Halloween Special!

Well, I guess it's Halloween this week, so y;know, I may as well do a blog with some spooky words. I mean, words can't really be that spooky, but I don't even care. They're great.

This first one, you might recognize. The second one is less common and you probably haven't heard it before. *sips Starbucks and rewraps scarf as I take a picture with my Poloroid while listening to total Indie Music*

Kafkaesque is actually a pretty well-known word. It is a term coined by Frederick Karl, biographer of Franz Kafka, a Czech author. Kafka wrote stories and plays in the early 1900s until he died at age 41.  Kafka's stories would often be set in a dystopian and convoluted scenario.
Karl describes Kafkaesque as "a surreal pattern in which all your control patterns, plans, behavior, all begin to fall to pieces." How I understand this, Kafkaesque is something that is just terrifying beyond belief. Something so unbelievable, yet possible, so there's always that fear and paranoia of something bad happening. I mean, that's just how I perceive it.
Take this comic off to the right, for example. It's a giant bug. And that's pretty terrifying in and of itself. And it feels like it's part of this horrifying story where bad things happen, like ginormous bugs crawling all around and now I'm never going to sleep again...

Now, I'm willing to bet that some people have heard this next word before, but I haven't, and I like it.
Let's move to a scene that does 2 things:
Puts you all in a super spooked mood
and shows why I shouldn't be in the Creative Writing class:

Okay, so you're sitting outside. It's Halloween. You know, pretty dark and all that. There are a couple bats, because those are spooky. Suddenly, you feel a gust of air over your head, and you see a broom. There's a witch. Spooky stuff. You see her fly off, and hear a guffaw come from the same direction...

You're really spooked now, right? You should be. I have goosebumps. I'm scared.
But yeah. Guffaw. Have you heard it? Maybe.

Simply, (and because there's no special story behind it or anything, so anything I write will be simple), a Guffaw is a laugh or a cackle. 
You know how a witch might cackle in the night? Think of that. Except replace the word Cackle with Guffaw.

The problem with me telling you this word is that there is no backstory behind it. It's probably an onomotopoetic word, meaning that it got its name by the sound a Guffaw makes. A kind of "ckhufffffawwwawwawaww" sound.

Gamp and Roscid

I got some nice Autumn-y words for you this evening. They're pretty cool. Sorry if I don't have much information on these. Most of them are really old, so there is not much I know about them or can find online.

Roscid:
Jessie: A Rose mixed with an orchid
Kevin: An Overly Sarcastic Comment
Dad: A repulsive smell of horse manure
Mom: The bright red color of a rooster comb

One of the words I found this week is something that is simultaneously Autumnal and Vernal.  This word, Roscid, means a light rain, a mist, or a dew.  Depending on how well you know Shakespeare, if you have memorized Timon of Athens, you may remember this line: "My words neither aspersed or inspersed with the flore or the rore of eloquence"  But that's not the same word!  Well, yeah. Actually, rore is a brother-word of Roscid, meaning that they come from the same root and mean exactly the same thing. But they're different words.  
These words come from the Latin word ros, which means dew.  Now, have you ever tried this Italian drink called "Rosolio"? Do you care to guess where it comes from?  This drink also comes from Ros-, along with -sol-, meaning Sun. So really, this drink is made from Sun Rays of Dew. Which actually makes perfect sense, considering that it's made from the sundew plant, shown below.


Ros- has no relation to the word Rose.

Gamp: 
Kevin: Underwater Sex
Dad: The Lint found in a dryer
Mom: A gay gallivant

Now, if you read my blog last year, which you probably didn't, you might remember the Victorian Slang post I made. And that would come in handy now, because a Gamp is the same exact thing as a Rain-Napper. Now, if you are unfamiliar with the term, a Gamp is a really old-time (and slightly current) way to say Umbrella.

What a nice sign I found at the
fair this year...

I'm really excited to teach you the history of this word. Because it's 100% wonderful and 100% really quick to describe.
So Charles Dickens, famous author and all that, wrote a book called Martin Chuzzlewit. And in this novel, he described a character; an old woman carrying around a large cloth umbrella. And her name?  Mrs. Gamp. 
So we can all thank Charles Dickens for this great new way to say Umbrella.
By the way, if you want some more words for Umbrella:
In Britain, they often call them Brollies, which is just a variation of Brellie, a shortened version of Umbrella.
And other English Speakers in Europe will often call their umbrellas "Oil-Skins"



I was going to do two more, but I have 3 more assignments to do tonight, so I'll either edit this tomorrow when I get time or do these other two in a couple weeks.

Charrette and Orkusuga

My blog is very wonderful and very relevant to me this week. Please appreciate it.

Charrette:
Ma: The pattern that water makes in dry soil.
Pa: A wet long kiss.
Sis: An antioxidant found in charcoal.
Bro: Extremely fancy carrots.
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I'm really tired. And I have a lot of work to do. And a lot of homework. And I really don't want to spend time doing my blog right now. I guess I'm just going through a Charrette and will be for a while.
Yeah. A Charrette is a period of lots and lots and lots of difficult work. So I really wasn't kidding when I said that I'm going through a Charrette. 
Oddly enough, the word Charrette comes from 19th century France. And guess the origin of the word. Go ahead. Guess.

Give up?
The word Charrette comes from the word Chariot. "¿And what does the word chariot have to do anything with lots of difficult work?" you ask. Well that is also what I asked myself, and then Google.
It's a great story...
It all began at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in France. There were some sketch-artist professors that had assigned drawings for their students. And then these professors would ride around campus on their chariots searching for their students so that they could collect their assignments. Often, these students would jump on the back of the chariots in order to finish their drawings before they had to turn them in.
So there ya go. That is how we get Charrette from Chariot.

Orkusuga:
Ma: Making music with water.
Pa: A vegetable root used in Indian Cuisine.
Sis: When orca play musical instruments and play the tubas.
Bro: A variety of underwater sea-lettuce that hunt in packs.

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Technically, this word describes a person, but I find it usable with a thing, namely homework.

Orkusuga is used to describe a person (or thing) that is energy-sucking, exasperating, exhausting, etc. Except that when it's used for a person, it means "someone who requires so much attention and emotional maintenance that they sap away the energy from the people that offer them help.

Yeah. We all know one. Somebody that, when you try to help them, they just need so much attention that you're just soduifhszdlxiughvlsduixfvgl. You know?

There is literally no background information on Orkusuga. I was so desperate to find something that I actually got to page 3 on Google. That's pretty desperate.

The only info on it that I could find is that it's Icelandic.