Tag Archives: negative

by

’24 A To Z Challenge – I

Not to sound too negative or anything, but this week’s word is one of those words that doesn’t seem to have a positive.  I’m talking about

INEFFABLE

There, I said wrote it.  It does seem to be one of those negative words, that doesn’t have a positive for.  I have a whole list of them that I’m gonna do a post about – after I finish my procrastination practice.

Actually, the word effable does exist, although it’s even more rare than ‘ineffable’.  I thought at first that it was to describe many people’s driving skills, but it turns out to mean, utterable, expressible.  Too many of them have the word/name ‘Jesus’ on the back of their cars, so that’s the expression that I utter.  “Jesus!!  Who the eff taught you to drive – Crash Bandicoot??”

Ineffable then, just means that a thing is too…. something – holy, or horrible, to be expressed or described in words.  That’s when I resort to sign language, one finger at a time.  Thumbs-up to you though, if you show up here on Friday.  😀

by

WOW #23

Dictionary

I have a

DILEMMA

The other day, I merely had a lemma. I’m pleased, because almost no-one else knows when they’ve got one.  A lemma is a spikelet of grass or other plant.

Linguaphiles speak of words which are positive, which have no negatives, or negative, but have no positives. Poor ‘dilemma’ is a bit of an orphan – one parent, and no-one knows what it is.

The phrase ‘caught in a cleft stick’ means that someone is jammed between two options, unable to make a choice for either one. The prefix ‘di’ also means two.  The word ‘dilemma’ is a situation where you are already impaled on two sharp, contradictory choices, and getting off is going to be intellectually or emotionally painful, and adopting and sticking yourself with either single option will hurt even more.  See lose/lose, or zero-sum-gain situation.

Reprogramming the Star Fleet computer so that you can win the Kobyashi Maru mission test is not a dilemma. If only we were able to reprogram more of life’s double-edged predicaments.  Things would go so much more smoothly.

Finding your way back here for more exciting, informative blog-posts should not be a dilemma.  If you haven’t already, lose your mind and just click on ‘Follow’ above, and leave some nice, but not pointed, comments.