Feeling quizzical today?

I am.

Here’s a trio of terms that tend to trick the tongue and perplex the pen …

• palate
• palette
• pallet

If you can’t match the following definitions with the words above, I have a fun exercise for you that I came up with so I can remember the spelling of each.

• a wooden bed or flat platform onto which goods are loaded
• the roof of your mouth or sense of taste
• a flat board an artist mixes paint on or a range of colors

Take a guess, and then scroll down to find out how I remember these rascally words.

Palate: the roof of your mouth or sense of taste

(spelled plate with an a added)

“My palate is best served when I use a plate.”

Pallet: a wooden bed or a flat platform onto which goods are loaded

(Ma Mallet and Pa Pallet are a team)

“Bring me that mallet so I can take apart this pallet.”

Palette: a flat board an artist mixes paint on or a range of colors

(pal-ette smacks of French, well, because it is)

“The French artist was mixing paints on a palette while wearing a French barette.”

Photo by Jennifer Rensel via Wikimedia Commons

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Oh, honey …

who among us northern gals

hasn’t secretly bid her tongue to slip

effortlessly into that sweet southern nectar

known as a d-r-a-w-l.

Or, should I say,

d … r … a … w … l …

That’s right, you have to slow it down,

stretch every syllable out a little bit m-o-r-e,

maybe even summon an extra syllable or two.

Just for effect.

Lil’l Southern Belles by Hamilton Hamilton, 1894, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Well, in case you’d like to try your tongue at a tantalizing twang

(you know, in the car while you’re driving alone, in the shower where no one can hear … ),

start with this word:

mabalane.

No, not just mabalane all squished together …

Like this:

maa … buh … layyyn …

That’s it!

The funny thing about this word is that it’s really an obscure term that comes to us from South Africa, meaning “a clerk, a secretary; a person whose work includes the keeping of written records.”

It’s not really the definition that matters, though, it’s the way it sounds rolling from your lips.

Master the word mabalane, and soon you’ll be hollering “y’all!”

with the best of those silver-tongued southern belles.

Vivian Leigh in Gone with the Wind courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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Are you a logophile?

That is, a lover of words?

Well then, you probably have an impressive word-hoard,

(better known to the lay folk of language as a vocabulary).

If so, you may already be familiar with Anu Garg,

the logophilic luminary behind

A.Word.A.Day,

“the most welcomed, most enduring piece of daily mass e-mail in cyberspace,”

according to The New York Times.

Anu Garg founded Wordsmith.org in 1994, a worldwide online community of people who share a love for

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Leave it to a bunch of hens …

Those garrulous girls can be heard

all around the farm.

Squawk!

Is a raccoon causing the ruckus?

A weasel, perhaps? Stray dog? Barn cat? Eagle? Owl?

The uproar sends me running every time,

tripping over my feet and bushes along our pathways,

to see what’s ruffling their feathers.

And more often than not,

what do I find?

Just a coop full of cachinnating chickens …

What’s so funny?

Photo by Jeff Kramer via Wikimedia Commons

Cachinnate (KAK-i-nayt): a verb meaning to laugh very loudly or immoderately. Continue reading →

Have you ever considered how many women’s names have taken on double meanings in the English language?

If you’re scratching your head, take it from a gal who knows …

A Mary Jane, after all, isn’t a far cry from a MaryJane.

(I prefer the Butters version.)

See what I mean?

If you’re a Nellie or a Patsy, you’re nodding emphatically right now.

Unfortunately, girls named Nellie and Patsy are harder to come by these days,

thanks to popular expressions that have put a damper on their demand.

“Whoa Nellie! It just ain’t so,” said Nervous Nellie. ”Don’t blame me. I refuse to be your Patsy.”

Let’s take a gander at several handles that have become noteworthy

(or even a tad notorious)

by their starring roles in our ever-evolving vernacular …

Mary Jane

My name, with a space between, doubles as the name of a …

perfectly legal …

shoe.

I must say I’m pleased as punch—who doesn’t love a Mary Jane? It’s a shoe-in.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Plain Jane

Some Janes have it harder than others. Jane paired with plain is a term used to describe a woman of “unremarkable appearance.” With a play on words, I named my milk chocolate “Playin’ Jane.”  I quite prefer her lack of fanfare over the more complicated Janes. Divulge your favorite type of chocolate in the comments section below and this Playin’ Jane (along with her friends, Almond Daze and Mintsummer’s Day) will get mailed to you when our very own StellaJane picks your name out of our giveaway hat.

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Wandering the fields one fine spring morning,

Farmer Jane was so busy sniffing out newly sprung wildflowers

that she nearly tripped headlong

into a ha-ha.

The Athaneum by De Scott Evans via Wikimedia Commons

A ha-ha?

Uh-huh,

a ha-ha.

Tsk, tsk—it isn’t nice to laugh at Jane’s blunders, now, is it?

However, a “ha-ha” is not always what it seems …

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Farmer Jane knew from the gecko that it would be one of those days.

It started with a call from her neighbor: the bobwire fence that divided their pastures was down, and the fast majority of her cows had ventured next door for a visit.

Ugh.

“I’d be internally grateful if you could fix that fence right away,” the neighbor plied.

Farming is a tough road to hoe, Jane thought.

She hung up the phone and poured herself a glass of milk. To her dismay, it was skimp milk—darn her husband’s diet!

No sense in griping, though. The milk was a mute point.

Jane decided it was time to cease the day and hone in on her morning’s task of fence mending.

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Did you catch them?

You probably didn’t know it, but as you read through Jane’s entry, you were gathering eggcorns.

Not acorns.

Eggcorns.

And, no, I’m afraid you can’t eat them.

They really have nothing to do with eggs …

or corn.

An eggcorn is an alteration of a word or phrase in which the correct word is replaced with a similar sounding word that also makes sense (well, sort of).

For example: “ex-patriot” instead of “expatriate” or “mating name” instead of “maiden name”.

Here are Jane’s eggcorns:

• gecko (get go)
• bobwire (barbed wire)
• fast majority (vast majority)
• internally grateful (eternally grateful)
• tough road to hoe (tough row to hoe)
• skimp milk (skim milk)
• mute point (moot point)
• cease the day (seize the day)
• hone in (home in)

I found a whole list of eggcorns here, and some made me laugh out loud.

Heard any good ones lately? Continue reading →

It’s barely 10 a.m.,

but you feel like munchin’ …

You’re craving some crunchin’ …

Can’t wait for a luncheon!

No worries, my dear.

Let’s do a nuncheon.

I didn’t make this one up,

honest.

“Nuncheon” is every bit as real a word as luncheon,

and both were invented in the 19th century

(by Mother Necessity, of course).

After all, a gal can get mighty hungry come mid-morning.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, breakfast often occurred well after sunup, and dinner came along in mid-afternoon, so lunch as we know it wasn’t really an issue.

But as time went by, dinner got pushed back hour-by-hour, and, well, you can see the obvious problem.

“Luncheon” began to light upon the tongues of the hungry, but some cynical soul deemed it a vulgar term.

Somehow, nuncheon (which may have been pronounced noon-shine) was easier on the ears.

Go figure.

According to period author Regina Scott of Nineteen Teen, nuncheon food “was laid out on a sideboard in the dining room, and you could pick from cold meats like ham and roast beef, pickles, fruit preserves, and dessert-type items like cakes, buns, and tarts, all washed down with ale or tea. You might even grab up a sandwich of bread, meat, and cheese.”

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