“Trump Has Broken Out of the Orbit of Jupiter, But He Still Has to Go Through the Asteroid Belt”—Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

Being rewritten; will be completed during the week of April 29.

Strengthening Your Command of the Language: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

Have you checked out the latest edition (January/February 2019) of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, which has been online for about a month? Here are the six featured words, all of which lie within the conversational vocabulary of America’s most articulate (as is the case with all of the words featured in my book, “The Articulate Professional-3^rd Edition”):

1. cri de coeur

2. fiendish

3. rapprochement

4. subversive

5. aplomb

6. penurious

Answer to “Quick Quiz” in the Previous Post

To make sense of this post, you need to first read the previous one, which lays out the context in which actress Glenn Close used sublimated during her Golden Globes speech when she meant a somewhat-similar-sounding but completely different word.

I submit that the word she had in mind was either subordinated or subjugated. So her sentence would have been: “I’m thinking of my mom who really subordinated (or subjugated) herself to my father her whole life and who, in her 80’s, said to me ‘I feel I haven’t accomplished anything.’...”  Both words fit in perfectly!

© Copyright 2019  V. J. Singal

Quick Quiz: Which Word Did Actress Glenn Close Have in Mind When She Misspoke and Uttered “Sublimated” During Her Golden Globes Speech? A Case of "Synaptic Malfunction"

Recall that at last month’s Golden Globes, when Glenn Close won best actress for her performance in “The Wife,” her rousing speech went viral, especially the following lament which she uttered tearfully and with indignation: “I’m thinking of my mom who really sublimated herself to my father her whole life and who, in her 80’s, said to me ‘I feel I haven’t accomplished anything.’ It was not right!”

Clearly, the word “sublimated” does not work in the above context—it’s the wrong word and you can see why by clicking here.

Question for you: What somewhat-similar-sounding word did Glenn Close have in mind when she misspoke?  Answer in the next post.

Incidentally, the above is a case of what I call “synaptic misfire,” just as happened to the uncommonly articulate Senator Cruz some time ago (click here for that quick quiz) and to President Obama during a “60 Minutes” interview when he mistakenly uttered denigrate in place of a similar sounding word. [See the “QuickQuiz” post of May 15, 2011.]

© Copyright 2019  V.J. Singal

 

Strengthening Your Command of the Language: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

Have you checked out the latest edition (November/ December 2018) of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, which has been online for about a month? Here are the six featured words, all of which lie within the conversational vocabulary of America’s most articulate (as is the case with all of the words featured in my book, “The Articulate Professional-3rd Edition”):

1. rhapsodize

2. guileless

3. tenable

4. cantankerous

5. hegemon

6. elephantine