Skip to main content

Word Wednesday: New Year's Double Bonus Day


Happy 2012! Enjoy two new words for the price of one to kickstart a new year of dedicated blogging! 
First up:

por·ten·tous
adj \pȯr-ˈten-təs\

1
: of, relating to, or constituting a portent portentous foreshadowing, hints of sinister and violent mysteries — Francine Prose>
2
: eliciting amazement or wonder : prodigious
3
a : being a grave or serious matter <portentous decisions> b : self-consciously solemn or important : pompous <portentous declamation unsalted by the least trace of humor — W. H. Pritchard> c : ponderously excessive portentous phrases — R. M. Coles>
por·ten·tous·ly adverb
por·ten·tous·ness noun

Use this word in a sentence! 
The dead bird in the middle of the yard was portentous of much doom

The extra weight I am carrying in my thighs is portentous of a rigorous New Year's exercise program.

This word is also associated with the word PORTENT, which is synonymous with omen, or sign. Some might believe that this connotes only negative usage, but quite the contrary! Portents can be good or bad. The point is, something portentous signifies something of, well, significance. But it sounds cooler when connected with doom. 

Which brings us to our next word! 

for·tu·itous
adj \fȯr-ˈtü-ə-təs, -ˈtyü-, fər-\

1
: occurring by chance
2
a : fortunate, lucky fortuitous — Business Week> b : coming or happening by a lucky chance fortuitous train — Doris Lessing>
for·tu·itous·ly adverb
for·tu·itous·ness noun
Use this word in a sentence!  
It was quite fortuitous that I had an umbrella in my car, because that rain came out of nowhere! 

It is fortuitous that my husband surprised us with the corgi puppy, because Neurotic Dog was destroying everything in sight! 

This word essentially describes a happy coincidence. Use this  word when something has occurred for which you are relieved and grateful. I.e. a puppy coming along that calms down the other dog, who enjoys chewing on couch cushions when left alone. 

Go impress people with your vast intelligence!*

*Note the hyperlinked words throughout the post. These are other vocabulary words that some people might not know. If you don't know them, look them up! If you do, feel free to use them in conjunction with the words of the day for double, even triple the impress effect! People will be stunned by your eloquence! (Or not, if they are used to it.)  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner(s)!

Did you know that you can buy an entire chicken at the grocery story for less than $6? Well, you can. And if you are willing to put up with a little home butchering, it can make enough food to last you almost a week. I bought a chicken last weekend for our Sunday meal, and used the last of it just yesterday. This is a huge help when you are trying to mitigate the expensive cost of meat in your grocery budget. First, it needs a little work. I roasted the chicken for our weekend dinner, and I always butterfly it because it cooks faster that way. I'm not going to sugarcoat it--butterflying a chicken is kind of gross. Really gross, actually. But if you can overcome your squeamishness, it cooks great. There are a lot of great tutorials for doing this on YouTube, but here is how I did it.  Step 1: Remove the giblets (the heart, neck, and gizzard). This is disgusting because you must reach into a dead animal and pull out its organs. But once they are out, you can throw them away, ...

Zumba Night!

Okay, so, I haven't updated my blog about my weight loss every Tuesday night like I planned. But I am proud to report that not only have I continued to go to the gym at least thrice a week, I even convinced N to join it with me! The exercise thing is going a lot better. Today I even looked at myself in the mirror while I was zumba-ing! I don't think that I will ever be the kind of person who loves, loves, loves going to the gym, it does feel kind of good, kind of virtuous to get all sweaty and be able to tweet, "I am at the gym doing zumba!" For those of you who don't know, Zumba is the new fitness craze. I guess if you were to totally simplify things you would call it a type of aerobic class, but it is really so non-aerobic-y. There is not a lot of pumping, or jumping. It is 100% dancing. A little bit of salsa, a little bit of hip-hop, and tonight, even a little bit of ballet. It gets the heart rate waaaay up, and I always end up drenched in sweat, and best of ...

I Am Afraid of Snakes

I am giving you some valuable information here. Snakes are my biggest fear. My second biggest fear is that upon discovering my biggest fear, people will pounce on it and send me snakes in the mail, or put them in my bed, or my car, or throw them in my face like David Bowie did to Jennifer Connelly in Labyrinth . So, the other day, when Norris was getting ready to go on a short trip, we were talking about all the critters in our yard. Normally I like all these critters. We have a bunch of toads (like, seriously, we have like 20 toads in our back yard—and that’s just the ones we can find. Toads freaking love us.) and a couple tree frogs, and some praying mantises, and snails, and a family of birds (dusky flycatchers—the babies all just flew away and I was very sad) that nested in our patio light fixture, and for a few days we had a raccoon living in one of our trees. We also have a couple of hawks (I mean two hawks that are in a committed relationship. We know they care about each...