Word of the Week – Cranky

Word of the Week – Cranky

by | Aug 8, 2016 | Word of the Week

We have one more week left of summer vacation. One more little week, then back to the homeschool grind we go. Needless to say, that has inspired a few sighs and a whimper or two (okay, perhaps that was more from me than the kids, LOL).

With the end of days of freedom and fun (or in my case, work-work-work), a little crankiness is to be expected. And so, today I thought I’d look at the history of the word. =)

Cranky has its roots, obviously, in crank–a word which is as old as English itself, taken from the Proto-Germanic krank: a handle for turning a revolving axis. We obviously still use this meaning of the word as well, though both German and Dutch have apparently leaned away from the literal ancient meaning and instead gone toward a figurative “sick, weakly” meaning.

This is where our cranky comes in. Around 1803, cranky appeared in English texts, meaning “sickly or ailing.” By 1825, crank itself was listed in dictionaries as having a secondary meaning of “hard, difficult.” (Like  a crank job.) Crank meaning “an irritable person” came along in 1833–a back-formation from cranky.

Though to give my kids credit where it’s due, they’re less cranky about school starting than I thought they’d be–in part at the promise of going to Staples and stocking up on pens and paper. (They are so my children, LOL. Fresh writing supplies make everything better.)

Happy Monday, everyone!

Thoughtful About . . . For and Against

Thoughtful About . . . For and Against

by | Aug 4, 2016 | Thoughtful Thursdays

I just got back from a couple days at a church conference, and the director said something in one of his presentations that resonated with something my husband and I had been discussing too. And that is this:

One of the greatest perceived failings of the modern church is that we put more thought into what we’re against than what we’re for. As in, in a survey of modern America, this was listed as one of the top 5 reasons that people stopped going to church. All they ever heard was the negative. The don’t-do. The can’t-have. The stay-away-from.

The negatives are important. They are. God’s pretty clear on what we shouldn’t do.

But . . . but. If we carve out those places, what are we then filling them with?

I kinda look at it like this. A successful diet isn’t one that just says “Eliminate these foods.” Right? Because if you just cut out the chips and dessert and saturated fats or whatever and don’t fill your meals with anything else in their place, what happens?

You get hungry.

A successful diet is one that says, “Eat this. Instead of a banana muffin, have a banana. Instead of chips, have some hummus.”

Not that I’m an experienced dieter, LOL, but I have definitely noticed that when I’m focused on getting my five servings of fruits and veggies in a day, I don’t have room for the junk food. If I make conscious decisions to eat something healthy first, then I rarely get around to the unhealthy stuff.

This is true of spiritual health too. Yes, we definitely, 100% need to avoid things. But if all you preach and teach is a system of DON’T, you leave your people empty . . . and that makes the way for apostasy and legalism.

When it comes to faith, we need to be careful to focus on how to fill ourselves with Him. That is the #1 most important thing. Because if we’re filled up with His Spirit, there’s no room left for the sins. If we’re full of His love, there’s no room for hate. If we’re dwelling in Him and He in us, that old man will fade away and we won’t still desire the same old junk. If we’re basking in His grace, we won’t even notice the “lack” we now have of those things of the world–we’ll only notice the fruit of His presence.

I don’t want to be known as “the person who doesn’t . . .” even if that “doesn’t” is an important distinction. Yes, I am absolutely the person who doesn’t murder, doesn’t steal, doesn’t commit perjury. But that doesn’t tell you a thing about who I am. What I do.

This holds true in a church as well. We can’t just be known for the sins we don’t embrace–we have to be known for the spiritual fruit we do produce. Let us be known for our kindness and goodness and self-control. For our giving and serving and need-meeting. Let us be known for being Jesus’s hands and feet in a hurting world. Not for just shaking a finger at that world and judging.

Let’s not just be against things . . . let’s stand for things as well.

Word of the Week – Class

Word of the Week – Class

by | Aug 1, 2016 | Word of the Week

Class. It seems like a simple word. One that has surely been around forever, right? Well, I looked it up last week because I wanted to make sure that classy was in use for a story. And instead I learned that the whole word was rather surprising.

