Category: Words

Door Prize

3/26/2025

My post yesterday focused on some unusual words included in Emily Dickinson’s poetry, and it also highlighted an Instagram Reels that focused on some favorite and not-so-favorite words of individuals.

Some of the favorite words included pizzazz, smithereens, bungalow, bumblebee, and glockenspiel. Some of the more unpopular words included twelfths, moist, pamphlet, and galoshes.

Some of my personal favorites were megalopolis and hootenanny, and my least favorites included regurgitate, mooch and dongle.

The complete post is HERE.

I asked my wife if she had any favorite words, and she responded, “Well, not off the top of my head, but,” she added, “my mother used to say that people learning English would often say the words ‘cellar door’ were beautiful.”

Say what?

That sounded so random to me that I Googled “do people like the sound of ‘cellar door’” – and lo and behold, look what popped up!

The New York Times even wrote about it back in 2010, HERE. I loved Dorothy Parkers take on it:

The writer and famous wit Dorothy Parker didn’t think much of the collection of beautiful words compiled in 1932 by the dictionary-maker Wilfred J. Funk, who topped his list with words like dawn, hush and lullaby. Parker said she preferred check and enclosed — but also cellar door.

And from C. S. Lewis:

Sometimes, the loveliness of cellar door is thought to be more evident when the phrase is given a different spelling. “I was astonished when someone first showed that by writing cellar door as Selladore,” C. S. Lewis wrote in 1963, “one produces an enchanting proper name.”

He's right! say the name in a seductive voice! It's quite alluring! ; )

I suspect you know what all of this information led me to investigate: Did Emily Dickinson every use the words “cellar door” in any of her poetry?

Stay tuned!

Word Play

3/25/2025

Recently I saw a post on Reels about favorite and least-liked words, and that called to mind some recent and past posts of mine which happened upon some unusual words used by Dickinson – words like “abstemiousness,” “propitious” and others. I’ll get to those words later. First, the Reels post that showed up in my feed.

The Reels’ video was posted by a dude named @bentellect, and he posted a pronouncement made by someone known as @jazz_inmypants and comments made by others in reaction to his assertion: “Best English word is Pizzazz. Worst English word is Twelfths. Any questions?”

The responses @jazz_inmypants received are the following:

I like bookkeeper because it has three double letters in a row.

I would whisper “ladle” repeatedly to myself as a kid because I liked how it sounds.

My favorite word is SMITHEREENS. It’s perfect.

Love the word “bungalow.”

I like “level” because it looks like an owl.

I’ve always loved juxtaposition.

CRISP is the only word that starts at the back or your mouth and travels forward to your lips. Say it slowly, Crriissp.

Completely agree with the “moist” thing.

Personally I love flabbergasted and bumblebee.

Kerfuffle needs more (heart).

Hijinx! The only word with three dotted letters in a row.

I’d like to raise your best word to “buffoonery.”

There is razzmatazz.

Pamphlet is awful. That many consonants together should never be allowed…mphl? Really?

Don’t sleep on “sassafras.” That’s a quality word.

“Glockenspiel” is a delight to say.

Always liked the word Cattywampus and hated galoshes.

The Rural Juror

[SIDE NOTE: That mention of "ladle" is straight from a line by Linda in the show "Bob's Burgers."]

What’s your favorite or least favorite word? I’ve always liked “megalopolis,” “serendipity,” “ad infinitum,” and “hootenanny.” Words I don’t like? “Regurgitate,” “scab,” “mooch,” “buttress,” “frippery” and “dongle.” I will say that I’ve always hated the name of that restaurant “Ruth’s Chris’ Steak House.”

So back to Dickinson. Some of the more out of the ordinary words used by Dickinson are “abstemiousness,” used in “Who never wanted maddest joy” (HERE), and “propitious,” used in “Went up a year this evening” (HERE).

How about the word “surcingle”? Are you familiar with that word?

