Author Topic: Darkstorme's Word of the Day (Read 5299 times)

darkstorme · « **Reply #60 on:** September 07, 2010, 02:45:30 am »

Bard week is over, but still time for a heartfelt appeal to Ilsare:

Ardent

Ardent (arr-dent) is usually used to describe feelings - strong emotions, usually positive or to do with love or enthusiasm.

It can also mean burning, fiery, or glowing hot - which, in a way, is reflective of its other definition.

Usage:

The ardent suitor stayed outside her bedroom window all night, serenading her with the latest Trelanian love songs.
The ardent heart of the campfire threw golden light onto the faces of those gathered about it.

References:

darkstorme · « **Reply #61 on:** September 09, 2010, 02:47:17 am »

Again a day missed - again a double to make it up!

Chide

To censure severely or forcefully, to call to account for actions or behaviour - to scold or dress down. Basically, if your mother was lecturing you for setting fire to the neighbour's cat again, she was chiding you.

Usage:

Sallaron found himself chiding Trouble more often than not whenever the boy lived up to his name.
"You three have been chaste, abstained from alcohol, and stayed in your quarters reading for the last three nights!" The priestess of Xeen's tone was acerbic as she chided her acolytes.

References:

Need something special to call that half-ogre? I've got you covered...

Gormless

A gormless individual is one lacking wit or intelligence. (It's pronounced pretty much exactly as it's spelled, with "gorm" sounding like "warm".)

Usage:

The gormless half-ogre sat staring dully at nothing while the other party members finished their debate. "We go now?" he rumbled, when they finally stopped speaking.
Grok stared at the Aragenite with a gormless expression on his face, taking time from his rapt if vacant stare to take a bite of manticore haunch.

Reference:

darkstorme · « **Reply #62 on:** September 10, 2010, 02:39:53 am »

Particularly fitting from Ouroboros:

Undulate

As a verb, undulate (un-due-late) means to ripple, or roll (either in the sense of rolling hills, or rolling waves) - or, for a sound, to rise and fall in volume or pitch.

As an adjective, an undulate (or undulated) object presents a rippled or wavy surface.

Usage:

The snake undulated across the floor, sinuous and powerful. The party members trembled at his approach.
Her voice undulated as it rose to that highest, ear-shattering peak.

References:

darkstorme · « **Reply #63 on:** September 12, 2010, 02:54:49 am »

Yet another twofer. I have to start doing these earlier in the day.

Paucity

Exclusively a noun, for a change, paucity (paw-city) means scarcity, limited numbers, insufficiency or fewness.

Usage:

The noble looked about frantically, but there was a paucity of guardsmen this far down by the docks.
It is often remarked upon that there is a paucity of honest politicians.

References:

Now, now, don't expect doubles on normal days... don't be greedy... or, you know...

Avarice

Extreme greed, desire, acquisitiveness. (Lots of adventurers might be afflicted with a mild form of this.) Someone displaying avarice would be said to be avaricious, and the extent to which they display it is avariciousness.

Usage:

The avarice of dragons is legendary.
Katherian is a city of gluttony, lust, and avarice. I've always liked that about it.

Reference:

darkstorme · « **Reply #64 on:** September 13, 2010, 02:21:51 am »

I wish this post were more inspired; alas, for that, I'm just too tired.

Doggerel

An oft-derogatory word exclusively applied to verse
That indicates the form's absurd - simplistic, vile, or even worse.
The meter's junk, the foot unseen; a duffer at the poetry game
Would write this tripe. By this I mean it's just the ends that sound the same.

Simplistic rhyme, used all the time
Like Muffy Mouse of Today's Special - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
As I have used here and abused
That's doggerel - and now you know.

Usage:

Occasionally Therise would use complex rhymes, but most of the time, to satisfy her curse, she spoke in simple doggerel.
The criticism of the new play at the Katherian playhouse was scathing. The costumes? Rags. The verse? Doggerel. And the plot? As transparent as a Xeenite's undergarments.

References:

darkstorme · « **Reply #65 on:** September 14, 2010, 02:42:48 am »

And now, it's Druid time!

Verdant

An abundance of nature, greenness, and vegetation. Fresh, unspoiled, and lush.

It can also mean inexperienced (or, if you will, 'green'.)

Usage:

The verdant fields outside Port Hempstead seem to stretch out forever, a patchwork of greenery.
Golden light speared down from the verdant foliage overhead. Birdsong rang through the trees, and a deer bent to drink from the crystal-clear stream.

Reference:

darkstorme · « **Reply #66 on:** September 15, 2010, 02:43:08 am »

Druid week continues - this time, for those druids inclined to spend time on the seashore...

