by Roseanna White | Aug 27, 2012 | Word of the Week
This is a short one, but surprising. I always thought of wow as a modern word. So when I looked it up, I was shocked to see that it’s from 1510!
Wow is a Scottish interjection, one of those that arise from a natural sound we make when surprised by something. Much like whoa, ow, ouch, huh, and the like.
It became a verb in more modern days, though–we only started wowing people in the 1920s, originating in America. 😉
But in my defense, it’s a word that waxed and waned in popularity. It apparently took on new life in the early 1900s after being not so in use prior, and then had another surge in the 1960s. Which has carried through to now.
And of course, had led to one of my four-year-old’s favorite sayings: Wowwy-zowwy-coppa-bowwy! (Or however one would spell that…)
by Roseanna White | Aug 23, 2012 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
I had a nice, insightful post planned for today. Filled with brilliance (ahem) and thought and pondering a scripture that jumped out at me. I was just beginning to delve into the contemplation required for it when an adorable little face appeared beside mine. Grinning. And chanting, “School, school, school.”
Yeah, see, we decided we’d start the same day my niece did–today. But I kinda forgot to take into account that on the first day of school, I don’t have to lasso my darling girl to her chair at 9 like I do later in the year–she’s begging to begin at 6:30.
So . . . yeah. That’s what my morning has been. =) Getting Xoe back into math and handwriting, introducing her new spelling book. And going over letters and numbers with Rowyn. Pulling out her reader and trying to figure out what in the world this diamond-diagram thing is they have in the copywork section of my curriculum. Convincing Rowyn that his reading lesson can wait just a minute while I read Xoe her spelling words. Needless to say, blogging has slipped just a bit this morning, LOL.
I promise you that wonderfully insightful post on next Thursday. And tell you it has to do with redemption, but an application of it I’d never considered until I read it earlier this week. And for now, back to school I go!
by Roseanna White | Aug 20, 2012 | Word of the Week
Mean is one of those words that I knew well would have been around forever, but I looked it up to see about some of the particular uses. And as usual, found a few surprises. =)
As a verb, mean has meant “intend, have in mind” even back in the days of Old English. No surprise there. It shares a root with similar words in Dutch and German and various other languages, perhaps from men, which means “think.” But the unexpected part–the question “Know what I mean?” is only from 1834! Of course, that’s as a conversational question, a saying. I daresay the words were uttered as a particular question before that. Know what I mean? 😉
As an adjective, it began life as “low-quality.” Like “a mean hovel” that the poor dude lived in. But it also carried a meaning, rather related, actually, of “shared by all, common, public.” And presumably if something were shared by all, it wasn’t really high in quality, eh? So “inferior, second-rate” was also a natural progression for the word, and came about in the 14th century.
I knew this definition would be the oldest but, when I looked it up, was more interested in when the most common meaning if mean (meaning of mean–ha . . . ha . . . ha . . .) came into play. It acquired the “stingy, nasty” implication in the 1660s, and was then pretty strong. We Americans had to come along to give it a softer side of “disobliging, pettily offensive,” so that didn’t come about until 1839–again, there’s the surprise!
And an interesting note on it too. The inverted sense of “remarkably good,” (think “wow, he plays a mean piano!”) is from 1900, most likely from a simple dropping of a negative, like “he is no mean piano player,” (
mean here being either “inferior” or its
other meaning of “average.”)
Have no mean Monday, all! 😉
by Roseanna White | Aug 16, 2012 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
And I’ve had a pretty fun week. My birthday on Tuesday was a lot of fun, filled with discounted food. 😉 My mom took me out to lunch and my hubby/kids to dinner, and both times, part of the meal was discounted (or free) because of a delay. Which suited me just fine and made it more fun. For dinner, we drove down to Hagerstown, MD, about an hour away, to go to Outback and use my free birthday coffee coupon at Starbucks. (Yes, the nearest Starbucks is an hour away. Gotta love Western Maryland…)
On the drive down, we were going through rain, with the sun behind us, and it resulted in a perpetual rainbow, low-slung and sparkling, right in front of us on the road. It traveled with us about five miles, to the delight of us all. I claimed it was my personal birthday rainbow. 😉 On the way home, the clouds were starting to lift from the mountains and valleys back into the sky, resulting in these gorgeous pillars of mist . . . quite a sight. God spared no imagination painting the landscape for me that evening. =) (Thanks, Lord!)
