Have you ever had to reach for the dictionary with word block and felt like kicking yourself when you found the result?

I had this with “could” last week; for the life of me I “cud” not remember how to spell it and looked it up and booked an appointment for an Alzheimer’s test.

It happens to all of us but the following are the ones I frequently come across:

DIARRHEA

Dash In A Real Rush, Hurry or Else Accident

CONSCIENCE

Remember it as Science with a Con

DESERT or DESSERT

The Sahara only has one S in it - Desserts have SugarS

ECZEMA

Even Clean ZEalots MAy get spots

There is no X in this word - Simon Cowell has no Zits!

HAEMORRHAGE

Help, Accident, EMergency! - Often Ruins Routine Hospital Appointments -

don’t forget to add the G and E on the end!

POTASSIUM

One Tea and two Sugars Please !

SUPERSEDE

The only word in the English language to end in -sede; the rest are -cede.

THERE or THEIR

Visualise directions for “there” - HERE and THERE!

For their, think possession - The HEIRs inherited THEIR fortune

WEDNESDAY

WE Do Not Eat Soup DAY

YOU’RE and YOUR

You’re never going to get it right unless you use YOUR head!

With credit due to Judy Parkinson, author of “i before e (except after c)”

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I’m late posting, mea culpa, so here’s something light to think about.

Michael has already written about the “history” of words and the use of language.  It’s important to always remember that every single word we speak, read and write has a history not only because the history of words is very interesting, but also to remind ourselves of how words can change their meaning depending on the social context and often implicit, common usage.

As an example, think of the word “gay” - to my grandparents, being gay meant being happy and the life of the party.  Today it means being homosexual.  A span of a couple of decades or so, or two or three generations and “WHAM!” - all meaning has changed.

I’m getting ready to head back to the United States, to my second adopted home of Florida (which is why I am late in posting) - as a Brit with a passion for history, I have always centered my spiritual leanings towards the US of A on the North Eastern seaboard and played in the “colonies” of Massachussetts, Vermont and Maine.  Florida was a destination that has only attracted me because I first ended up in hospital after an accident in Central America  over 20 years ago and thereafter, because of an unusual set of family circumstances.

Florida has a vivid colonial history.  Forget Disney and the theme parks; it is the home of the oldest private university in the US (Stetson - he of the big hat) and the home of the very first settlements that actually survived (St Augustine) and has affected the use of English in own right.  The hordes of tourists treating Florida as a surrogate Blackpool in the States simply miss out on what Florida really has to offer - so be it.

Five years ago, I happened to be in the sleepy county town of DeLand; halfway between the dross of Daytona and the glitz of Orlando.  I set up camp in Bill & Frank’s Brickhouse on Woodland Boulevard and admired the Stetson chicks (”Excuse me, but do you ever wear anything low cut and sexy?”), drank the watery beer (”No wonder you guys have to sell this stuff on a buy one get one free basis!”) and generally behaved like a reprobate. (”Karl are you really like this at home?”)

Halcyon Days!

Scott is a Florida Cracker.  His family have been there for several generations, which in terms of the US means he is a “plank owner” - his ancestors were frontiersmen and women who tamed a swamp before Mickey Mouse was invented.  He told me one evening as we made merry, the meaning of the word “Cracker” - it’s a term used to describe people who have their real, generational roots in Florida.  Cracker came from the whips used by slavemasters as the early colonisation of Florida was forcible by slaves and indentured workers.

It all sounded so plausible - except he was very wrong.

The word “Cracker” actually has a far more deeply rooted history and a far more civilised origin than slavery.

A cracker was a word used in Elizabethan times to describe a braggart - someone who was loud mouthed and full of hot air.  Shakespeare actually wrote a line or two in 1560 using the word:

“Who is this cracker that deafens us…with superfluous air.”

Before you presume that this is a typical adjective for Americans - loud and boastful, remember this is what the word meant in 1560 and not what it meant in 19th century Florida some three hundred years before America was invented.

From this Elizabethan word and meaning, the term “crack” was softened; it became a term used to describe something that was entertaining and a cracker was someone we would refer to as a racconteur today.  A purveyor of amusing anecdotes and jokes.  The Irish-English adopted the word and in Gaelic, we have the word “craic” or “craigh” - today the Irish will say “Enjoy the craic!” and in English we may say that someone “Cracked a joke”. 

The Irish-English in America were a wanton lot, drunk and bawdy, frequently moving from place to place - probably good examples of the party loving Floridians I know today.   As colonisation from the Old Country (ie the UK) headed west and south, a particular group of Irish-Scottish-English hybrids explored and lived in the sub-tropical south - Georgia and Florida.  The English colonial governors, referred to them as boastful braggarts and derogatorily called them “Crackers” in ye olde English sense of the word.  Not to be outdone, these cowboys took the sleight as a personal compliment and referred to themselves in the 19th century as “Florida Crackers” - happy, joking, jocular settlers who originally tamed Florida before mosquito screens and air conditioning.