While it might be foreign to modern readers (except those who work with horses), the word would have been very familiar to those in the late 19th century.

sur·cin·gle
/ˈsərˌsiNGɡ(ə)l/

noun

a wide strap that runs over the back and under the belly of a horse, used to keep a blanket or other equipment in place.

The word shows up in Dickinson’s poem “Bees are Black, with Gilt Surcingles.” How perfect is that?

How about the word “Emigravit”? “Emigravit” is a Latin word that means "departed,” and in years past, it was often used on gravestones.

In this case, Dickinson didn’t use the word in any of her poems. Instead, Thomas Wentworth Higginson wanted to use “Emigravit” as the title for “Went up a year this evening” in Series Two of “Poems” in 1891, but Mabel Loomis Todd convinced him to change the name to “Gone.”

Other unusual vocabulary in Dickinson’s poetry include “cochineal,” “mazarin,” “Thermopylae,” “sedulous,” and “cambric.”

Do you have any favorite words?

Other unusual vocabulary in Dickinson’s poetry include “cochineal,” “mazarin,” “Thermopylae,” “sedulous,” and “cambric.”

Do you have any favorite (or not-so-favorite) words?

Family Matters

6/17/2023

When Melon Husk purchased Twitter and hate speech on the platform escalated out of control, I deleted my account and joined Counter Social -- a saner and much more civil site. Over 200 days ago on that site I started a daily post using the hashtag #DickinsonDaily, and each morning I discuss some poem(s) or some trivia or factoid about the poet, Because Father's Day fell on this weekend, for my post today I checked the online Dickinson archive to see how many times the poet used the word "father" -- as well as "mother," "brother," and "sister" -- in her poems.

Which term did Dickinson use most often?

**drum roll please**

"Father" was used in 29 different poems (However, I did not check them out to differentiate between "father," as in "dad," vs. "Father," as in "Our Lord") -- and perhaps the most famous poem with "father" is "I never lost as much but twice."

Dickinson used the word "mother" in 8 different poems, & the number of times she used "brother" & "sister" is a bit confusing!

The Johnson edition of "Complete Poems" includes 8 poems with "brother" and 6 with "sister" -- & the Franklin edition includes 7 poems with "brother" and 5 with "sister" -- and it all has to do with variations of a single poem which I have posted below.

Johnson included 3 variations of this particular poem in his edition; Franklin just the one.

From the Johnson edition of “Complete Poems”:

1366A (c. 1876)
Brother of Ingots – Ah Peru –
Empty the Hearts that purchased you –

1366B (c. 1878)
Sister of Ophir –
Ah, Peru –
Subtle the Sum
That purchase you –

1366C (c. 1880)
Brother of Ophir
Bright Adieu,
Honor, the shortest route
To you.

From the Franklin edition of “Complete Poems”:

1462 (1878)
Brother of Ophir
Bright Adieu,
Honor, the shortest route
To you.

Just FYI: From the online Dickinson lexicon re: "Ophir":

"Son of Joktan (see Genesis 10:29); descendent of Shem in the Old Testament; Biblical location where gold is refined (see Job 22:24); legendary location of Solomon's mines (see 1 Kings 9:28); source of gold for the temple in Jerusalem; place where King David procured gold, ivory, wood, and precious stones to build the temple; possibly, the rich natural resources of South America; (see ED letters)."

Happy Fake News Year

1/6/2018

From our master grammarian & resident logophile, Angstrom Dickinson:

2017 was a sad year.

This year, our dispirited and discouraging times are wholly characterized by the “Word of the Year” (WotY) selections by the various dictionaries and organizations, including one chosen by the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum (formerly above the coin-op Laundromat on Dickinson Boulevard in historic Washerst, PA, the birthplace of Emmett Lee Dickinson, Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed at her request).

