Grammar Punk Blog

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.

Cupidity: inordinate desire for wealth;
avarice, greed; feeling of wanting more than you need; the strong feeling of
wanting much more than you need

I don’t know why this word leapt out at me—at this time of the year…

This is another of those words that says what you want it to say, especially in the guise of insult, without coming right out and saying, “You’re a greedy, grasping, ingrate and I hope your finally satisfied with this Christmas present.”

Give it a try. When your kid hands you a list half a mile long just smile and compliment them on their complete and utter cupidity.

Teachers of English, grammar, and writing, introduce this handy little word to your students. Then test them on their own cupidity.

Grammar Punk Sentence: H U 3

With a cupidity that would have made Ebenezer Scrooge blush, Derek liked to shut himself in his office and pour over his spreadsheets, humming Christmas Carols while his employees toiled away.

Give it a try. Write a sentence containing at least 3 words with the letters H and U and the word cupidity. Then share!

Jabberwocky: jab·ber·wock·y  a meaningless speech or writing; speech or writing that is meaningless or intended as humorous nonsense Okay, that’s the official definition but any well-read person knows the true etymology of this fabulous word: Alice in Wonderland! Or more precisely, Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, (1872. Lewis Carroll was warning about a fearsome beast:

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!

By 1902 jabberwocky had moved from a work of fanciful fiction into general use as a generic sort of term for meaningless or nonsensical speech or writing. You’ve gotta love an author that can not only make up words but also add them to the dictionary! If you don’t you’re just not trying hard enough.

Even bandersnatch had a go with the meaning, a wildly grotesque or bizarre individual though it never really took
off like its counterpart, Jabberwocky.

So, here’s to you, Lewis, only one of my all-time favorite authors. Not only did you give us Alice and the Mad Hatter,
Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, the peripatetically late white rabbit, the Red Queen and cake that asks to be eaten, you also gifted us with Jabberwocky!

Teachers of English, grammar, and writing, we sincerely hope you have introduced—and reiterated this wonderful piece of writing to your students. We challenge you to examine this classic to glean more wonderfully weird words. Then challenge your students to create their own jabberwockies and bandersnatches and frumious jubjub birds! Then write about them. Then share!

Grammar Punk Sentence: J E 2

When he became excited about a particular subject our English teacher, Mr. Nathaniel’s speech became a
positive mish-mash of jabberwocky words and phrases that, while entertaining, became rather hard to follow.

Write a Grammar Punk Sentence of your own that contains 2 words with the letters J and E and the word jabberwocky.

Chiropteran: any of an order of night-flying mammals with forelimbs modified to form wings: bat.

Perfect word for Halloween, right? I myself like bats. At least the basically harmless insect-eating bats that are common in our neck of the woods—pun intended. One of our favorite activities in the summer time would be to huck a Frisbee up near the street lights and watch the bats dart after it, no doubt anticipating the one heck of a moth dinner. Bats are beneficial. Bats are cool. Bats are necessary.

Vampire bats, not so much. Their diet consists of blood. Period. No bugs, no pests, not even the occasional piece of fruit—just blood. From living creatures. Warm-blooded living creatures. They hunt only when it is fully dark, they use low-energy sound pulses, therefore basically seeing in the dark, and they like sleeping victims best. They make a neat little slice with their razor-sharp teeth and then lap—not suck—the free-flowing blood. And to top that off, they inject their saliva while making the slice that inhibits the natural clotting process so the blood keeps flowing! If that’s not the ingredient for a good horror story I don’t know what is.

It’s no wonder this small, fairly innocuous, if admittedly creepy creature became entwined with the common fear of premature burial—when to be declared dead one merely had to appear to stop breathing and voila! the vampire legends are off and flying.

Grammar Punk Sentence: C E 2 Chiropteran

Finally tiring of explaining his chiropteran costume, Dwayne tore off his wings, removed his fangs, and dumped his beaker of blood down the sink; he hated Halloween!

Give it a try. Write a Grammar Punk Sentence where 2 of the words contain the letters C and E and contains the word chiropteran.

Teachers of English, grammar, and writing, here’s a lovely word to add to your student’s vocabularies as well as a swell writing prompt. Fit this into a last scary writing prompt. Then share.