Littoral

Not to be confused with literal, littoral (which sounds the same) is another of those lovely words that serves as both an adjective and a noun.

As an adjective, littoral describes something as growing on or having to do with things near or on the shore, particularly of a sea or ocean. This extends in both directions, so both those things inclined to stay in the shallow water near the shore and those things tending to inhabit coasts and beaches.

It can also be used in naval terms - "littoral warfare" would be things like troops coming ashore.

As a noun, it means a coastal region - especially that region between low and high tide points.

Usage:

Pallena walked along the coastline, letting the chill wind off the water whip her cloak about her. Her steps were staggered, moving to avoid disturbing the littoral fauna as the tides rolled in.
The fisherman laid his crab trap in the littoral, knowing that the crabs would crawl in as the water rose, and come low tide, he could retrieve them.

Reference:

darkstorme · « **Reply #67 on:** September 16, 2010, 12:38:35 am »

And now, an adjective near and dear to most druids' hearts... or heartwood...

Arboreal

Something related to, describing, or resembling a tree. When referring to living creatures, this generally means that they live in trees.

Usage:

The Wood Elves of the Ulam Forest are occasionally heard to claim that their arboreal houses bring them closer to the forests than their kin.
Swinging easily from vine to vine, Shiff had time to think, 'Hey, arboreal locomotion isn't all that h-' before he hit the tree.

Reference:

darkstorme · « **Reply #68 on:** September 17, 2010, 02:08:38 am »

For those druids of a more intellectual bent (Aragenite druids, perhaps? Is that even possible?)...

Vicariance

The division or separation of a group of organisms (plants or animals, both are valid) by a geographic barrier - a mountain range, for example, or a body of water - that leads to a differentiation between the separated groups resulting in variation or speciation. (Vie-care-ee-uns)

In real life, a prominent example of this would be Darwin's finches - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. In Layo... well, see below.

Usage:

The Cataclysm separated large animal populations abruptly and permanently. The resultant vicariance produced distinct variations between the continents' populations, despite a remarkable overlap of animal and plant types.
An Aragenite scholar noted that the elven races were a prime example of a sort of social vicariance, where voluntary separation and segregation produced geological barriers.

Reference:

darkstorme · « **Reply #69 on:** September 18, 2010, 02:11:00 am »

They're not just Disney fairies...

Flora and Fauna

Technically two words, but they're so often paired that it's only fair to pair them here.

Flora (flow-rah) refers to one of two things. With a smaller case "f", flora describes the vegetation of a locale or region. With a capital "F", however, a Flora is a written treatise on the flora of a locale or region.

Fauna (fawn-ah) is exactly the same, but for the animal life of the region.

(Technically, flora can also refer to microorganisms inhabiting a region - for example, your intestinal tract - but I'm not certain how advanced microbiology is in Layonara.)

Usage:

Freckled Owl was concerned. The flora and the fauna of the forest were suffering, and no cause was evident. He would have to call upon other druids to assist.
The Aragenite naturalist settled down to sketch the unusually shaped flower he had come across. So intent on his work was he that he didn't hear the pad of tiger paws through the undergrowth behind him. Thus perish those who ignore the fauna in pursuit of a Flora.

References:

darkstorme · « **Reply #70 on:** September 19, 2010, 02:13:37 am »

What happens when you cross druidic practices with Xeen? (Or perhaps Prunilla?)

Fecund

To describe something as fecund (feh-kund) is to call it particularly fruitful or fertile either in terms of offspring (if an animal) or rate of growth (in terms of plant life).

Fecundity is the degree to which something is fecund.

In a non-organic sense, a mind/intellect can also be described as fecund, in the same way that a particularly inventive person could be described as having a "fertile intellect".

Usage:

The soil in which he'd planted the new assassin vines certainly was fecund. The druid imagined that the poachers were in for a terrible - and terminal - surprise.
The fecundity of goblins is legendary. Were it not, the mortality rate from internecine warfare, murder, and spates of adventuring parties would be terminal for the race.

Reference:

darkstorme · « **Reply #71 on:** September 20, 2010, 02:34:36 am »

Avast, me hearties! Pirates be takin' over this thread fer the day.

Now, not all o' we pirate types be lawbreakers. Some o' us be...

Privateers

A privateer be a ship (or a swab aboard that ship) which be privately owned but workin' under a letter from a government - and, in time o' war, will plunder and loot merchant vessels o' the government's foes.

Usage:

The scurvy dog Black Tom kept tellin' the hangman, all th' way up th' gallows, that he wasn't a pirate, but a privateer. He hung like a pirate, though.

