2/25/2007

At Words For a Loss





One day, for some morbid reason, I was looking up synonyms for "death" in my copy of Roget's Thesaurus.


I found myself at words for a loss!
WE thought it would be a simple matter to launch a new Website, especially one created from a shared vision. Our goal was -- and is -- to put fun into those basic elements of language and speech - words. We are hoping you will allow us to put words into your mouths.

Verbicidal Tendencies will be a collaborative effort, a team blog if you will. At present, our team consists of only a dynamic duo of discourse, the Lords of Lexicon, whom you'll come to know as the Queen of ReNoun and the Verbinator.

Without waffling, we wish to welcome you to the whimsical and wonderful wacky world of wise and worthy words.

So at this time we will commit to screen a few words to introduce ourselves.

If you're familiar with my blog, Parenthetically Speaking..., then you're already familiar with my affinity for finding and explaining bloopers. Mike shares this warped love of wild and wacky words; hence, it was almost inevitable that The Verbinator and The Queen of ReNouns would team up to collaborate on weeding out the weasel words. We'd love it if you'd give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses of ... bad, warped words. We're armed with dictionaries and dangerous, with ... Verbicidal Tendencies.

Some of you, hopefully a lot of you, have read my blog,
It Occurred To Me, and know that I seldom in my writings wax serious. (Serious? Isn't that the name of a star in Ursa Minor?)

....I had envisioned this site some time ago. It wasn't until I found that proverbial pot 'o gold at the end of the rainbow, namely Serena Joy, did I realize the site was possible. The two of us have been busy planning, researching, and putting this things together. It's been a labor of love.


....It will be a Team Blog, but we don't plan to go it alone. In more than one place on this page you will see a call for partners.....We're looking for a few good Bloggers. As stated in the footer below, we are looking for teammates.

In future posts we hope to answer such questions as: "What's the word?" or "What's in a word?" That sentence led me to another question, a profound question.

....What's another word for "word?" To answer a question of such magnitude I had only to refer to my handy thesaurus, the bible of wordsmiths everywhere.

....Word: (Syn)- phrase, term, utterance, expression; (V) - articulate
....Wordy: (Syn) - talkative, verbose, garrulous, loquacious; (Ant) - silent, uncommunicative

Many words go to a sackful. - Dutch Proverb

Become a part of the team, or simply e-mail us your finds and we'll run them with full credit to you. Whether you stumble across etymological menaces to society you'd like explained or whether you write your own exposé and would like to share them, come and join in the fun. There are some of you who I'm really hoping will sign on for this; you know who you are.

Yes, coming soon to a Blogroll near you: a site that will give new meanings to the term meaning. (Serena says, "Mike, that's not like that IS doesn't always mean IS thing, is it?") Today's introductory post is only the beginning.

....For the last word on words, let us be the first place you turn for the best fun with words.


We're looking for a few good Wordsmiths. It says it like it is in the footer below, we are looking for teammates.

I would like to extend a thumbs up to Miss Cellania, without whom this site would be still be but a dream. It was with her advice that this post was nurtured. Drop in and tell her what you think of Verbicidal Tendencies.

22 comments:

Miss Cellania said...

Let me (please) be the first to welcome Verbicidal Tendencies to the Blogosphere!

Serena said...

Thank you so much, Miss Cellania. I hope you'll pass us some wordly goodies from time to time.

Hale McKay said...

It is only fitting, Miss C, that you leave the very first comment to us.

Jodi said...

Great idea! I love words! I will stop by often!
Yay!
J.

Serena said...

Thanks, HoosierGirl, and welcome to the new joint.

Jack K. said...

I can hardly wait for each new posting.

You have alerted me to being ever more watchful. I will certainly inform you of each verbicide I detect. That presupposes I would know one if it fell on me. snerx.

Serena said...

Thanks, Jack. I'll be on the lookout for verbicidal mail from you.:)

lime said...

oh this is rather exciting as a word nerd myself. i used to read the dictionary for amusement. how sick is that? well here, i am assuming it would actually be de rigeur instead of something viewed as a cause or rigor mortis.

Serena said...

Welcome, fellow Word Nerd. We're really, really hoping to outrun rigor mortis for a while.:)

NYD said...

I sit here and before my eyes a blog is born. Living in the wacky world of Lilliput, Where English is twisted, tortured and generally misused to a comical degree, I am most certainly looking forward to seeing what will happen here. Good luck to you!

Serena said...

Thanks, NYD. I hadn't thought of it from the perspective of all that twisting, torturing, and misusing. This WILL be fun.:)

Hale McKay said...

NYD - Funny you should make a reference to "Gulliver's Travels," because I have a post on that very subject - coming soon.

Lime - That love of words is great. I know you are involved with a team blog as well as your own, but that doesn't mean you can't be a guest contributor here sometime.

Hoosier Girl - Who more than a teacher might have some wonderful stories about students and their word usage.

Serena - Notice the "subliminal hints?"

Serena said...

I did notice, Mike. I hope they aren't just teasing and will hand over some verbicidal goods to us.

Unknown said...

I have never had a website scare me more. Congrats and this is going to be an awesome site.

Serena said...

Thank you, Kanrei. Write something for us. Then you won't be scared any more.:)

Anonymous said...

Definitions They Didn't Teach at School

ADULTERY - The wrong people doing the right thing.

ALIMONY - The screwing you get for the screwing you got.

BABY - A hollow tube with a loud voice at one end & a complete lack of responsibility at the other end.

CANNIBAL - One who is apt to pass his best friend.

CHIVALRY - A mans inclination to defend a woman against every man but himself.

CONSTIPATION - To have & to hold.

COOKIE - A virgin doughnut.

DECOY - A flashlight in the pants pocket.

DIARY - Book of revelations.

DOCTOR - A lucky fellow who is privileged to undress women & go all over them without getting his face slapped.

GENTLEMAN - One who is always careful to rest at least half his weight on his elbows.

HORSE SHOW - A lot of horses showing their asses to a lot of horses' asses showing their horses.

A KISS - Upper persuasion for lower invasion; upstairs shopping for downstairs merchandise.

NURSE - A pan handler.

PIMP - A crack salesman; a nookie bookie.

SIN - Anything the other fellow enjoys & you don't.

SPRING FEVER - When the iron in your blood turns to lead in your pencil.

TAXIDERMIST - A man who mounts animals.

VIRGIN WOOL - Wool from a sheep that can outrun a sheep herder.


A truck carrying copies of Roget's Thesaurus over-turned on the highway.
The local newspaper reported that the onlookers were "stunned, overwhelmed, astonished, bewildered, and dumbfounded, alarmed, dismayed, frightened, horrified, panicked,spooked, startled and generally bewildered"

Serena said...

SM, you are TOO GOOD at this! Those definitions are dynamite. I hope you plan on contributing such gems regularly.

Hale McKay said...

Scary,

Those were great. Just the kind of material VT is looking for.

Send them via e-mail and either Serena or I will put them up in a post and give you full and desrved credit.

(Of course, you could always join the team, or make guest posts.)

Camille Alexa said...

I seldom in my writings wax serious.


Doesn't wax serious have something to do with Brazil and bikinis?

Serena said...

Only during Carnival.:)

Hale McKay said...

If were to wear speedos would i be required to wax?

Serena said...

With Speedos, yes, I'm afraid it would be de rigueur.