And also making this week fun is that I’ve bitten the bullet and stopped
talking about starting a local book club and actually
done it. Yay! The Inspired Book Club will meet at my church Library the last Thursday of every month, beginning in September. AND folks were so excited when I started talking about it, that we’ll be chatting on Facebook the last week of each month too. So if you’re too far away to come snack and chat with us, feel free to
join the Facebook group. And if you’re near Cumberland, MD and want to join, just shoot me an email at roseanna [at] roseannawhite [dot] com and I’ll give you directions! Our book for September is Tamera Alexander’s
A Lasting Impression. And to make it even more fun, Tammy has agreed to call in during out meeting so we can ask her questions and get the insider scoop on the book.
And even if you can’t squeeze one more thing into your schedule, let’s just admire my fun little logo. Isn’t it cute? LOL. I made that after organizing the
Christian Review of Books‘s shelves in its new location at my church. (Yay, all those books out of my sitting room!) Oh, and the CRoB is also in desperate need of a local-to-Cumberland-area volunteer to donate an hour or two a week to helping me keep the list updated and get books mailed out to reviewers. If you’re interested, email me at the address above.
Not exactly a life-altering blog post, I know, but it’s been that kind of week more full of news and chocolate cake than epiphanies. 😉 Thanks again, all, for your wonderful birthday wishes!
by Roseanna White | Aug 15, 2012 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
I was researching for my Civil War era book when I first read about pilots. I’d heard the term in this context, of course, but I still had to pause. Frown. And think, “They obviously don’t mean airplane pilots, so…”
Okay, it didn’t even require that much of a pause, given that I was reading about boats and ships trying to maneuver through complicated riverways. Pretty obvious that when they say they need to find an able pilot, they’re not looking for someone to wing them through the clouds. 😉
Still, it’s come up again, and I’ve been struck by how important a job these people had. During the War of 1812, for instance, the action in the Chesapeake depended heavily upon how one could navigate the web of estuaries. Those native to the region could find ways around the blockade by following smaller streams and branches around and about until they were past the British ships in the bay. But the British…when they were trying to launch raids with their fleet, they couldn’t do a whole lot on their own.
In both the War of 1812 and the Civil War, the visitors to the territories they were trying to invade relied on a particular group of pilots to aid them–the slaves. Both with the same promise–freedom. Though Maryland was technically a Union state in the Civil War, it was one of the two highest traders of slaves in the early 19th century, sending them south and west. Needless to say, there were plenty kept there too. And much as they had done during the Revolution, the British put out the word that any slave to run away from his master and join the British would be granted their freedom.
This is how they got their pilots. They lured local slaves away and then used their intimate knowledge of the land and rivers to lead the invading force away from the coast.
In
Whispers from the Shadows, my hero is a a New Englander who moved to Maryland as a teen. Having been raised with the sensibilities of one from a state that had outlawed slavery before he was even born, he sees this practice and shakes his head–knowing that this same weakness that is bringing the British too close for comfort now will continue to divide his nation. Which, naturally, will lead right into the third book in the trilogy, when his granddaughter finds herself caught in a rather precarious position between the southern sympathizers meeting secretly in Baltimore and her Union-sympathizing family…
But I’m getting ahead of myself. 😉
Oh, and many, many thanks to everyone who took the time to wish me a happy birthday yesterday! I had a lovely day with my family, and it was brightened still more by all the online greetings. =)
This is a short one, but surprising. I always thought of wow as a modern word. So when I looked it up, I was shocked to see that it’s from 1510!
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.