References:

What be that? Some lubber protestin' that I be givin' out more than one word? I'll flog the scurvy dog! Or...

Keelhaul

Now, folks be askin' me - "Cap'n", they say, "what be keelhaulin'?" Now, if I be in a good mood, I tell the swabs, rather'n showin' 'em.

To keelhaul a bilge rat, ye get a length o' rope, long enough t' loop under yer ship. Ye toss th' one end into th' briny, and drag it out after it's drifted under. Then ye get th' fun part. Ye tie the miserable swab's feet with th' rope, and haul hard on th' other end, tossin' him overboard. Then ye pull him clean under th' boat - under th' keel, hence "keelhaulin'".

Now, dependin' on yer cap'n, a keelhaul can go a few ways. First, th' swab can be pulled under th' length o' the ship - and if it be a big ship, he's almost sure to drown - or under th' width. And ye can haul him quicklike, or slow. Now, slow, he'll likely be bound for Davy Jones' locker, 'cause it be hard to hold yer breath that long. Fast, though, and th' unlucky swab gets dragged 'cross the barnacled bottom of the boat - and them barnacles be sharp.

So that, me hearties, is why ye don't want to be keelhauled. Savvy?

References:

darkstorme · « **Reply #72 on:** September 21, 2010, 02:31:18 am »

Yo-ho... *cough* Right. We'll dispense with all that piratical nonsense until next year. No more mutinies on my watch. And only one word today, I'm not feeling particularly...

Magnanimous

To be magnanimous (mag-nan-ih-muss) is to be generous, noble, big-hearted. To be liberal in gift-giving, understanding of others, and tolerant. To take the high road when others wrong you, and to return insult with kindness, bereft utterly of spite or vindictiveness. Basically, it's a good thing to be.

Except, of course, when it's false magnanimity. When the graciousness of a victor covers the smirking countenance of a bad winner. Such an individual might be called magnanimous, but the speaker's voice would be dripping with irony.

Usage:

It's said that Moraken enjoys a challenging game of chess, and is both graceful in defeat and magnanimous in victory.
It's a testament to the normally magnanimous nature of Hlint's populace that adventurers are allowed within the town gates at all.

References:

darkstorme · « **Reply #73 on:** September 22, 2010, 02:28:32 am »

By special request from RollinsCat:

Hubris

Hubris (Hew-briss) is overwhelming pride, overconfidence, and arrogance with regards to one's own position and power - particularly in a literary sense leading to tragedy. In Greek theatre in particular, hubris often lead to the prideful mortals in question challenging the gods - most often with unfortunate results for the prideful.

In most literature, those characters who display hubris often are portrayed as getting "what was coming to them". The Bible used this trope, in Proverbs 16:18: "Pride goes before destruction" (often paraphrased as "Pride goeth before a fall.")

A final literary example before we get to my own creations:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
-Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley

Usage:

The hubris of the gnomish inventor who claimed the lock he had created could not be picked was repaid in full when he awoke to find his house picked bare.
Johnny the bard ought to have known what would result from his hubris. With a claim like 'No being from this world or any other can outplay me.', it's no surprise that a cowled stranger might appear with a fiddle case in one hand and the smell of brimstone in the air.

Reference:

darkstorme · « **Reply #74 on:** September 23, 2010, 01:26:58 am »

Single-syllable simplicity!

Stoke

To stoke (rhymes with "oak") a fire is to feed or stir it in such a way as to make it burn hotter and/or more brightly. This is always with a reasonably large fire - one cannot stoke a candle or a torch, for instance.

Usage:

Sallaron leaned forward to stoke the campfire, watching the flames flare up in the night, smoke curling towards the stars. Idly, he wondered when Tegan would let him back in the house, checked the dressings on his burns, and reached for another log.
Gilshem stoked the fire in the forge, the leaping flames painting his face with ruddy light. Muttering a brief prayer to Dorand, he set to work.

References:

Pseudonym · « **Reply #75 on:** September 23, 2010, 05:24:33 am »

And, also stoked.

darkstorme · « **Reply #76 on:** October 03, 2010, 07:02:35 pm »

I'd like to thank Orth and whoever else was involved in putting the forums back together again - of the dozens of words which went astray in this thread, only three remain missing, and that's a herculean effort for a thread of strictly limited importance.

Here, then, are the missing three:

This one's good for characters originally from deserts, characters venturing through deserts... basically, anything to do with deserts. And Abi-Hazim's Horrid Wilting, too.

Desiccate

Note the spelling - the most common confusion with this word is which letter is doubled. Despite the pronunciation (Des-sih-kate), single s, double c.

