The Stories I Tell ~ from The Word Cellar

Stories. Anecdotes. A free round of words for everyone!

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Location: Pennsylvania, United States

I love stories. I'm the one at social functions with a dozen new anecdotes. But I worry about hogging the conversation. Sometimes I tell myself that I'll be quiet and let others do the talking. But no matter how hard I try, my stories insist on bursting out! Here I can let my stories (the classics that I tell again and again, as well as new ones that unfold along the way) run free. I'm a professional writer and editor, and sole proprietor of The Word Cellar. I write for a variety of publications and clients on everything from green buildings and nuclear reactors to entrepreneurship and the arts. If you need words written, edited, or enlivened, I can help. Contact me.

9.02.2006

The Return


Well, after an unintentional two month hiatus, I'm back in blogging action (complete with my very own photo of a moonflower blooming on my back deck). I used my lackluster technical skills to mess up my template and have been utterly frustrated since my last post in June. I kept adding new posts and could see them in my Blogger account, but nothing ever showed up online. But thanks to a very helpful fellow Blogger user, I have fixed the apparently simple problem. Simple is in the eye of the beholder, I'd say. Merriam Webster online provides this delightful definition: "lacking in knowledge or expertise." Well.

And since we're being word geeks, the word of the day is:

orotund • \OR-uh-tund\ • adjective
1 : marked by fullness, strength, and clarity of sound : sonorous
*2 : pompous, bombastic

Example sentence:
Josh cleared his throat dramatically, then did a dead-on impression of the professor's orotund, patronizing speech.

Did you know?
The Latin roots of "orotund" are related to two more common English words—"oral" and "rotund." Latin "or-" means "mouth," and "rotundus" means "round" or "circular." The Roman poet Horace joined forms of those Latin terms to create the phrase "ore rotundo," literally meaning "with round mouth," and figuratively meaning "with well-turned speech." "Ore rotundo" was modified to "orotund" and adopted into English in the late 18th century. It can indicate either strength of delivery or inflated wording.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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add to kirtsy | 9:09 PM

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Welcome back, she says in an orotund manner. If I were a cartoon, my mouth would be drawn as a little circle, my eyes wide and guileless. Yeah. Glad to see you again!

9/04/2006 9:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

your back!!! yay!!!

9/07/2006 1:40 PM  

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