Grammar Punk Blog

Flocculate: floc·cu·late

to cause particles suspended in water to aggregate into clumps or masses that then sink or can be removed by filtering, or aggregate in this way; to form fluffy masses, or cause clouds to form fluffy masses

Okay, yes, I’ll agree that this is one of those words that sound more humorous, even on the unsavory side when spoken aloud, but it is actually a benignly useful little word.

It also happens to have a rather humorous conception—as it were. Apparently, back in the late 16th century a scientist noticed that the loose masses separated from a solution —or suspended—resembled tufts of wool, thus they began to refer to these bits of flotsam as “flocks”—yes, as in sheet. Now we have not just flocculate but flocculent and floccules. Who know?

Grammar Punk Sentence: F E 2

She watched, fascinated and not a little repulsed as the yeast clumped together in the warm water in flocculent little clumps; was that what it was supposed to do?

Teachers of English, grammar, and writing, give this one a try. Challenge your students to look around and identify flocculent items in their view. Then write a sentence. And share.

Tendentious: ten·den·tious: Marked by a tendency in favor of a particular point of view; biased; written or spoken with personal bias in order to promote a cause or support a viewpoint

This is another good word to add to your vocabulary. When confronted by unfair practices you can bypass close-minded or biased and just let fly with, “Stop being so tendentious!”

Grammar Punk Sentence: T E 5

We hated to think that our Biology teacher was of a tendentious bent but his favoritism towards earthworms was hard to deny.

Teachers of English, grammar, and writing, challenge your students to try their hand at a Grammar Punk sentence that includes 5 words with the letters T and E and the word tendentious.

Vespertine: of, relating to, or occurring in the evening; active, flowering or flourishing in the evening; crepuscular

Before I launch into the coolness and origin of this particular word, I want to call attention to one of the words definitive synonyms—namely crepuscular. I happen to have used that word before as a Word With You entry and here you probably thought most of these oddball words would never come in handy, am I right? Nyah.

Verpertine comes from the Hesperous, or the evening star. The most coon offshoot of vespertine is of course vespers, which means, you guessed it, an evening worship service.

Don’t you just love a word that wraps itself up so tidily?

Grammar Punk Sentence: R U 3

Ursula loved to spend evenings in her garden, surrounded by her vespertine lilies, nightshade, and mandrake roots, routing unwanted butterflies.

Teachers of English, writing, and grammar, challenge your students to explore their own favorite vespertine activities. Then write about it. And share!

Bolide: a large meteor; fireball; a bright meteor that explodes

The name for a streaking meteor, especially one trailing sparks is the Greek word bolis, or literally a javelin or missile. I do love a literal word even if it’s rarely used literally or otherwise.

So, the next time you are looking up at the night sky and see the streak of a falling star—well, that won’t actually have that much to do with an exploding meteor but it’s close enough—you can think to yourself that it very nearly a bolide. Nearly.

It’s also another fantastic Scrabble/Boggle sort of word.

Grammar Punk Sentence: L E 4

Clarice prefers to make her entrance as a fire eater by bursting onto the stage like a bolide, resplendent in her beads and feathers and flames.

All right teachers of English, writing and grammar, here’s a good challenge word for your students. Challenge them to write a Grammar Punk sentence containing 4 words with the letters L and E and the word bolide. Then maybe challenge them to a game of Scrabble.

Limn: to draw or paint a picture of somebody or something, especially in outline

to describe something in words

Quite a definition for such a small word, eh? Like many cool small words this one comes from a much larger one, tracing its rooms back to the Latin illumiare, to illuminate. In this instance the illumination referred to decorating. Shakespeare used the term, look when a painter would surpass the life./in limning out a well-proportioned steed.

Okay, so this is likely not a word that will pop into casual conversation, at least not without some effort, but it is fabulous for Scrabble and it will have your next Boggle competitor reaching for their dictionary.

Teachers of English, writing and grammar, here’s a nice one to add to your vocabulary lists. Challenge your students to put it in a sentence then create a character around the sentence.

Grammar Punk Sentence: R A 3

Taking great pains to make sure her makeup properly limned her eyes—no raccoon eyes for her—Zelda was ready for her big scene.