To desiccate is to dehydrate, to remove all water from an object. Aged and brittle parchment could be said to be desiccated; likewise sun-bleached wood. Also, long-dead corpses - undead hunters take note!

The past tense (desiccated) is often used (as it was above!) as an adjective. More commonly, in fact, than its parent noun. It can also be used to describe someone's mode of speech if they're being... ahem... particularly dry.

Usage:

With a groan, the desiccated body rose from its niche and lunged at the fighter, who jerked back in surprise.
The Black Wizard cackled as clouds erupted from his fingertips, their touch as dry as a desert wind, desiccating everything they touched.

References:

Milt then spent a post making fun of me for misspelling "desiccate" in my own post, shortly after commenting on how it was often misspelled. I tried a bluff check in return.

*-*-*

For all you crafters out there...

Manufacture

This is a word that most people know, but which is often limited to a more modern definition, rather than its original meaning. Rather than being purely the domain of modern industrial processes, manufacture derives from the Latin for "hand" (manu) and "a working" (factura), and can be used for any item that has been created by someone or something.

It can also be used to describe the construction of an idea - almost always a falsehood or fabrication.

Finally, it can be used to describe the nature of the makers of an item.

Usage:

The gnome set to work, and in no time at all had manufactured a functional cart from the ruins of the birdbath. His fellow party members gaped in astonishment.
Off the top of his head, the bard manufactured a story about how a passing maniac had slapped something on the back of his cloak, and clearly that was where the symbol of Ilsare had come from. The Prantzian guard considered this, and then hit him in the stomach with a mailed fist. Clearly, he hadn't bought it.
The formal throwing axe was clearly of dwarven manufacture.

References:

*-*-*

Quibble

To quibble (kwih-bul) is to argue over petty things, or to evade the truth (or ignore a point being made) by raising irrelevant or petty objections.

It can also be a literary device, wherein a character lives up to the letter of an agreement, while avoiding the spirit of the same. (Think of the Merchant of Venice, where a pound of flesh is owed but blood cannot be shed. Alternately, think of every malevolent genie in literature.)

Usage:

Angela sighed. The meeting of the Diet would've been over hours ago if the members weren't inclined to quibble over details of implementation.
"We didn't say anything about scales, or claws - it's important to know whether they count!" "You're

quibbling. Scales and claws or not, you can't eat a whole dragon in a single sitting."[/I]
[/list]

References:

darkstorme · « **Reply #77 on:** October 05, 2010, 02:38:59 am »

Starting a month-long theme:

Ghastly

Pronounced "gast-lee", this word signifies something that is shockingly horrific, repellent, or terrible. If it's something that only a Corathite would really enjoy, it's almost certainly ghastly.

It can also mean something of great magnitude, but usually only if that thing is powerfully negative - a mistake, for example, leading to horrible consequences.

Usage:

The paladin open the door, and stumbled back, his arm across his mouth in shock. The ghastly scene before them had clearly once been a family sitting down to dinner... rendered incarnadine by a painter using a knife for a brush.
The ghastly noise from the next room only confirmed Tod's suspicions... zombies. He hated zombies.

Reference:

darkstorme · « **Reply #78 on:** October 06, 2010, 02:54:56 am »

Mwaa-haa-haa-haa....

Malevolent

Someone (or something!) that actively wishes or inflicts evil or harm on others is described as malevolent (mah-lev-oh-lent). A malevolent thought or action can arise from hatred, ill will, spite, or simple evil. It's often scarier than simple evil, however, because if something is malevolent, the implication is that it is actively evil, rather than being in any way passive or reactive.

A quantity or intensity of malevolent thoughts or actions is malevolence.

Usage:

Kylie looked up at the darkened windows of the black tower and shuddered. It felt as though a malevolent presence squatted within those rough stone walls, daring them to enter.
The sheer malevolence the light of the flame revealed on the vampire's face was horrifying.

References:

darkstorme · « **Reply #79 on:** October 07, 2010, 02:57:29 am »

Cadaverous

It's not a magician's magic word - well... maybe a necromancer's. Cadaverous (ka-da-verr-us) refers to things that are similar to or related to a cadaver (a dead body), things that are ghastly and pale (or, in other words, similar to a cadaver), or creatures or people who are dreadfully emaciated and thin, almost skeletal (see also: like a cadaver).

Usage:

Alatriel put a flaming arrow through the oncoming zombie's leg, only to regret it as the room filled with the stench of burning, rotten meat. The cadaverous juggernaut showed no sign that it had felt or even noticed the projectile, continuing to stagger towards her.
Ragrian saw the cadaverous figure coming out of the fog and reached for her sling - only to relax as she made out its face. "Oh, it's only you, Erag."

Reference: