Random Word Association Game

Put a word (any word) to each of the following letters:

b
t
l
s
e
v
a
d
b

Affect vs. Effect

Puzzled by the decidedly slippery difference between the words 'Affect' and 'Effect,' I decided to Learn Something New Today and post my findings. Come along with me on a magical grammatical journey!

Generally speaking 'affect' is a verb. "Not knowing the difference between the two affected her ability to concentrate at work."
And also, generally speaking 'effect' is a noun. "Studying the dictionary had no effect on the current debate."

Those are general rules and will be correct most of the time.

But in order to effectively use both words, you should also know when they flip-flop roles.

The so-called verb 'affect' becomes a noun when speaking of a person's psychology. "He had an affect of politeness about the whole grammar issue."

'Effect' becomes a verb when speaking of "causing change" or "accomplishing." Ex: "The grammarian hoped to effect change with regards to the two troublesome words."

Now to get more confusing: To nit pick the major definitions of the two words leads us to the following conclusion: 'affect' is to influence, 'effect' is a cause. Catch the difference there? Yeah, me neither. One more time. Affect something and you influence it. But to effect something you actually cause it to change. If you like to think of it this way, you can - affect is the act and effect is the result

So, to review. Affect, verb to influence, or noun, how you appear to be feeling; Effect, noun demonstrating the result of change, or verb, to accomplish change.

I hope that this little post has had the proper effect and helps affect your ability to write clearly. If not, you can just affect an air of knowledgeability and trust that this lesson will one day effect a clarity on your grammar.

Ambiguity

Thank you to AO who made me this lovely Ambigram, inspired by last week's post. Ambigrams can be read upside down or upside right. They are truly, truly fun little critters! *runs off to create one for herself*

You can make a quick ambigram for yourself here.

Wrapped in Mystery

One of my favorite concepts; the ambigram. I once made one for my first name. Don't have it anymore, but these are just as good (ok, maybe a lot gooder) and you can brush up on your spanish! Click the enigma to see the website...

Friday Fun Day! (Word Puzzle)

Can you guess the puzzle?







Here's another:









Here's one from Steve DeGroof:

P-utrid?

How many words can you come up with for unpleasant things that begin with the letter 'P?'

Pictured to the right is a punch. Not pleasant. Not pleasant at all! Get to typing!

[editor's note: I know I'll regret asking at some point when somebody comes up with something truly nasty, so forgive my curiosity in advance...]

Word Puzzle Redux

Since anonymous got the answer so quickly I thought I throw out another quick Word Puzzle for the weekenders. Love and kisses! (It's easy, you'll see right through this one.)

Or Try this one on for size:

Puzzle Me

Apparently, my word puzzles are easier than trash to pick out, so I'm throwing this whole genre wide open to my adorable public. You have a better word puzzle idea? (and for the sake of sanity, we will limit the entries to four pictures or less) Email it to me at ksrasra AT gmail DOT com. I will post them on Fridays for the amusement of all our readers!

Alphabet Soup

Go ahead. Write a small literary work using every letter of the alphabet to start a word only once. It can be a sentence. It can be a paragraph, but it should at least try to make sense.

I don't have one yet... You could be the first!

UL in the middle

I never actually saw a cat being killed by curiosity, so I remain curious. Today I want to know what words contain the letters 'UL?' List as many words as you can.

RuLEs:
1. the letters 'UL' must be proceeded by at least one letter and
2. they must be followed by at least one letter.

Here's two to get you started:

Unduly
Ruler

Mouse Potato Gets Into Dictionary

You heard it here first! (thanks, Honestus.)

Limerick Wednesday

There was a young fellow named Clyde
who fell in an outhouse and died.
Along came his brother
and fell in another
and now they're interred side by side.


A tutor who taught on the flute
Tried to teach two young tooters to toot.
Said the two to the tutor,
"Is it harder to toot, or
To tutor two tooters to toot?


There was a young woman named Bright
Whose speed was much faster than light.
She set out one day
In a relative way
And returned on the previous night.

BIGGER

It's a verb!

(Thanks, Afro)

Make-A-Word

What words can you make from the following word?

Ceci n'est pas une Audioblog

I tried to record a message to Audioblogger and succeeded. Smugly, I hung up. And didn't hit the send button.

Here it is:

What word shares only one letter with its plural?

AND

What does brunneous mean?

Word Game

How many words can you create of three letters or more without the aid of the internet using the following?

REFULGENCE

Bathroom Associates

Ever hear a word and then puzzle over it as it seeps deep into the unprotected, and overly curious depths of your brain?

Story of my life.

Yesterday I happened to see a sign in a public restroom of a store which read "All Associates must wash their hands before returning to work." You've seen similar signs no doubt. Urging employees to not do the unthinkable and exit the washroom without washing. But as I pondered the sign I began to really wonder about the word 'Associate.' Who was an Associate? What was an Associate? In this case, a lower level worker who was reduced to using the public restroom before returning to work. Or perhaps also it was also a reminder to any high-level managers and directors who came breezing through to continue the excellent tradition of hand washing which this company so highly cherished. Associate to me meant only 'loosely connected with.' Therefore anyone who was 'associated' with the company must needs wash their hands. But of course, even customers are associated with the company via there financial interactions and therfore they too should wash their hands per the sign's urging.

"Why," I puzzled to myself, "do they call them 'Associates?' What are they associated with? What does "Associate" even mean?

Webster says:
Main Entry: ¹as·so·ci·ate
Pronunciation: &-'sO-shE-"At, -sE-
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -at·ed; -at·ing
Etymology: Middle English associat associated, from Latin associatus, past participle of associare to unite, from ad- + sociare to join, from socius companion -- more at SOCIAL
transitive senses
1 : to join as a partner, friend, or companion
2 obsolete : to keep company with : ATTEND
3 : to join or connect together : COMBINE
4 : to bring together or into relationship in any of various intangible ways (as in memory or imagination)
intransitive senses
1 : to come or be together as partners, friends, or companions
2 : to combine or join with other parts : UNITE

Which sounds downright pleasant and jolly, doesn't it? "Join as partner, friend, companion, to keep company with..." all sounds great, idyllic, wonderful. Now, think of how it's used in modern times. Business Associate, Taco Artist Associate, Associate Waste Management Liason, etc. I myself was a Sales Associate in my early years for Hallmark. Which meant that I stood at the cash register to ring out sales, or I straightened the cards when there were no customers there to ring out. Why 'associate?' And why was it being used as a euphamism for people earning minimum wage?

As a noun it means:
Main Entry: ³as·so·ciate
Pronunciation: same as ²
Function: noun
1 : one associated with another: as a : PARTNER, COLLEAGUE b : COMPANION, COMRADE
2 a : an entry-level member (as of a learned society, professional organization, or profession) b : EMPLOYEE, WORKER
3 often capitalized : a degree conferred especially by a junior college <associate in arts>

Entry level worker. That's the one that gets me. It's almost an insult. But entry level workers are not the only ones getting the 'associate' diss. One company I worked with strung their employees on for months and years without decent promotions by tacking the word 'Associate' into their title. 'Associate Vice President of BlahBlah' which meant not a Vice President. 'Associate Director of Finance Reform' which means not a director.

Then, as I pondered all these things, there in that concrete bathroom, drying my hands under a hand dryer, I had another thought.. "Isn't associate used in psychological terms some times?" Associative in Psychobabble refers "understanding that two different events occur or happen together." Like ringing out customers at the cash register and then finding that while they were there they messed up all the cards. I quickly learned to associate the two events. One cause, one effect, both happen together. That is what is called Associative Learning. Which I learned as an Associate. So, that means I was truly doing my job. I was an Associate - a companion, friend, new low level employee - who associated customers with mindless work like card reorginization and cashiering.

In Psycho-World 'associate' can also refer to disorders, but instead of putting things together in the mibd, disorders tear them apart. So they added 'dis' and shortened the whole thing to 'dissociative.' Point in Fact: Dissociative Identity Disorder. Which means you can't remember who you are and create other personalities to deal with trauma from the past. So in the world of coconut crackers, associate or dissociate can be used to refer to really bad things which you may or may not remember.

So, how does one word travel so far and get into so many diverse situations? It claims to be at once a companion and friend, it is a lowly entry-level worker or a high-level executive, and it is the brain's internal processes battling it out for identity and understanding.

'Associate' is a bit of a whore linguistically, I think. It really has gotten around.

What do you associate with the word 'associate?'

Word Game

How many words (3 letters or more) can you derive from the word:

HEXAGONAL

Answer key (words in bold were not suggested by readers):

aeon, age, ago, agonal, agone, ala, alae, ale, alga, algae, aloe, aloha, alone, along, ana, anal, analog, angel, angle, anlage, anoa, anole, axe, axle, axon, axonal, axone, ego, elan, eon, gage, gal, gala, galax, gale, galena, gaol, gean, gel, glean, glen, goal, gone, hag, hale, halo, halogen, hang, heal, hen, hex, hexagon, hexagonal, hoax, hoe, hog, hogan, hole, hone, lag, lagan, lane, lax, lea, lean, leg, leno, loan, log, logan, loge, lone, long, lox, nag, noel, nog, ogle, one, oxen

K-N

How many words do you know (without using a dictionary) that start with the letters "k-n" ?

I'll get us started:

know
knot
knee...


...is knibble a word?

Not So New

Arrange these three synonyms in order from oldest to newest:

modern
newfangled
neoteric


ANSWER:

newfangled (14th century)
modern (early 16th)
neoteric (late 16th)