As a matter of fact, the depressing descent of our country over the past few years is completely evident in the recent WotY choices over time:

Dictionary-dot-com: From "identity" (2015) to "xenophobia" (2016) to "complicit" (2017)

Merriam-Webster: From "culture" (2014) to the suffix “-ism” (2015) to "surreal" (2016), to "feminism" (2017)

Collins Dictionary: From “binge watch” to “fake news” over the past few years

Oxford English Dictionary: From the tears-of-joy emoji in 2015 to "post-truth" (2016) to "youthquake" in 2017 (which left a lot of heads shaking)

American Dialect Society: From the singular use of the word “they” (2015) to "dumpster fire" (2016) to "fake news" (2017)

Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum: From “love” (remember “Love Wins”?) in 2015 to "divided" in 2016 to “sad” in 2017

"'Sad' is undeniably the most accurate word to exemplify 2017,” said Zada Sapworth, the Southwest Regional Relational Metrics Specialist and Response Planner for the American Psychological Association.

“‘Sad’ not only characterizes the pathetic state of affairs our country finds itself in,” said Sapworth, “but it aptly represents the alarming increase in the number of cases of depression brought on by Trump fatigue.”

Acute Trump Fatigue (ATF) is the latest disorder to be recognized by the World Health Organization, and its escalation around the world is shocking.

“The APA cannot keep up with the demand for Emergency Trump Fatigue Mobile Therapy Units,” said Sapworth. "Trump’s relentless attacks on facts as he tries to portray the truth as ‘fake news’ is as insidious as it is harmful."

Pictured at the right: Zada Sapworth, Southwest Regional Relational Metrics Specialist and Response Planner for the American Psychological Association.

Pictured below: One of the APA's thousands of Emergency Trump Fatigue Mobile Therapy Units being deployed across the country.

Trump’s unyielding attack on the truth was certainly on the minds of the members of the American Dialect Society when they chose “fake news” as their Word of the Year for 2017. The word emerged in the ADS’ vote for Word of the Year in 2016; however, a nefarious shift in how the word was used by Trump made it stand out even more in 2017.

“When President Trump latched on to fake news early in 2017,” said Ben Zimmer, chair of the American Dialect Society’s New Words Committee and language columnist for the Wall Street Journal, “he often used it as a rhetorical bludgeon to disparage any news report that he happened to disagree with. That obscured the earlier use of fake news for misinformation or disinformation spread online, as was seen on social media during the 2016 presidential campaign.”

Information from the ADS on their selection of “fake news” as 2017’s Word of the Year is HERE.

Pictured at the left: Ben Zimmer, chair of the American Dialect Society’s New Words Committee and language columnist for the Wall Street Journal

The ELD Museum has written about Trump and “fake news” in the past (HERE and HERE), and of course, it calls to mind Emmett Lee Dickinson’s poem “I heard the news – yet feared – the News” (below on the left). His poem is the source from which the term “fake news” originated, and it also inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem, “I sued the News — yet feared — the News” (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

I heard the News – yet feared – the News
That such a Stance he’d take –
The White House daily Rant – it is
So obviously fake –

By Emily Dickinson:

I sued the News – yet feared – the News
That such a Realm could be –
"The House not made with Hands" it was –
Thrown open wide to me –

Who's At Fault?

12/16/2017

From our master grammarian and resident logophile, Angstrom Dickinson:

The Oxford English Dictionary recently announced its Word of the Year for 2017, "youthquake," and the aftershocks produced nothing more than confused shudders. Youthquake? From when/where did this choice come? Who is at fault for this? (#BaDumpBump)

The dictionary claims that usage of the word increased fivefold times from 2016 to 2017, but leogophiles struggled to find uses of it throughout social media and the news from over the course of the past year.

Reaction to "youthquake" was tepid at best.

Interestingly enough, this is not the first time that "youthquake" has been selected as the Word of the Year.

In the mid-1800s, the Oxford Mississippi Dictionary of Southern English (OMDSE) proclaimed "youthquake" as the Word of the Year" for 1859.