Class comes from the Latin classis, which is the word for how Servius Tullius divided the Roman people for purposes of taxation. This also had something to do with how the people were called to arms, which is the original meaning (and spelling) carried into English first. It wasn’t until around 1600 that it was shortened to class . . . at which point it meant a group of students.

In the 1650s, class was expanded from the group of students to mean a course or lecture students might take in school–based on the idea that it required reaching a certain academic level.

In 1705, the word became a verb–“to divide into classes.” In 1753, scientists began talking about classes of plants and animals.

But it wasn’t until 1772 that class began to mean “divisions of society according to status.” I was really surprised it was that late! And so, the notion of class being “high quality” was unheard of until the 1840s. My classy, therefore, didn’t come around until the 1890s.

Remember When . . . Tea Came in Bricks

Remember When . . . Tea Came in Bricks

by | Jul 27, 2016 | 17th-19th Centuries, Remember When Wednesdays

It was nearly five years ago that Carrie Pagels made mention of “brick tea.” I don’t even remember now how it came up, but I believe she’d purchased some from a local plantation home and was offering it to one of us here at CQ as thanks for helping with a project. Now, I had no idea what in the world she was talking about. And so far as I could tell in my search, she’s never talked to us about it on the blog. So I decided to resurrect the post I’d done 5 years ago that talked about this fun tea and what I learned about it after this arrived in the mail:

The moment I withdrew this brick from its bag, the scent of tea wafted up to me. My daughter, who runs to the kitchen the moment she senses a package being opened, rushed out just then, saw the brown-paper-wrapped block, and said, “What’s that?”

My answer was to hold it out and say, “Smell.”

You should have seen her eyes light up with delight and disbelief as she squealed, “Tea?!”

Tea has been a staple of many societies for centuries. But loose leaf tea is hard to transport, so back in the days of the silk road in Asia, the Chinese discovered that if they use forms to press the tea into standard sized bricks, they can transport them with ease, and the tea lasts through the journey.

This became such a standard that tea bricks could be used as currency, and this was the way most tea was transported for hundreds of years, all the way into the 19th century. So the tea tossed into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party? That was bricks.

Naturally, when something is used so long, for so many purposes, there comes to be a rhyme and reason to each part of it.

I don’t know if you can read the label on this, but if you do, you’ll find its “translation”–what each part of it means.

The front of this particular brick has details that let buyers know that this tea comes from a company managed by more than one person, and is manufactured by Enterprise Company Tea and the Chinese Lee family.

The back of the brick is separated into squares that can be used as currency. One square, for instance, might equal the price of a chicken.

In addition to being brewed, the tea traditionally pressed into bricks can also be eaten. I don’t intend to try that, gotta say.

I thought for sure, five years ago, that I would immediately start breaking bits off and using them. But I didn’t. Because it was so pretty and interesting, my Brick Tea still occupies a place of honor on my hutch. Occasionally I pick it up and smell it. And tell myself that maybe someday I’ll brew myself a cup with some real history.

But mostly, I just love looking at it and knowing what it represents.

Word of the Week – Kulturkampf

Word of the Week – Kulturkampf

by | Jul 25, 2016 | Word of the Week

Yes, that’s right, today’s word of the week is German. 😉

In my edits for A Name Unknown, my editor had asked me to check the history of the phrase “culture war,” as it felt modern. I’d used this phrase to describe events in Germany at the end of the 19th century, because, well, that’s what my history book had called it, LOL. But history books do tend to use language from the time they’re writing in rather than the time they’re writing about, ahem. So I took the advice and looked it up.

What I found was that the German word for culture war, kulturkampf, was actually coined at the time specifically to describe these events. The German chancellor Von Bismark (described by other politicians of his day as “a demon”) launched this war in Germany against the Catholic church specifically, but most other Christian churches took it as a sign to beware as well. For perhaps the first time in centuries, since the Church had fractured, Protestants and Catholics joined together to fight political forces that would wipe them out.

Of course, learning that this word would have been in legitimate use at the time doesn’t make it sound less out of place in my manuscript. 😉 So my challenge was trying to figure out how to use it well. And my answer was to start with the German word.

Hope everyone has a great week! I had a fabulous time at Montrose Christian Writers Conference and am now looking forwarding to getting back into my writing groove after being in teacher/editor mode all week. =)

Cart
Checkout - $0.00
  • 0
  • 1