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. I start…
Tag: words
Exploring wolf references: Throw to the wolves
If you throw someone to the wolves, you’ve given him or her over to a terrible fate or abandoned him/her. For example: “The manager threw his employee to the wolves to save his own skin.” In this instance, a person is sacrificed by another to save his/her job. Another popular way to express this sentiment…
Exploring Wolf References: Wolf Down
To “wolf down” means to eat like a wolf, or quickly and in large chunks without chewing well. The phrase is most often used colloquially. This subject was inspired by #WerewolfWednesday, which I hold each week on my Facebook page. Also see: Keep the wolves at bay Lone Wolf Cry Wolf Keep the wolf from the door…
chimera
broken and stitched from many separate, now dead, pieces. the grotesquery you’ve made of me. we often imagine much worse than reality. yet not in this instance. the stiches rub raw and red and infected yet hold. oozing between branches, sunlight mottles the damp soil and leaves. where we lie. we talk of movies….
Exploring wolf references: “Keep the wolves at bay”
The phrase “to keep the wolves at bay” refers to a time when baying wolves were a sign that wolves were still in the distance. The idea is that when wolves are still in pursuit, they are not yet ready to attack. Sometimes shorted to keeping something “at bay,” this also refers to hunting dogs that…
Exploring wolf references: “Lone Wolf”
Lone wolf is an American expression that began in the early 1900s. A “lone wolf” is a person who acts alone or enjoys his or her own company—and not being part of the pack. The phrase persists in popular culture today. Lone Wolf is the title of a 1988 horror film, and Lone Wolf McQuade…
The thesaurus is out to get us
As writers, it’s easy to get in the habit of relying on words. These words are old friends we know well and they work for us. I know—when I search one of my manuscripts for over-used words, I find some favorites over and over and over. Yikes! It’s time to treat that well-worn word as…
The power of words
The written word is not tantamount to symbols and letters strung together; it has the ability to sway opinions; to declare wars; to create imaginative worlds to visit; and to help us empathize with someone we’ve never met. I think those who have a real love for language appreciate many aspects of how words fit…
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