At that time, many secessionists who wanted to break away from the Union immediately were known as "fire eaters." Senator John Breckenridge (R-KY) dismissed this group's fervor and called it "nothing more than a youthquake," a term from the 1830s coined by Maggie and Kate Fox, two sisters from upstate New York. The two had supposedly heard noises by spirit visitors and sparked a wave of spiritualism which swept the nation -- "like a youthquake," said the sisters.

Pictured below: Kate (left) and Maggie (right) Fox with their sister Leah (center). Kate and Maggie Fox are credited with coining the term "youthquake."

When the OMDSE crowned Senator Breckenridge's use of the word "youthquake" as the 1859 Word of the Year, many southerners balked at the choice and said that the honor should have gone to the more prevalent expression "fire eaters."

Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) wrote a poem about the OMDSE selection of "youthquake" as the Word of the Year (below on the left). His poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "Left in immortal Youth" (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

Lift the abnormal Youthquake
With that Word Play
It hath some introspection
Now Again –
Word of the Year?
Sequestered from Decay
Brings on a Yawn
When honored in this Way –

By Emily Dickinson:

Left in immortal Youth
On that low Plain
That hath nor Retrospection
Nor Again –
Ransomed from years –
Sequestered from Decay
Canceled like Dawn
In comprehensive Day –

One In A Million

11/28/2017

From our master grammarian & resident logophile, Angstrom Dickinson:

I suspect that many of you have heard of the “Nerd Prom,” the White House Correspondents’ Association’s dinner in Washington, DC, held annually on the last Saturday in April.

Did you know, though, that in addition to the “Nerd Prom,” there is also an annual “Word Prom”?

The “Word Prom” occurs in early January each year when logophiles gather in a jam-packed conference room at the annual meeting of the American Dialect Society to vote on the “Word of the Year” (WotY) for the previous year. This year, word lovers will meet in Salt Lake City from January 4 -7, 2018, and their WotY vote will take place during an Open Meeting of the ADA’s New Words Committee from 5:00 – 6:15 p.m. on January 5th.

Of course, there is plenty of other excitement throughout the word-prom season from late November until the actual Word Prom itself. This year, for example, Collin’s Dictionary has already named “fake news” as their Word of the Year for 2017, and Dictionary.com recently choose “complicit.”

The Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum’s annual countdown of Words of the Year begins this Friday, 12/1. Word nerds can catch all of the excitement HERE as we post daily entries of the most significant and meaningful words that epitomized the year 2017. Our comprehensive inventory of Words of the Year culminates on New Year’s Eve when we post our top choice!

Days later, as Baby New Year is rocking in its crib, word nerds will cap the WotY Season with their choice for the 2017 Word of the Year at the ADA’s “Word Prom.”

Interestingly enough, the idea of a “Word Prom” was first imagined by Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request) in the mid-1800s. He wrote about the notion of an exceptional word in his short poem “One vote for One Word” (below on the left). In his lines, Dickinson compared the idea of a favored word to a prom gown, those over-priced formal dresses purchased for the one-time wear to a high school dance. A sensible purchase? Maybe not – but they sure do dress up even the plainest of Janes (yes, yes, yes – the tuxes prettify the average Joes too).

I’m not sure if Dickinson’s poem inspired the ADA to introduce their Word Prom in 1991; however, it did inspire third cousin Emily to pen her poem “One note from One Bird” (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

One vote for One Word
One better than a Million Words –
A prom gown has – but one wear

By Emily Dickinson:

One note form One Bird
Is better than a Million Word –
A scabbard has – but one sword

Below: The American Dialect Society's Word Prom King's prom-posal to the Word Prom on January 5, 2017. If you can't attend (in Salt Lake City), join the fun via Twitter!

Pardon Me!

7/21/2017

From our 19th century historian, Eudora Dickinson:

Word on the street is that President Trump is now looking to see how he can pardon his family and his friends -- and even himself.

