Ligneous

Ligneous means made of wood, or resembling wood, or just downright woody.

Trees are ligneous, as are some ladders and signposts, pencils, old ships, logs, doors, floors, church pews, garden fences, park benches and traditional Dutch shoes.

 What's your favourite ligneous thing?

Way

The word way has a lot of meanings. Way more than I want to try squeezing into this post. It can mean a path or track, a physical or metaphorical route somewhere, a plan or course of action. How we behave is our way of life. A ship makes way through the water.

An object may be split three ways, as might our attention. The way we feel is important, as can be the way we make our way in the world. Way might mean the normal course of events, or a specified state (which you'll soon get the way of). We enter buildings through the doorway, then later look for the way out. 

People can be in the way (or the family way) get out the way, or . We can even have it both ways.

For a long time I've liked to think I have a way with words – and now I can prove it's true! My latest short story collection is currently available at the introductory price of 99p (99c).

Can you think of more meanings of, and uses for, way?

Refulgent

Today's Wednesday word of the week comes from the wonderfully talented** Gary Davies*, of Maritime Photgraphic. He described this ferry as looking refulgent in her new livery.

Refulgent means 'shining brightly' or 'gloriously bright'. Do you think it's apt in this case?

*My husband.

**No, I'm not after anything ... this time!

Nice

Nice generally means pleasant, kind or satisfactory. It can also be used to show fastidiousness, a subtle distinction or something requiring careful thought.


This free to enter competition is for short stories of up to 600 words. The prize is a £30 Amazon voucher and publication on the site. It sounds as though they want entries to be nice so here are some pictures to get you in the mood ...

Talking of nice, it was Alyson Faye who kindly sent me the link to this competition.
















(I'm featuring a different free to enter writing competition every day from the 8th December until Christmas Eve.)

If you know anyone 25 or under who is or was in care and is resident in the UK, be nice and tell them about this free writing competition in which they could win shopping vouchers.

Idea

An idea is a concept or plan formed by mental effort, a mental impression, an intention, vague belief or fancy ... and what you need to start every piece of writing.

A Year of Ideas: 365 sets of writing prompts and exercises is a book by me! You can try to win yourself a kindle copy by telling me, in 50 words or fewer, which day you'd like a writing prompt and why. Your answer can be true, funny, silly – whatever you like as long as you specify a date and give a reason.

Entry is by comment on this blog post only.

Closing date is midnight on the 18th December.

The winner will be announced on the 20th. Sorry, the prize can only be redeemed by those in the UK.

If the winner already has this book, then they may choose one of my novels or a short story collection instead.

(I'm featuring a different free to enter writing competition every day from the 8th until the winter solstice.)

Philology

Philology is the science of language. Keen as I am on English, that doesn't make me a philologist, as I don't do anything scientifically. However an alternative definition is the love of learning and literature, so I probably am a philogian, or at least partly philological. How about you?

Btw, there's still time to enter the mini competition to win an ebook. Just leave a comment which includes one of the M words here, before midnight tonight.

Threshold

A threshold is a point of entry, either real or metaphorical. Traditionally new brides were carried over the threshold of their marital home. A scientist could be on the threshold of an amazing discovery. Threshold can also mean a limit. It's said women have a higher pain threshold than men.

Originally a threshold was a raised strip of wood or stone. It was placed at the entrance to rooms such as kitchens and pantries where rushes, often scented with herbs, were strewn on the floor – as a kind of temporary carpet. Once dirty or wet, they could easily be swept up and replaced.  The rushes were known as thresh and without the threshold to hold them in place, would have been spread throughout the house.

If you're on the threshold of completing something which involves new media, get it finished and enter it into this free competition to be in with a chance of winning one of 5 prizes ranging from £500 to £750.

Censor

A censor is an official who studies books, films, plays and the like and suppresses any parts they feel shouldn't be made public. This could be because they're illegal, obscene, a threat to security or anything else their employer doesn't want let 'out there'. They may decide a work is acceptable only to a limited audience – those over 18, or with security clearance for example.

Censor also means to make the changes the censor decided need to be made. That generally means removing the offending section. If that happens to your work, you've been subject to censorship.

We can also mentally censor ourselves. Often that's a good thing as it prevents us blurting out secrets or making inappropriate comments. I don't think it's something we should do when writing – at least not in the first draft. Get it all down first, then you can start censoring (or editing if you prefer the term) by removing anything you feel shouldn't be there.

Thanks to Kath Kilburn for passing on details of this free to enter writing competition, with the theme of The Censor. You can submit a short story or a piece of creative non-fiction. The best dozen or so will be published and the authors will receive two copies of the anthology, plus £150. The overall prize is £2,000!

Rhyme

A word is said to rhyme with another when the sounds at the end are the same. Round rhymes with sound, time rhymes with mime (and rhyme). Half rhymes are words which nearly, but not quite, rhyme. Orange and lozenge is an example. Eye rhymes are those words which look as though they'd rhyme, because the endings are spelled the same, but don't. For example tough and through. Lost rhymes are words which used to rhyme, but due to changes in pronunciation, no longer do.

A rhyme can also mean a verse or poem which contains rhyming words. These generally come at the end of lines. If they're elsewhere they're known as internal rhymes.

Rhyming slang is a way of speaking which replaces a word or phrase with another which rhymes, although the actual rhyme may be omitted. In 'taking a butcher's' the word butcher's refers to a butcher's hook, which rhymes with look, and therefore means have a gander or a shufty.

Thanks to Bea Charles for passing on the details of this free entry poetry competition. The winner will get a personalised £100 book token with their poem on and £300 worth of poetry books. The judge is Pam Ayres. I like her. (The rules don't state that the poem must rhyme.)