parsimony
and three more really cool words
this week’s Thought (singular)
stop making me have thoughts every week
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a very warm welcome to old readers as well. may good sense continue to prevail.
hi
welcome to another highly awaited edition of Vocabulary Builder with me, jahnavi! you can find the previous editions here, here, here, here, here, and here. thanks for tuning in!
parsimony (noun) - the quality of being overly sparing with money
‘By the time the end of the month comes around, everybody’s parsimony comes out in full force.’
benison (noun) - a blessing
‘When life was a thing of plenty, of benison, instead of loss.’ - from Lost Children by Maggie Gee
to cosset (verb) - care for and protect in an overindulgent way
‘I cosset my newsletter like a parent caring for an only child.’
to gurn (verb) - pull a grotesque face
‘Ever since I made that baby cry, I’ve never gurned at a strange infant (for fun!) in public again. I hope the mother didn’t see me.’
as always, if you somehow find yourself grasping at straws for these very specific, largely archaic meanings, i hope this comes to your aid.
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A Picture!
English Recitation Competition
Saturday, April 17, 2010 12:49 am, Cristina Rivera Garza (translated from Spanish by Ilana Luna and Cheyla Samuelson)
Water on water: the tone and the timbre. Impossible to describe the deep empty longing in the voice of birds. This childhood happened elsewhere. The light, as thin as a thread through the eye of the astral needle. Lyme Regis is a town on the coast. The howling of the wind. The taste of salt on the lips, on the neck, right on the tip of the nose. There’s a green that can only be perceived in dreams. There’s no echo without a wall, in effect. Then the girl turned to look at me: you still don’t remember this moment? she asked. Or said. In time I grew expert in wrapping myself up in a black cloak. Someone would sing on the other side of the world; someone else would raise their hand or their voice or their gaze. As far as I know Meryl Streep was never a redhead. Turning corners: the body that departs. Tolling bells: the body that will never return. But how white the foam on the crest of the waves looks! I’ll forget it, I had to admit. The accent marks the longest separation. Skimming: two words that fly over bodies of water, the ocean. What? she asked again. Stupefied is a spectacular adjective. Nobody abandoned you, I had to yell each word for her to hear me. The echo: the wall: the effect. Understanding is just as likely as misunderstanding. A body huddled between clouds. A corner. The voices travel over extremely long distances. The childhood that’s watching me. This sky.
Removal Act, Erin Marie Lynch
All the while the dog was dying. I didn’t know. His little heaps of yellow vomit. Damp spots where he’d slept. I didn’t know what it meant until meaning sat still enough for me to see nothing else. Then a man put in my hand a pamphlet on loss. Big flat letters. A sun, rising or setting above gray waves, the clouds arrayed in shapes incomparable to any animal. I thanked him. Shut the door. For a long time, I lay silent on the floor. Unneeded, I had no meaning. Or meaning unmade itself, no longer needing me.
Years, Alicia Ostriker
I have wished you dead and myself dead, How could it be otherwise. I have broken into you like a burglar And you've set your dogs on me. You have been a hurricane to me And a pile of broken sticks A child could kick. I have climbed you like a monument, gasping, For the exercise and the view, And leaned over the railing at the top– Strong and warm, that summer wind.
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this week’s Song
find all shared songs here.
thank you for reading, and see you next week <3