sandrakwilliams.net » words

Horses wearing hats

Sandra — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:34:09 +0000

My favorite line in Naomi Novik’s Black Powder War:

“Laurence,” Temeraire said to him, as he climbed down to join the others, “this horse I am eating looks very odd to me; it is wearing a hat.”

What authors reveal

Sandra — Sat, 10 May 2008 23:57:48 +0000

I’m reading a book right now that is just plain embarrassing. I feel like I’m intruding in the author’s head, and I don’t like what I find there.

Wedded to convention, unable to see their own bigotry, small.

The writer who can’t distinguish truth from a peanut-butter sandwich can never write good fiction. What he affirms we deny, throwing away his book in indignation; or if he affirms nothing, not even our oneness in sad or comic helplessness, and insists that he’s perfectly right to do so, we confute him by closing his books. (John Gardner, The Art of Fiction)

Grace notes

Sandra — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:00:42 +0000

. . . the road meandered along hills lined with the soft grey-brown of winter trees stitching a white sky to the ground.

– from Mappa Mundi by Justina Robson

Soda biscuit

Sandra — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 15:47:40 +0000

Did it again. Just had to check my word usage.

Also from Urban Dictionary:

Where do these people come from? How can they be made to go back?

Cow eyes

Sandra — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 19:28:19 +0000

When I’m writing, I like to make sure I’m using a word or phrase correctly. If I don’t find it in my dictionary, I go to Google. Latest phrase checked: cow’s eyes. Not in the sense of dissection (lots of hits there!), but a particular look one person gives another.

Pain in the English gave a definition (“looking coy or docile yet clearly intending that the person looked at will find the looker attractive”) close to the meaning I understood, but I like to check more than one source. Mistake.

Urban Dictionary:

That saying — Words fail me — it’s true.

Vocabulary check: noisome

Sandra — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 02:15:02 +0000

From an anonymous book, chapter 1, paragraph 3:

I spread my arms wide and leaned into the oncoming mass, blowing a whistle that was more noisome than effective.

(The protag is a police officer assigned to riot control.)

Heh heh. Let’s try that again:

I spread my arms wide and leaned into the oncoming mass, blowing a whistle that was more malodorous than effective.

Per Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary:
noisome
1 : NOXIOUS, HARMFUL
2 a : offensive to the senses and especially to the sense of smell noisome garbage b : highly obnoxious or objectionable noisome habits
synonyms see MALODOROUS