The word vex comes from a word that means to shake or jolt. When someone truly vexes us, it does sometimes feel as we have been physically shaken due to the emotional or mental stress caused by his or her actions. I think that’a great way to think of vex: someone has troubled you to…
Category: #Otherworldly Words
For October I unveil a daily dose of the unusual, the dark, the bizarre on a linguistic journey through words befitting the season. Join me as we explore Otherworldly Words − words that help us express the frightening matters that often are hard to explain.
Otherworldly Words: Vanquish
Vanquish is one of those words that many people find interchangeable with words like decimate or annihilate. These words are a really good example of how visiting the thesaurus and hitting replace doesn’t quite do the job sometimes. As I stated in my post “The thesaurus is out to get us,” the nuances of words…
Otherworldly Words: Umbrage
To take umbrage is to feel shadowed. Think of the words umbra and penumbra—all from the Latin root for shade or shadow. It’s not uncommon to say that we feel “overshadowed” by someone. Umbra is the fancy-schmacy way of saying it. 🙂 What is brilliant (pardon the pun) about this word is that it also refers…
Otherworldly Words: Tribulation
Most of us have heard the phrase “trials and tribulations.” But have you ever looked up the meaning of tribulation? I think it’s one of those words we all know, and basically know the meaning of, but have never bothered to confirm. It is more than heartache; it’s…
Otherworldly Words: Trepidation
If you enter a situation with trepidation, you’re probably pretty scared. “The constant, unidentifiable screech coming from the room as well as the utter darkness within compounded her trepidation.” Trepidatious and trepidatiously are the adjective and adverb form, respectively. Personally I love words like trepidation because they can accomplish in one word what otherwise…
Otherworldly Words: Shade
Why would the word shade be used to mean ghost? The idea that what’s left behind after one passes is less than a reflection is a powerful one. The ghost is no more than a shadow, what’s left after the light of life is gone. I also think that the word shade as ghost is…
Otherworldly Words: Sanguine
Sanguine is one of those Latin root words that borrows from our old beliefs to create new meaning. The most common meanings these days are to do with having a red complexion, like flushed cheeks or with a “sunny” disposition. The root, of course, comes from blood. Blood was associated with red complexions and a cheerful…
Otherworldly Words: Phantasmagoria
A phantasmagoria is, in many ways, most people’s nightmare and a surrealist’s dream. Just think about the surrealist, eye-ball slicing film Un Chien Andalou. Personally, I think anything horrific or unbelievable is a phantasmagoria. Haunted houses attempt this effect commonplace during the Victorian era with the assistance of magic lanterns. If you find magic lanterns…
Otherworldly Words: Odious
If you find someone odious, he or she might just be from a different political party than you. All kidding aside, odious is about as scornful as it gets. I can just picture someone snarling his or her lip and saying, “You are so odious.” Maybe I can picture…
Otherworldly Words: Noisome
Unlike yesterday’s word, nefarious, noisome, to my ear doesn’t sound anything like its meaning. Despite looking like “noise,” noisome actually derives from the same root as annoy. A skunk uses a noisome odor as its defense mechanism. Many chemicals have a noisome odor. Such odors, or at least our perception of them, are our own…
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