Haven't we always said that "no man is above the law -- INCLUDING THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES"? Is this Trump's way of admitting guilt? If he's not guilty of anything, then why is he so obsessed with shutting down an investigation about how and why a foreign adversary attempted to (and did) hack into American accounts, publish and distribute false news, and influence the American election.

Oh, I forgot. His son is guilty.

All of this calls to mind a rather enigmatic poem from the late 1800s by Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request). No one knows quite for sure whom Dickinson was writing about in his poem "I acted with Duplicity" (below on the left), but the poem calls to mind Don Jr's gleeful statement "I love it" when he was first asked to collude with the Russians.

Of course, had Donald Jr. read Emmett Lee Dickinson's poem first, maybe that would have inspired him to do things differently -- as he lamented once he was caught. Now we'll never know for sure -- but we do know that Dickinson's poem inspired his third cousin to pen her poem "I stole from a Bee" (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

I acted with Duplicity –
Because – Glee –
Sweet plea –
He’ll pardon me!

By Emily Dickinson:

I stole them from a Bee –
Because – Thee –
Sweet plea –
He pardoned me!

ON ANOTHER NOTE RELATED TO DICKINSON'S POEM:

The American Dialect Association's "Word of the Year" for 2013 was "because." Because why?

"It has to do with a new development in the syntax of because," wrote Neal Whitman on VisualThesaurus.com. He referred to the construction as "Because NOUN." However, in a recap of the ADS voting, Ben Zimmer cited other forms too: "What has been happening lately online, especially on Twitter and Tumblr, is that people use because with a more terse follow-up: introducing a noun ('I love ice cream because flavor'), an adjective ('I love ice cream because delicious'), or an interjection ('I love ice cream because yum!')."

As a result, some began treferring to this syntactical construction as "because X."

And how did this all come about? Because Dickinson. Take a look at the second line of his poem "I acted with Duplicity."

An Emoji to the Wise

6/17/2017

The word "trump" -- and/or the name "Trump" -- was recently selected by the Oxford University Press as the Children's Word of the Year.

We're not making this up. Check out the article on the right (click the image to enlarge), and read the rest of the article HERE.

Of course, part of the reason for the win can be attributed to the fact that "trump" in British English means "fart" (that definition has only been recently added to the American lexicon for "Trump").

Another controversial Word of the Year (WotY) choice was when the Oxford University Press chose the "tears of joy" emoji as its WotY in 2015.

Of course that selection can be traced back to the invention of the emoji by Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request). He first wrote about emojis in his now-classic poem "Emojis exist" (below on the left). Dickinson's poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her peom "A word is dead" (below on the right).

By Emily Dickinson:

A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.

Playing with Fire!

1/7/2017

From our master grammarian and resident logophile Angstrom Dickinson:

The Word of the Year season is now officially over. Last Friday night, the members of the American Dialect Society voted on their choice for the 2016 Word of the Year, and they – the very group that started the trend 27 years ago – ended the WotY season by dubbing “dumpster fire” as Word of the Year (yes, in this case, words). The ADS has multiple categories (Digital Word of the Year, Slang Word of the Year, Euphemism of the Year, etc.), so information about "dumpster fire" and a link to their complete WotY list is HERE.

We finished our own countdown of Words of the Year on New Year’s Eve, and “divided” took the top honor. Our complete list is HERE, and we wrote some background on selecting "divided" for the top honor HERE.

Below is a list of some of the other chosen words for 2016:

"Dumpster fire" is not new. It’s been around for a while; its “top definition” on Urban Dictionary dates back to 2008. However, the Word of the Year does not have to be a new word. David Bowie (at least that’s @socilox’s name on Twitter), a sociolinguist and dialectologist at the University of Alaska Anchorage, noted that words often “get in under the ‘not new, but newly (re)emergent’ rubric” – and we suspect everyone would agree that most of 2016 was nothing more than uncontrollable dumpster fire.