You give it a try. Write a Grammar Punk sentence that contains 3 words with the letters R and A and the word limn. Then break out the Boggle!

Adumbrate: to give an incomplete or faint outline or indication of something

to give a vague indication or warning of something to come

to give a description of something that includes general points about it, but no details

Interesting word, adumbrate. To be vague or incomplete or obtuse about what you’re trying to say or possibly something disastrous about to happen. Quite a busy little word for a word that says your not being at all clear.

I can’t help but notice the word “dumb” in the middle of this word. Can that have something to do with it?

Teachers of English, grammar, and writing, have fun with this word and challenge your students to write about incidents of adumbrate behavior.

Grammar Punk C I 3 adumbrate

Lulu’s propensity to adumbrate when it came to filling in details concerning the board meetings of the Orchid Growers of Cincinnati was becoming a major concern for the rest of the committee.

Write a Grammar Punk Sentence with 3 words that contain the letters C and I and the word adumbrate. Then share!

Scion: a child or descendant of a family, especially a rich, famous, or important family

a living shoot or twig of a plant used for grafting to a stock

This is a lovely little word, small and even uninteresting as it might appear. Its etymology began as a strictly horticultural concept a shoot or a twig—hardly an auspicious beginning. But from there, sometime in the 19th century it came to mean descendant, an offshoot as it were, but more than that, a twig from a “notable” family.

Notable, shmotable, I say. At the next family reunion I say you stand up and introduce yourself as the new family scion. Why not? Who’s to contradict you?

Grammar Punk Sentence: S O 3

Fairly bursting with pride as he looked down at his very small son in his very small cradle, Daniel found it hard to believe that this tiny scrap of humanity would soon grow up to be the family scion, inheriting the family plumbing business.

Quondam: former or sometime

I really hate to admit but I’d never heard of this one. Which is a shame because it is a handy little word. It comes from 16th century Latin. Quondum which means at one time or formerly.

Teachers of English, I strongly urge you to fit this handy and little used word as well as many others I’ve illuminated in his blog into yours—and your students lexicons—lest they disappear forever which would truly  be a shame.

Grammar Punk Sentence: G O 3 quondam

Hoping to regain his quondam days of glory, Jenkins refused to give up bowling, disregarding the fact that he barely broke eighty during any given game.

Write your own Grammar Punk sentence containing 3 words with the letters G and O and the word quondam.

Orgulous: Proud

Middle English, from Anglo-French orguillus, from orguil pride, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German urguol .

Okay, that explains a lot. It’s a German origin of a a word, Old High German at that. In any case it’s a cool word that makes me think of the word ogre. Which has nothing to do with anything except ogre is kind of a cool word too.

I have to wonder though why it’s orgulous—it’s that ous at the end that puzzles me. That ous usually means a suffix forming adjectives that have the general sense “possessing, full of” a given quality ( covetous; glorious; nervous; wondrous ) So I guess it’s not all that strange that being full of org means to be full of pride. Okay, I can buy that.

Grammar Punk Sentence: L U 2

Standing tall and impiously orgulous, Denny prepared to face down the hostile crowd waiting impatiently for the mac and cheese to be served.

Write us a Grammar Punk Sentence with 2 words containing the letters L and U and the word orgulous. Teachers of English, grammar, and writing, challenge your students to feel orgulous about their writing and use this word to launch into a paragraph or two while they’re at it.

Enervate: to reduce the mental or moral vigor; to lessen the vitality or strength of

This word always bugs me because it is often misused and because it is by its very nature confusing. The silly thing sounds too much like energize or invigorate, both of which are in fact antonyms for the thing.

Enervate owes its definition to the prefix “en” meaning “out of” and nevare meaning nerve. Therefore, someone who is enervated has plumb run out of nerve.

I thought this was a particularly good word for the end of the holiday season. I think we’re all a bit enervated by this time of year, but just think, there are only six more shopping days till Christmas!

Grammar Punk Sentence: N A 3

Feeling completely enervated by the marathon shopping trip, Dani collapsed onto Santa’s lap, ready to surrender the rest of her list to him.

Teachers of English, grammar, and English, challenge your students to write a Grammar Punk sentence that contains 3 words with the letters N and A and the word enervate.