In which I blog about writing, YA fiction and the occasional sparkly unicorn.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Save a Word Saturday

The lovely bloggers over at The Feather and the Rose have started a cool blog hop! It's dedicated to saving old and archaic words from disappearing into the dust of history. You can sign up and learn more about it here!

Here are the rules:

1.  Pick an old word you want to save from extinction to feature in your blog post. It really must be an old word, not just a big one. We are trying to save lovely archaisms, not ugly giants (for example, "Dihydrogen Monoxide" is not an acceptable choice). Luciferous Logolepsy is a great database of lovely words, if you're having trouble coming up with something on your own.

2. Provide a definition of your word. Use your word in a sentence (or even a short paragraph) vaguely related to the theme we have chosen this week. You may also add visual or musical interpretations of your word or your sentence. In fact, add anything that moves your creative spirit.

3. Use as many of the words as you can on the people in your life. Do leave us a note or add something to your own post to let us all know what wonderful old word you whipped out to befuddle your friends and relations.

 This week's theme is:
Tea


My word is vade mecum
n. - a favorite book carried everywhere

And here is my sentence (well, it's more like a paragraph...whatever):

Miranda sat on the banks of the river, cup of tea clutched in hand, and watched families float by in their little boats. They all laughed as everyone failed rather spectacularly at steering in a straight line. She looked at her book where it lay in the grass and mused about how funny it was that even after ten years, her tattered (and quite tea-stained) copy of Lord of the Rings still remained her vade mecum.

6 comments:

  1. Love your word. I have a vade mecum. It's Robin McKiley's "Chalice."

    Do you have one, Hannah?

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    1. Mine would either be my copy of LOTR (which is so big it's been mistaken for a Bible) or my Harry Potter books. They were the only books I brought to college with me :)

      I've heard of "Chalice" but never read it! I might have to check it out.

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    2. Nice. :) And you and I should both read Chalice. Tyler-Rose raves about it. :)

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  2. That's a great word :)
    Is it possible to have vade mecums?

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  3. My vade mecum would be the signed copy of That Hemmingway book you were going to buy me if you won the lottery.

    Love,

    Mom

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