Warm and Fuzzy Weird Word Wednesday

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arctophile, auction, collector, grammar, teddy bears, Valentine's Day, weird words

Welcome to Weird Word Wednesday! Today’s word elicits a great big “awwww” because of its warm, fuzzy nature. That word is arctophile. The suffix “phile” is a Greek word meaning “lover of”or “enthusiast of,” and you’ve probably seen it in other words like “bibliophile,” (lover of books) or “turophile,” (a lover of cheese).

Gund teddy bear

But if you’re an arctophile, you love teddy bears, those squishy, cuddly little toys that make you smile. I think, deep down, we’re all arctophiles. Who can resist? Not our daughter – she’s been an ardent arctophile since she was little. We have seven or eight huge plastic storage bins, filled to the gills with her collection of teddy bears. Thank goodness she’s not Jackie Miley, the South Dakota woman who’s amassed over 7,000 teddy bears!

I’ll share the history of the teddy bear here. It’s rather coincidental that the first teddy bear was sold on February 15, 1903, the day after Valentine’s Day. These little guys have always been associated with love! And sometimes money – in 2000, a Steiff bear, made with the Louis Vuitton logo, was auctioned for $2.1 million. I don’t think our daughter will be that fortunate if she decides to auction off her bear collection!

Our language  has adapted many words with the Greek ending “phile.” There’s “ichthyophile,” or “lover of fish” and “oenophile,” a “lover of wines.” One of my favorites is “batrachophile,” a “lover of amphibians.” A full list of these fun words can be found here – enjoy!

Frogs may not be as cuddly as teddy bears, but they do have a certain charm. I’ll leave you with a quote from Teddy Roosevelt, the man who unknowingly inspired the arctophile craze:

“It is better to be faithful than famous.”

Hangry Pangs Strike Weird Word Wednesday…

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angry, creative writing, grammar, humor, hunger, proper grammar, shopping, weird words, writing

Welcome to Weird Word Wednesday! Today’s word is made up, on the order of “blurple” (a mix of blue and purple) or “meanderthal,” (a person who wanders aimlessly while shopping, often as a result of low blood sugar).

Thanks to unwords, I got a little help with the concept of blended words. Today’s word, hangry, is a great mix of two words, “hunger” and “anger,” that dreadful, snarky feeling that some people get when deprived of food for too long.

Over the weekend, I enjoyed a little “Girls’ Day” with my mom and daughter. We met at the Shops at Woodlake, in Kohler, WI, for a couple hours of browsing and hanging out. My daughter ate a late breakfast, so by the time mid-afternoon rolled around (after a couple hours of being a meanderthal) her stomach started rumbling.

An hour later, she was downright hangry. Thankfully, she’s old enough not to act upon it. She might have felt suck-cheeked and light-headed with hunger, but she didn’t succumb to her hangry impulses – those dark urges that make you feel like your teeth are growing pointy and anything semi-resembling food is clawed up and chomped down with glassy-eyed ferocity.

Perhaps it’s genetic – I have another family member who experiences hanger when he’s food-deprived for too long, and a dear friend also admits to hangry impulses if she’s out with her hubby and there’s no restaurant in sight when the urge strikes.

But what to do when that happens? Let’s face it – you can plan ahead and prudently pack little Ziploc bags of trail mix, but when hanger strikes, the plastic bag gets wolfed down along with the raisins in seconds, leaving you unfulfilled, seeking more substantial sustenance.

There are a lot of other great blended words out there – scrickle (a light, scratching tickle), or puffalope (a puffy, padded envelope), so if you’ve incorporated any into your vocabulary, please share!

In the meantime, we fed my daughter and the shopping trip continued without incident.

Until the next time her hangry impulses take over…

Weird Word Wednesday!

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cultural differences, etiquette, friends, grammar, halch, handshake, hugging, restaurants, weird word

Welcome to Weird Word Wednesday! If you’re fortunate enough to live or work with a bunch of happy people, you’ll appreciate today’s weird word. Heck, today’s word just might pull you out of a funk if you give it a whirl!

Today’s great word is halch. It  means “to hug or embrace.” Our culture isn’t much for hugging at work, but I’ve noticed enough hugging in public to make me think that, overall, we’re a pretty happy nation.

We had dinner with friends recently at a wonderfully charming restaurant we’ve been to many times before. It was a while since we’d seen these great friends, so we halched as we greeted each other.

I’ve also seen groups of teenage girls, hugging like there’s no tomorrow, bouncing around with such enthusiasm that it’s enough to make me a little leery. Will I be pulled into their clutches if I get too close?

But which social situations demand a halch and when should we just settle for a handshake? Cultures around the world handle this differently, and here in the United States, it can get a little weird – I’ve been at events where I expected a handshake, but the person leaned in for a hug. This opens up a whole can of worms – just how long should the hug last? One arm or two? What if you’re the hugger and the huggee resists? It’s so much easier with family at Christmastime, isn’t it?

Sigh…all this thought for a simple halch! To sort it out, I did a little digging and came up with a source that’s pretty straightforward and sensible – at work, it’s best to stick with a handshake.

Lloyd’s excessive halching at the office created an awkward moment for Harold, who was unable to escape gracefully.

Here’s to halching – enjoy it in moderation!

Weird Word Wednesday!

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bowling, fun words, grammar, grandma, grandparents, Wednesday, weird word

We’re here again, at that exciting midpoint of the week when the weekend is in sight and all is well with the world. Let’s brighten it up even further with a weird word!

Today’s weird word is nighwhat. It’s an obsolete word meaning “nearly, almost.” If we take a gander at the first part of the word, “nigh,” we see it can either mean “near in space or time,” or “almost.”

Because it’s rather obsolete, nighwhat sounds downright odd when spoken. There might be pockets of culture where this word is used, and if you know of such a place, let me know. Using nighwhat in a sentence becomes tricky, but it can be done! Just think of an instance when something almost happened, and you’ve got a start.

As a novice bowler, Edna had no idea she was facing the wrong way when it came time for her turn. Otto was nighwhat flattened after she threw her ball into the crowd.

Nighwhat also reminds me of an interview I did a few years ago with a couple who had been married for 70 years. Their daughter called with background information, giving me a heads-up that her parents used words like “pritnear.” I laughed, because my grandparents used “pritnear” very often. It’s similar in meaning to “nighwhat,” and my grandma would say something like, “It’s pritnear time to get ready for dinner.”

So…today’s challenge is to use “nighwhat” (or pritnear!) in a sentence. Tell me about how you worked this quirky word into your everyday speech.

Before you know it, it’ll be nighwhat time for our next Weird Word Wednesday!