A is for Adorkable
“Because even the smallest of words can be the ones to hurt you, or save you”
Lexicographer
lex·i·cog·ra·pher | \ ˌlek-sə-ˈkä-grə-fər \
Definition of lexicographer
: an author or editor of a dictionary
I am four days late and four dollars short as Sunday, October 16, 2022, was National Dictionary Day and I finally pushed out this blog. What is National Dictionary Day? It is a day to commemorate Noah Webster, the Hartford Connecticut man, who is considered to have fathered and birthed the American Dictionary. He is regarded as being the first English, sorry American, Lexicographer.
I don’t have a lexicographer in my circle of associates and trust, but I can imagine the miniscule details that construct the larger than life personality of a lexicographer. I picture a meticulous man with extremely small handwriting, cramming as many words and thoughts as possible on precious paper: the back of a brown paper bag, scribbling over the print of a finished newspaper, the little extra napkin squares they give you at the Bodega* to hold a small hot coffee. He gormandizes all forms of literature. books, people’s speech, nuances, looks as well as what is said and unsaid. He has this driving, crazed need to transcribe an alphabet on what is ephemeral. He was adorkable to two women. His mother and his wife.
bodega
noun
bo·de·ga | \ bō-ˈdā-gə \
Definition of bodega
1: a storehouse for maturing wine
2a: WINESHOP
B (1): BAR ENTRY 1 SENSE 5A
(2): BARROOM
3: a usually small grocery store in an urban area
specifically: one specializing in Hispanic groceries
gormandize
gor·man·dize | \ ˈgȯr-mən-ˌdīz \
gormandized, gormandizing
Definition of gormandize
: to eat gluttonously or ravenously
: to eat greedily: DEVOUR
ephemeral
something ephemeral
ephem·er·al | \ i-ˈfem-rəl , -ˈfēm-; -ˈfe-mə-, -ˈfē- \
Definition of ephemeral
(Entry 1 of 2)
1: lasting a very short time ephemeral pleasures
2: lasting one day only an ephemeral fever
adorkable
adjective
adork·able | \ ə-ˈdȯr-kə-bəl \
Definition of adorkable
informal
: socially awkward or quirky in a way that is endearing
First Known Use of adorkable 1999
History calls him arrogant, complex, pompous, condescending, and low on nunchi. We know our mommas said don’t talk about people behind their back, and, sure-enough, never, ever, EVER, speak ill of the dead: so, I won’t expound on his personality. But what do you expect from a man who was a founding father of sorts and who hobnobbed with inventors, presidents, and interesting people who appear on United States paper currency, and who, after 18 years in the year 1828, dropped a 70,000 word dictionary rejecting British English by dropping the U (I see a cool phrase trending) colour to color, humour to humor, and then he dropped the K, publick to public, musick to music. *
nunchi
(Korean word not yet in the dictionary)
(눈치)
\ ˈnoon-chee \
Definition of nunchi
(Entry 1 of 3)
: eye measure
: the art of sensing what people are thinking and feeling and responding appropriately
: English equivalent to not be socially tone deaf
sure-enough
\ ˈshu̇r-ə-ˈnəf , ˈshər- \
Definition of sure-enough
(Entry 1 of 2)
hobnob
hob·nob | \ ˈhäb-ˌnäb \
hobnobbed; hobnobbing
Definition of hobnob
: to associate familiarly
Noah Webster possessed legitimate and genuine skills as an educator. His objective was to delight and allure students by seizing their attention in the relevant subject matter at hand rather than ramming down facts for memorization. If you choose to perform a deep dive on the man Noah Webster, he appears to be every bit the Renaissance man after the Renaissance.
Photo by Jeremy Bishop @jeremybishop
Photo by Europeana @europeana…. A Renaissance man. :-)
: a person who has wide interests and is expert in several areas
STORYTIME
Noah Webster was born in Connecticut, the area now known as West Hartford, in the year of our Lord 1758, October 16, and died on May 28, 1843. He lived in a four bedroom home with dad Noah Senior, a farmer, weaver, veteran, and who once served as a Deacon; Mom, Mercy Steele; and his siblings Mercy, Abraham, Jeruscha, (Noah fits in here) and Charles.
If you remember American history, this means that in the year of our Lord 1776, a watershed moment, he was at the malleable age of 18 years old. What was the zeitgeist of the 13 Colonies and how would that affect little Webster?
watershed
wa·ter·shed | \ ˈwȯ-tər-ˌshed , ˈwä- \
Definition of watershed
1a: a dividing ridge between drainage areas : DIVIDE entry 2The watershed of the Himalayas does not lie along the line of its highest peaks, as in most mountain ranges, but about a hundred miles farther north.— Frits Staal
b: a region or area bounded peripherally by a divide and draining ultimately to a particular watercourse or body of water the Mississippi River watershed
2: a crucial dividing point, line, or factor: TURNING POINT
zeitgeist
zeit·geist | \ ˈtsīt-ˌgīst , ˈzīt- \
Definition of zeitgeist
: the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era
On July 4, 1776, the 12 colonies, (New York abstained from the vote) Continental Congress, formally severed the 13 colonies political connections to Great Britain, with an amazing document that states in the second paragraph these famous words:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness”. The Declaration of Independence *
Young Webster and the baby nation were about to face change, upheaval, trauma, rebirth and building, the divorce of a colony from an empire, national building, dreams of destiny, an upcoming war. There was a lot of eddies swirling in the weather of the new world.
Ways to Celebrate National Dictionary Day
Play a game of scrabble with friends.
Play a game of Words With Friends.
In comments below please share the coolest word you know(doesn’t have to be English) with the definition. (optional use it in a sentence)
Please comment and share this blog with others and spread the word.
Part 2 of this blog will be released next week, B is for_________. Give me a good word that starts with the Letter B.
* R e f e r e n c e s
Definitions listed in this blog are from the Merriam Webster Dictionary.
Subscribe to a Word A Day.