If? Exercise: Read the description here.)
The phoenix is a legendary bird of strength and wisdom.
But it’s nothing if it cannot set itself ablaze.
She feared she would never have such courage.
Until the first time she touched fire.
Now she hungered for that power.
She summoned the magic within.
Suddenly, her feathers ignited.
She burned fiercely.
True phoenix.
This piece is based on What If? Exercise 93: “Ten to One”. The exercise is to write a 55-word story in which the first sentence has ten words, the second has nine, etc., until the last sentence has only one word. The objective is to show that precision and thrift in writing can produce surprisingly powerful results. I hope you enjoy what I’ve written. Thanks for reading!
Five More Books I Want to Read in 2016
Remember that list I shared last week of five books I want to read this year? Well, I just thought of five more. I feel a 2016 reading challenge coming on! It’s hard to say if I’ll be able to read all these books in one year, but I’ll definitely keep them on my list for future reading!
Just for fun, here are five more books I want to read in 2016. Enjoy!
6) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling
I recently received this book as a surprise gift, and I have to say I couldn’t be more thrilled to have it in my collection. The Harry Potter books were a huge part of my childhood, and no Harry Potter fan’s bookshelf is complete without the spinoffs! The best part is that the profits from sales of Fantastic Beasts go to Comic Relief, a charity Ms. Rowling has long supported that was founded to “bring about positive and lasting change in the lives of poor and disadvantaged people”. It’s been too long since I finished the main series, so I look forward to diving back into the magical world of Harry Potter! Of course, after I’m done with this book, I’ll have to tackle Quidditch Through The Ages next…
7) Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
It’s this tragic love story between Cathy and Heathcliff, and it takes place on these really creepy moors in England, which I think represent the wildness of Heathcliff’s character. I totally get symbolism!
– Phoebe Buffay, Friends (Season 5, Episode 9 – The One With Ross’s Sandwich)
Yes, more period drama! This one’s another book that’s been sitting unread on my shelf for a while. My mother read Wuthering Heights a long time ago and recommended it to me because she enjoyed it, though she did warn me that it’s a rather tragic story. Just as well; I’ve always been one for a good dramatic tragedy!
8) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I know, I know, I’m really late to the party on this one. The last movie isn’t even in theaters anymore (at least, not where I live)! I did buy the first Hunger Games novel in ebook format a while back; I just haven’t yet gotten around to reading it. I have been looking forward to immersing myself in some dystopian fiction, though, and since this one’s been on my to-read list for years and I’ve already seen most of the movies, The Hunger Games trilogy is almost certainly the best place for me to start!
9) Divergent by Veronica Roth
While we’re on the subject of dystopian fiction, Divergent is another title that piqued my interest some time ago but that hasn’t yet made it to the top of my reading list. I actually read the synopsis for this story well before the announcement of the first movie (which I haven’t even seen yet), and it definitely struck me as the sort of story I’d enjoy. The idea of a society divided into factions based on valued qualities is hardly a new concept (Hogwarts, hello?), but I find it always makes for a thought-provoking read!
10) Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare
It’s high time I got back into reading Shakespeare. Luckily, I have a complete single-volume collection of his works sitting on my shelf! There are several Shakespearean plays I’ve been meaning to read, and one of the plays at the top of that list is Hamlet. Yes, it’s another tragedy, as were the last couple of plays I read, but even though I would like to read some more of his comedies too, I just can’t resist drama! If I’m going to get back into Shakespeare, I figure why not start with the story that loosely inspired one of my favorite Disney movies?
Thus concludes my top ten to-read list! Now let’s see if I can take on the reading challenge this year! Thanks for reading!
What about you? What books do you plan to read in 2016?
Word of the Week: Raconteur
Word: raconteur
Pronunciation: rak-ahn-TƏR / rak-ən-TƏR
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: a person who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way
Source: Oxford Dictionaries
As long as we’re discussing people who love words, books, and reading, why not learn a word for lovers of storytelling too? A writer can never have too broad a vocabulary when it comes to telling tales, especially with words that add a poetic charm to their work. Surely we all know someone who’s good at telling funny stories, so it’s easy to find inspiration for a “raconteur” in our writing!
A “raconteur” is a skillful storyteller, usually of amusing anecdotes. The word arose in the early 19th century and is originally French. This noun stems from the verb raconter, meaning “to relate” or “to recount”.
Pretentious as this may come across, I admit that I love the word “raconteur” for how French it sounds. After learning words like “bibliophile” and “raconteur”, I find it interesting how many artistic words in the English language are borrowed from French, and in my opinion, they help to enhance our vocabulary. So don’t be afraid to include this word in your writing, even if (or especially if) it’s used in an ironic sense. If you like to write humorous pieces, you may be a natural “raconteur” yourself!
What are your thoughts on this word? Any suggestions for future “Word of the Week” featured words?
Tsunami
Quakes
Beneath
The ocean
Break the water
Into one
Massive
Wave
Wave
Rising
From the sea,
Wash everything
Away from
The cold
Earth
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