Sweetness to My Ears

The other day while reading I came across an interesting word.  Mellifluous.

Mellifluous [muh-lif-loo-uhs] is an adjective that means sweetly or smoothly flowing; sweet-sounding.  If a mother is screeching at her children, or a boss barking at an employee, or children are bickering, their voices are NOT mellifluous.

However, if your sweetheart says ‘I love you’ or your boss says ‘You get a raise’ or if a friend says ‘You look lovely today,’ those comments are mellifluous to your ears.

Other things can be sweet-sounding:  a baby cooing, a light breeze through quaking aspen trees, money jingling in your pocket, someone playing the ukulele (like a young man did on my bus ride to work this morning), rain falling on a farmer’s parched field.

If you are having a good day, or a good rehearsal before a play, or a project going as planned, you could say those experiences were mellifluous (sweetly or smoothly flowing).

Harmonious is a synonym for mellifluous.  If your children were getting along and not squabbling, their behavior is mellifluous.  If a co-worker speaks nice to you (for once), that is a mellifluous experience.  If everybody gets along at a Thanksgiving dinner (when they usually criticize, argue, or complain), that would be a mellifluous gathering.

May you bring  many mellifluous sounds into the lives of others.

Is This Me — or You?

If every post I made equaled the amount of food I could eat, I would be an anorexic person.  Nay, I would be a dead one!  I really ought to post more often . . .

For today’s post, I want to share a word that I came across when I read the book The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M. T. Anderson.  That’s a great book.  I highly recommend it!

The word is rube.  Rube [roob] is a noun that means an unsophisticated person from a rural area.  A hick.  In the book I mentioned above, Octavian was the guinea pig in a test to see if he could be transformed from a rube into an educated person.

I grew up on a farm in southeastern Idaho.  I was a rube.  Hopefully, I’m not one any more now!  I have gotten an education.  However, I do currently live in a rural area . . .

Are you bonhomous?

My nephew recently e-mailed me and used the word ‘bonhomous’ in his message.  I thought that was a fabulous word and decided I needed to write about it here!

Bonhomous (bon-uh-muss) is an adjective that means frank and simple good-heartedness; a good-natured manner; friendliness. (Bonhomous is the adjective form of the noun bonhomie.  Bonhomie comes from the French ‘bonhomme’ which means good-natured man.)

You probably know people whose general personality is good natured, cheerful, and pleasant.  Those types of people are nice to be around and to associate with.  I know a person who is very negative in everything she says and does.  I feel sorry for her.  She seems to be so unhappy.  But, I digress.  Back to bonhomous.

If a clerk in a store or a waitress in a restaurant is cheerful and friendly, you could say they were bonhomous.  I taught a technology class yesterday and every person sat at their computer like the proverbial bump on a log.  None of them were bonhomous.  They didn’t smile.  They hardly even looked at me.  Must have been too early in the morning for them.

Dr. Seus’ Grinch is . . . is . . . well . . .  a grinch.  Definitely not bonhomous!

There are some drivers on the public transportation buses that I ride that are bonhomous — they greet the passengers with a smile and a cheerful ‘Good morning’ or ‘good afternoon.’

Most of the times, we can choose what attitude we have.  Give me bonhomous over being a grinch any ol’ day!

May the Propitious Words Be With You

Two years ago I read a book that had a plethora of unfamiliar words.  Ocassionaly when I am feeling the need to learn a new word, I go back to that list of words.  This morning, I felt the need.

So I selected propitious. Propitious (pru-pish-uhs) is an adjective that means favorable, profitable, good and helpful, kindly or gracious. If you spend a few days at someone’s home, your host could be propitious — very kind, helpful, gracious and attending to your every need and wish.  (Mothers tend to be propitious to their families!)

You could have a propitious breeze (if you are a sailor) that helps you sail your boat.  Or a propitious season (if you play on a sports team) where you win lots of games that get you into the final competition.

As a business owner, you could say that the first quarter of the year was propitious for your sales meaning that your sales were profitable.  In today’s economy, not too many businesses are propitious — like the car manufacturers.  Maybe if they changed their business practices, things would be different for them.  Maybe.

I Say Fulminate — My Brain Says Fumigate

Do you ever have one word that your brain connects to another word even though there is nothing whatsoever similar about the two words?  I have.  Fulminate and fumigate are like that to me.  Maybe that’s because they both start with the letter F.  Maybe that’s because they both end in ‘gate.’  Maybe it’s because my brain is feeble.  (That’s the most likely reason!)

Fulminate [fuhl-muh-neyt] is a word that means to explode with a loud noise, to issue denuniations, to issue or pronounce with vehement denunciation or condemnation.  When a child breaks a lamp or a china plate, his mother might fulminate (explode with a loud noise) in anger.  Or she might verbally condemn the child for being so clumsy.  A parent might fulminate when a teenage child comes home past curfew for the millionth time.  Or a husband might fulminate when the wife crashed the car.  (Do you see that the unifying theme is one of anger or frustration?  If you are happy in a situation, you will not fulminate anybody!)

So what is fumigate?  Fumigate /ˈfyumɪˌgeɪt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [fyoo-mi-geyt] is a verb that means to to expose to smoke or fumes as when you disinfect or exterminate cockroaches, ants, termites, or other creepy crawly thingies from living in your home.  Sometimes professional exterminators will use a smoke bomb in your home to kill the undesirable critters.  Sometimes it is a chemical bomb.  That is where the ‘expose to smoke or fumes’ comes in.

So, these two words are not even somewhat similar in meaning.  (Unless you picture the angry fulminating person with smoke pouring out of his ears . . .)

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