Saturday, August 14, 2010

Gods Among Us

Nosmo's Written Words of the Day
Look down upon me great heavens! The stars of the everlasting night sky, look! Are those twinkling tears in your eyes? Do you cry for me? What shoulder do the mighty stars weep upon? What breast could be vast enough to wear their tears? What hand is titanic enough to caress them and comfort their heaving sobs of sorrow? Look, it's raining. -Nosmo

Phrase of the Day
"The older I grow, the less important the comma becomes. Let the reader catch his own breath." -Elizabeth Clakson Zwart


Word of the Day
Eccentricity: From Medieval Latin eccentricus, derived from Greek ekkentros "out of the center", from ek-, ex- "out of" + kentron "center". Eccentric first appeared in English in 1551 as an astronomical term meaning "a circle in which the earth, sun. etc. deviates from its center." Five years later, in 1556, an adjective form of the word was added. 129 years later, in 1685, the definition evolved from the literal to the figurative, and eccentric began being used to describe unconventional or odd behavior. A noun form of the word – a person who possesses and exhibits these unconventional or odd qualities/behaviors – didn't appear until 1832. source

3 comments:

  1. Well, I for one love commas! Not as much as the semi-colon; I do love the semi-colon. I can never remember how to use it properly but I use it.
    Oh wait! Here we go:

    Semicolons are followed by a lower case letter, unless that letter is the first letter of a proper noun. They have no spaces before them, but one space after (possibly two when using monospaced fonts). Applications of the semicolon in English include

    Between closely related independent clauses not conjoined with a coordinating conjunction
    "I went to the basketball court; I was told it was closed for cleaning."
    "I told Ben he's running for the hills; I wonder if he knew I was joking."
    "Nothing is true; everything is permitted."
    "A man chooses; a slave obeys."
    Between independent clauses linked with a transitional phrase or a conjunctive adverb
    "I like to eat fish; however, I don't like to be eaten by them."
    "I like being odd; yet, I hate being different."
    Between items in a series or listing containing internal punctuation, especially parenthetic commas, where the semicolons function as serial commas:
    "She saw three men: Jamie, who came from New Zealand; John, the milkman's son; and George, a gaunt kind of man."
    "Several fast food restaurants can be found in each of London, England; Paris, France; Dublin, Ireland; and Madrid, Spain."
    "Examples of familiar sequences are: one, two, and three; a, b, and c; and first, second, and third."

    ReplyDelete
  2. The best use of the semi colon is, let's face it, the winky face.

    Love that comma quote, too! Bravo!

    ReplyDelete