by Roseanna White | Jul 1, 2013 | Giveaways and Contests, Word of the Week
Much as I can’t believe it, there is only ONE MONTH before the release of Whispers from the Shadows, book 2 in the Culper Ring Series!
Man, the last six months have flown by!!
And you know what? I still have boxes and boxes of Ring of Secrets sitting here, just waiting to find happy homes. So…how better to get them into eager hands than with a massive giveaway??
Excellent question. Answer: there is no better way. 😉
So [insert trumpet blare here], allow me to introduce the great, the magnificent
30 Days of Giveaways!!
Each and every day for the month of July, I’ll be giving away 1 copy of Ring of Secrets (if you already own RoS, you can have another of my books. If you have them all, then someone else’s). PLUS, once a week (drawn on Friday), I’ll be giving away a bonus gift. First up:
A $15 gift card to Bath & Body Works
Now…confession. This giveaway has an ulterior motive *gasp*. No, not that I want to suck you into my series with book 1 and thereby cajole you into ordering book 2. Well, I man, obviously that, but it’s not what I mean. 😉 I’d also love to get y’all talking more on the blog. So. If you think I’m discontinuing my normal blogging…think again.
Did you know that Mondays are Word of the Week days around here? Seriously! And this is the sort of fun we have on Mondays.
Today–nickname. Ever wonder where that word came from? No, not from all the Nicholases that came to be called Nick. 😉 Nope. It’s from eke.
Wouldn’t have guessed, would you? But it is. Eke, which means “to lengthen or supplement” (usually laboriously), was added to “name” back centuries ago as an “additional” name. But over time, “eke-name” got shifted and mispronounced and became “nickname.”
Fun, eh?
So my question to you today is:
What’s the funniest/strangest/sweetest nickname you’ve ever been called?
My answer: Boat. Wanna figure out how I got that one?
Now–get entering! And don’t forget to come back tomorrow for Day 2, and more fun stuff. =)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
by Roseanna White | Jun 24, 2013 | Word of the Week
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| Allegory of Justice by Gaetano Gandolfi |
“You’ll get your just deserts!”
Okay, confession. Because that phrase pronounces the final word as one pronounced the word for the delightful confections that make life worth living, I never once realized it’s spelled with one ‘s’ like an arid area. Hadn’t a clue. But it is. One ‘s’ but pronounced like desserts. And…why?
Well, that’s the interesting bit. =) Apparently it’s from a whole different word that either a sandy desert or a sweet dessert–it’s from deserve.
Ah!
Okay. So the word deserve is from French, and back in the day when it was entering English (as in, the 13th century), desert was used to mean “that which is deserved.” So you deserve your deserts. Which makes total sense, right? And yet it’s fallen completely out of use except for in that one phrase about just deserts. (Probably because of the confusion with sandy ground and chocolate, LOL.)
Pretty fun, eh? Happy Monday!
by Roseanna White | Jun 17, 2013 | Word of the Week
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| Sir Sumbras at the Ford by JE Millais, 1857 |
Hello, m’lovelies! I’m back from the beach and back to business. =) And while I was gone, a friend sent me a link to some awesome word etymologies, so I thought I’d share one with you today.
So. We all know the word “wend,” right? We wend our way through crowds and other things that make us take twisty paths and whatnot. But apparently back in the day wend and go were synonyms. Used interchangeably. You could wend anywhere you could go and vice versa.
In those days (of Middle English), the past tense of wend was went and the past tense of go was gaed. Then round about the 15th century, people started to like go better for whatever reason. Only, the past tenses of the synonyms got mixed up. Hence one of our most crazily irregular verbs–it’s actually a mix-up of another verb! Pretty fun, huh?
I’ll be bringing you more of the words from this list over the next couple weeks. =)
by Roseanna White | Jun 3, 2013 | Word of the Week
First, have you grabbed your free copy Fairchild’s Lady yet? If not, check out Saturday’s post for all the links to your choice of retailers!
Now onto the Word of the Week. =) This will be short but sweet. Carnival. I confess that when I see the word, I mostly think of a fair. But carnival in fact has its roots far more firmly in the famous Brazilian celebration–meaning literally “goodbye, meat!” in Latin, it has been a time of merrymaking before Lent since the 1540s.
Color me surprised. I really had no idea the pre-Lent festival was so old! The more generic “fair” meaning didn’t actually come around until the 1930s.
Have a lovely Monday, all! We’re heading back to Johns Hopkins today for Xoe’s follow-up. Prayers appreciated that her arm is healing up perfectly! =)
by Roseanna White | May 27, 2013 | Word of the Week
I love these words with a long history. =) To mix things up today, I’m going to present this one as a
list. Wanna take a guess as to which one I was looking up for the end of my spy story? LOL
Primary use (you know, the part of your face) – Old English
Used of any prominent or projecting part – 1530s.
To say something is under (one’s) nose “in plain view” – 1540s
(verb) to perceive the smell of – 1570s
something obvious – 1590s.
Pay through the nose (bleed) – 1670s
(verb) to pry, search – 1640s
To turn up one’s nose, “show disdain” – 1818 (earlier hold up one’s nose, 1570s)
Odor, scent (the nose of a perfume) – 1894
Many extended meanings are from the horse-racing sense
of length of a horse’s nose, as a measure of distance between two
finishers – 1908
(verb) to look down one’s nose – 1921
Much as I can’t believe it, there is only ONE MONTH before the release of Whispers from the Shadows, book 2 in the Culper Ring Series!
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.