As a matter of fact, “dumpster fire” took a political turn in 2016 when it morphed into “trumpster fire,” thanks to the trumpster fire that is Donald Trump.

Pictured above and left: Urban Dictionary's definitiions for "Dumpster Fire" and "Trumpster Fire." Click the images to enlarge.

The origins of “dumpster fire” actually date back to the late-1800s when Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request) first used the term in his now classic poem “The Dumpster Fire we've all known" (below on the left). Dickinson wrote the poem about Fredreich Drümpf, a distant relative of Donald Trump. Information about Drümpf is HERE. Dickinson’s poem also inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem “The largest Fire ever known" (below on the right).

Of course, we now begin our year-long quest for the 2017 Words of the Year. We are keeping our fingers crossed that there's no reason for "launch ready alert" & "thermonuclear" to make the list!

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

The dumpster fire we’ve all known
Occurred throughout our sphere –
And so it came as no surprise
It’s now Word of the Year –
Logophiles will report to men
This honor now attained
With hopes some future morning
We won’t get burned again.

By Emily Dickinson:

The largest Fire ever known
Occurs each Afternoon –
Discovered is without surprise
Proceeds without concern –
Consumes and no report to men
An Occidental Town,
Rebuilt another morning
To be again burned down.

Play on Words

12/1/2016

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”

That statement was first uttered in 1869 by newspaper editor Bonzo K. Skilton just after he was found guilty of libel due to a defamatory editorial he wrote against Mother Superior Editha Slator Starrl Skilton claimed that the Mother Superior had unfairly expelled Sister Susan Saurin from the convent for “eating strawberries and cream” and for “being ‘excited’ in the presence of a visiting priest.”

Can words hurt someone? In the case of Mr. Skilton, who was stoned to death immediately following his conviction, both his words and the subsequent weight of the stones hurt him.

What is it about words, though? Are they “just words” and nothing more, as asserted by Donald Trump’s campaign team after being questioned about their candidate’s spiteful vitriol. Or is there something weightier and more meaningful about words?

“We encounter each other in words,” said poet Elizabeth Alexander in her inaugural poem for Barrack Obama, “Praise Song for the Day.” She recently read that poem at “Verses for Hope,” a pop-up poetry reading sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. Surely the crowd present at that event would think that our daily encounters with language are more than meaningless exchanges with “just words.” Alexander’s complete poem is HERE.

Emily Dickinson once wrote the following:

A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.

I say it just
Begins to live
That day.

Are words “just words,” nothing more, and “dead” once they are said? Or do words, whether “spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed” live to be considered and reconsidered?

Join us throughout the month of December as we examine and review the “Words of the Year,” the words that defined 2016, the words that have revealed our mood, our character, and our spirit. Our countdown can be found HERE.

We here at the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum side more with Emily Dickinson’s and Elizabeth Alexander’s views on words. We recognize the power and the capacity that words have. Some of the words we have encountered lately, though, have weighed heavily on our minds and spirit, so for a time in 2017 perhaps we might “distance ourselves” from the News and all of the newscasters' words as advised by Emmett Lee Dickinson in his now-classic poem “A Word dropped often on the News” (below on the left). His poem inspired third cousin Emily Dickinson to pen her poem “A Word dropped careless on a Page” (below on the right).

Most likely, our hiatus from the news will be for just a short while, though, because we certainly don’t want to miss out on any words that might top our “Words of the Year” list in 2017!

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

A Word dropped often on the News
Does stimulate the ire
When folded in perpetual stream
Of Cable News shows’ fire

Inflection in their sentences breed
A feeling of Despair
We need to distance Ourselves
Or take the shows Off Air –

By Emily Dickinson:

A Word dropped careless on a Page
May consecrate an eye
When folded in perpetual seam
The Wrinkled Author lie

Infection in the sentence breeds
We may inhale Despair
At distances of Centuries
From the Malaria –