Vernissage – from the French for “varnishing” – is a term used for a preview or private showing of an art exhibition before the formal opening. The word has its roots in the old practice of setting aside a day for artists to varnish and put finishing touches on their works before the exhibit opens to the public.

a word to the wise

As a noun, advert, is, of course, an abbreviated word for “advertisement.” But when used as a verb – as in, “to advert to” something – it means turning attention to. (And, yes, there must be some connection here.) Example from The Mystery of Marie Rogêt by Edgar Allan Poe: “I have before suggested that a genuine blackguard is never without a pocket-handkerchief. But it is not to this fact that I now especially advert.”

Détente – from the Latin for “loosen” or “release” – is a political term. It’s usually used to describe the easing of hostility or strained relations between countries.

Susurrus (suh-SUR-us) – a word that sounds like what it means – is a low, soft whispering, murmuring, or rustling sound. (Plural is susurruses.) Example from The Journal of a Disappointed Man by W.N.P. Barbellion: “They are the susurrus of the breeze before the storm, and you await what is to follow with palpitating heart.”

A word that makes me wonder, “When was the last time I did this?”: disport

To disport is to amuse oneself in a playful way; to display ostentatiously. As used by Jules Verne in Five Weeks in a Balloon: “The soil was thickly studded with cocoa-nut, papaw, and cotton-wood trees, above which the balloon seemed to disport itself like a bird.”

* A word to describe something that smells like your grandmother’s attic: fusty

Fusty – probably from the Old French fusté (“tasting of the wine cask”) – usually means damp and dusty, having a stale odor. As used by Wilkie Collins in My Miscellanies: “The cab is fusty, the driver is sulky, the morning is foggy. A dry dog-kennel would be a pleasant refuge by comparison with the miserable vehicle in which I am now jolting my way over the cruel London stones.”

It can also mean old-fashioned in attitude or style. Example: “When accomplished, glamorous American actress Meghan Markle married Prince Harry in 2018, she was hailed as a breath of fresh air for Britain’s fusty royal family. That honeymoon didn’t last.” (Washington Times, Jan. 2020)

* A word with cringe-inducing origins: kibosh

To “put the kibosh on” something is to squelch it, decisively put an end to it. Etymologists have suggested several sources for the word, all of them creepy: (1) From the Arabic kurbash, a whip used for punishment. (2) From the Middle English cabosh, to behead a deer. (3) From the Hebrew for subdue or bring into bondage. (4) From the Irish caidhp bháis or “death cap,” the hood put on someone before they were hanged.

 * A word I’ll try to use next time I’m talking about psychedelics: kenshō 

A Japanese term from the Zen tradition, usually translated as “seeing one’s (true) nature.”  Kenshō is an initial insight or awakening, to be followed by further training to deepen the insight and learn to express it in daily life.

* A word I just recently came upon for the first time: comminatory 

Comminatory means threatening, punitive, or vengeful. Example from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: “I suspected something comminatory in his yellow, emaciated countenance, but I believe now he was simply startled by my youth.”

* A word that is not synonymous with whoopee: woopie 

An acronym for Well-Off Older Person. Woopie is used informally to refer to affluent retirees that pursue an active lifestyle. Example from Black in the Saddle Again by Arthur Black: “Woopies don’t want their oldness rubbed in their face.”

* A word I knew but forgot: skycap 

A porter at an airport. Coined in the 1940s when air travel started to become popular, “skycap” was modeled on “redcap,” a nickname for the baggage carriers at railroad stations that wore red caps.

Words to the Wise 

* Palindrome – word, a verse, a sentence, or a number that reads the same backward or forward. Easy to remember examples:

– Phrase: Able was I ere I saw Elba.

– Names: Hannah and Otto

– Numbers: 1661 and 2002

* Rumbustious means boisterous or unruly. Example (from Jaffery by William J. Locke): “The rumbustious ogre has a hitherto undescribed, but quite imaginable, gap-toothed, beetle-browed ogre of a wife.“

 * Blatherskite is silly, babbling speech that doesn’t mean anything. Example (from TheWashington Post): “British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, for whom the word ‘blatherskite’ could have been invented, says mankind stands ‘one minute to midnight,’ and without commensurate action, ‘the anger and impatience’ of the world will be ‘uncontainable.’”

 

Readers Write… 

 Comments on the “Employees’ Feelings” essay:

“Great essay today!” – FM

“I thought your essay on ‘caring too much’ was honest and brave. I hope it doesn’t get you into trouble!” – JJ

“Just wanted to say that I absorbed so much about receiving criticism and giving criticism from watching you in action. [These days] I find I have very little patience for people who put ego and too much feeling in their copy or projects, and I try not to put any into my own work…. I think it’s been a tremendous benefit to my career here. So, thank you for that on-the-job training.” – RLM

“You are such a hypocrite! You care more about your employees’ feelings – and do more for them – than any boss I’ve ever known!” – SS

 

Comments on the “Book Recommendations for 2022” issue:

“Thanks for the list of books, Mark. Probably more than I will get to, but many of the descriptions were intriguing. I’m motivated to start!.” – LS

“Just finished looking at your ambitious reading list for 2022. Good luck with all those titles! And many thanks for turning me on to ‘Shtisel.’ It is superbly written, beautifully acted, and masterfully filmed. The best series I’ve seen in years… I’ve become an evangelist for the show.”  – AG

“You mentioned that you had dyslexia as a child. I wonder if I had (or have) it too. How did you find out?” – SA

Answer: When I was young, I never recognized it. Reading was difficult. That’s all I knew. I once took a speed-reading course that my father was teaching. It taught me how to skim, and I found that much easier than reading word by word because I didn’t have to deal with the switching, which, again, I didn’t actually notice. Much later, when I was in Africa, I was tutoring a child that I suspected was dyslexic, and her mom ordered a test for her. I took it, and that’s how I found out. But by then, I had ways of coping and was determined to be a reader. I’m sure many of our coevals had the same experience.

punctilious (adjective) 

Someone who is punctilious (pungk-TIL-ee-us) is extremely detail-oriented. As I used it today: “These characteristics rule out my involvement in a few perfectly good investment strategies. Strategies that some of my more industrious, punctilious, and thoughtful colleagues in the investment advisory industry embrace.”

sobriquet (noun) 

A sobriquet (soh-bruh-KET) is an affectionate or humorous nickname. As I used it today: “In What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars, Jim Paul makes some very useful distinctions between 5 money-related activities that are sometimes lumped into the sobriquet of investing.”