Today's words

millefleur \meel-FLER\ - having an allover pattern of small flowers and plants

This is one of the most obvious etymologies I've ever seen in a word I'd never heard before. 

dudgeon \DUJ-un\ - a fit or state of indignation

This word always throws me for a loop because, every time I encounter it, my brain expects it to mean something akin to one of its rhymes. In fact, the obsolete term mentioned in the WOTD write-up makes more sense to me.

styptic \STIP-tik\ - tending to contract or bind : astringent; especially : tending to check bleeding

I always know what this means when I see it in context, but not so much when I find it standing alone.

Pretty much caught up now.

(More) Today's words

tontine \TAHN-teen\ - a joint financial arrangement whereby the participants usually contribute equally to a prize that is awarded entirely to the participant who survives all the others

I've certainly heard of this sort of arrangement before, but don't remember this word for it.

sky pilot \SKY-PYE-lut\ - clergyman; specifically : chaplain

This is new one on me. I wonder if the phrase is more commonly used of naval chaplains than of those in the air force. 

efflorescence \ef-luh-RESS-unss\ - 1a. the action or process of developing and unfolding as if coming into flower  b. an instance of such development  c. fullness of manifestation : culmination  2. the period or state of flowering  3. the process or product of efflorescing chemically

I may have once known the chemical sense (described more fully in the full WOTD article). 

Today's words

alameda \al-uh-MEE-duh\ - a public promenade bordered with trees

Now I know why Alameda Boulevard is called that.

muliebrity \myoo-lee-EB-ruh-tee\ - femininity

Counterpart to virility, which is much more broadly known (supporting the lament that our culture is too male-dominated).

canker \KANK-er\ - 1. to become infested with erosive or spreading sores 2. to corrupt the spirit of  3. to become corrupted

Was familiar with the noun form, but not the verb.

One or two entries until I'm caught up . . .

Quit looking through the damned straw

Happy those concerned for the lowly and poor; when misfortune strikes, the Lord delivers them. - Ps 41, 2

How long have I been indulging this habit of focusing on my frustrations and struggles to the exclusion of both my blessings and my calling?  I know so many people who are dealing with so many (far) greater challenges than my own. And I am among the richest people in the world, both materially and otherwise. Yet I'm back into the habit that my therapist described as looking at the spot through a straw. On the beautiful, vast mural of my life there is a black spot, and I point the straw of my attention there and refuse to take it away and look at the bigger picture: how much we have grown together, the abuses that are no longer a part of my life, the joy of being in God's presence. At least I have continued to try to help others along the way, and perhaps that is how this one verse has now lifted my own spirits.  In wallowing in my frustration over situations that I cannot change instead of allowing my focus to be broader - in making my chief concern for myself instead of for others - I have lost sight of all that God has done for me already, and thereby forgotten that the Lord will never fail to provide for my true needs.  How often he has done so in unlooked-for ways, including how he delivered me from my own past in a far different way than I thought best. Rather, I have grown demanding and petulant, and my impatience has made me so short-sighted and judgmental.

I should know better by now.

Goals, accomplished and not

I had several things in mind for this morning. The first was to begin my day with prayer. By God's grace I did so, but by my own lack of discipline it was a fairly short and unfocused prayer time. Oh well; it's a start.

I also intended to blog about something other than new vocabulary words. This entry accomplishes that.

And finding my misplaced thumb drive this morning was a great relief. I'm thinking that I must have been the one to leave it in the camera bag, because I'd had a nagging thought to check there since I realized last week that it wasn't among my other usual pocket miscellany.

There was a fourth thing - I'll skip the details here - that I failed to get done this morning. It was probably adversely affected by my short-changing that first priority, which itself fell victim to being distracted by the online game I started playing with my oldest "Aloha granddaughter" months ago. She hasn't been connected online in at least two months, so I now mostly keep playing from habit.  It seems to me I'd be well served by letting it go, as long as I use that time for something better than more uselessness.

Today's words

hoise \HOYZ\ - lift, raise; especially : to raise into position by or as if by means of tackle

I often think that etymologists' distinctions are much ado about nothing. In this case, learning the meaning of petard will probably do more to help keep me from butchering the most commonplace application of this synonym of  - but technically different word from - "hoist." 

petard \peh-TARD\ - 1. a case containing an explosive to break down a door or gate or breach a wall  2. a firework that explodes with a loud report

I've never seen this definition, and always assumed a petard was a sort of lance or hook. As a result, I misunderstood the phrase to be "hoist upon one's own petard," instead of "hoist by . . . ," thereby screwing up both the verb (actually past participle of "hoise," not any form of "hoist") and the meaning of the object.

sui generis \soo-eye-JEN-uh-ris\ - constituting a class alone : unique, peculiar

So many of us would like to consider ourselves such, and in truth we are, but rarely in as lofty a sense as we'd like! (My mind is going to insist on pronouncing the second syllable consistently with Latin.)

At this rate, it looks like I'll be at least the rest of the week to catch up, especially if I'm led away from the WOTD list as I was by the second of these.

Today's words

chilblain \CHIL-blayn\ - an inflammatory swelling or sore caused by exposure (as of the feet or hands) to cold

I'd probably have gotten this one in context.

diseuse \dee-ZOOZ\ - a woman who is a skilled and usually professional reciter

I'd have never guessed that the beginning of this word was from the same etymological roots as ditto.

decussate \DEK-uh-sayt\ - to intersect or cross

And I'd have never associated this one with the number ten, but it makes sense, at least in Rome.

Yep, still catching up.