As an aside, another good friend of mine and Florida Cracker is Junior - he has the two-man saw used to cut the wood that many of the old homes in DeLand were built with - Junior is certainly a Floridian plank owner in every sense of those words.

Clearly the word “crack” has some history behind it and words should never be taken at face value; consider how enjoying the craic means something very different in the trailer park of south Deland known as ShaDeLand; “Do you want some crack?”

Personally, I’m a Craic Head not a Crack Head so Bill & Frank - get the Hoops ready!

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I will not attempt to give an entire history of words. But, what I find fascinating is how set people get in things. A very brief and slightly lackadaisical look at the history of words might compel readers to start inventing words of their own.

It’s a fact that at one time there were no words. At the writing of the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, there were almost 200,000 active words, nearly 50,000 no longer in use and about 10,000 derivatives. The interesting fact is how many words we no longer even remember and how many words we will eventually invent, embrace and discard just like the others.

So, the “oohs” and “ahs” of the cave people needed to go. We only let our children use those words today because what else would they say if we didn’t at least give them those? But when sophistication steps into human record is when we start to build a lexicon of words that apply to what we need and want at every era throughout our history.

Earth, Wind and Fire might be the name of a very good American R&B band, but they are also the first words introduced into our language. Of course, that language wasn’t English. It was more of an Indo-European dialect that actually contains the origins of several European languages that exist today. And that’s just the beginning.

English happened to come along finally after years of torture and misery. In fact, there was so much chaos in the beginning that words had no definite spelling. William Shakespeare’s name had arguably about thirteen different spellings itself. It didn’t matter back then because people believed meaning was more important.

With the various dialects of English across England and the influence still lingering from the Indo-European split, we have a confusing inconsistency in spellings. “Q” and “K” are often swapped. “D” and “T” suffer the same ambiguity. “B” and “P” just can’t seem to get their act together at all. Those are only a few examples.

Eventually English starts to get a sense of stability. William Shakespeare gets one spelling. In fact, over the next several years or so linguists make a solid attempt to pin down all the words to a final spelling. Yes, it’s a fact that some words aren’t quite there yet even today. Just ask any non-English speaking student learning English as a Second Language. The confusion on their face is priceless. Not intentional, but priceless nonetheless.

So, what does all that lead up to say? Have fun inventing words. Refusing to give an estimation that could possibly be way off, I do remember statistics given to me in college but that was a long time ago, the English language develops at a very fast rate. That’s because people are interesting and creative. The English language never stood a chance at ever getting boring. Words that get adopted and grow into common use get added to the dictionary. Make your mark!

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I spent New Year’s Day bashing out exam questions for a client and it ranks as one of my more boring projects to date but it is finished and as a reward for myself, I did some research on getting into the mood for generating ideas for an article I’m writing tomorrow.

One technique needs no research from me as I use it often; visualisation.

Visualisation is simple and requires nothing more than closing your eyes and using your imagination. As such you can perform this anywhere and anytime, though it is not recommended while driving or when you should be paying attention to your better half!

Visualisation helps you get the creative juices flowing by playing a trick on the mind.

Practice This Yourself for 30 Seconds

Try this for size - close your eyes and think of the best holiday you ever had. Think of what made it so special for you; romance, food, music, the smell, the sights and sounds and think of one thing in particular that happened on that holiday that made you laugh and happy.

Spend a few moments doing that before you continue with this.

OK, time’s up - quickly now - are you smiling?

Chances are you smiled as you recounted this happy time and you experienced a sense of well-being that lingers with you.

This is a brief practical attempt at visualisation and it works for any experience you have had that gave you particular pleasure. Personally, I recall my children being born and how I felt on becoming a father and occasionally a childhood memory. The sense of well-being that you derive from visualisation is caused by the endorphins released by your brain; these are Mother Nature’s own natural narcotic and cause you to feel happy and in good spirits.

Will This Help Generate Ideas?

Answer the question for yourself; how good are your idea generating activities when you are feeling miserable and compare this with when you are feeling on top of the world. Your frame of mind has a direct bearing on your ability to be creative and to produce good work; happy workers are the best workers.

You can take visualisation a step further. As a salesman, I often became negative about some of the direct sales tactics that were spoon-fed to me while attending “training” courses. Frankly I thought they were an insult to anyone’s intelligence, but amongst the dross there was the occasional gem that just needed a little effort to get the benefit.

Try This 60 Second Exercise

Close your eyes when you are ready to begin. Imagine for a moment, you have won the lottery and are now rich beyond your wildest expectations.

Get past the initial buzz of winning the lottery and start thinking about what all that filthy lucre means for you and your loved ones. The mortgage is gone, you picture writing the cheque to pay it off and handing it to the bank manager personally. You buy a holiday villa, and you picture the journey to spend some time with your loved ones on a private charter plane you have hired just for them. Picture the face of your framily as they enjoy the luxury this good fortune brings. Your son can go to university, your daughter can travel and you buy that sports car for your better half and imagine their face as you surprise them with the keys.

Use your imagination but be detailed in what you picture is happening; as far as your mind is concerned this will be the real thing.

When you’ve finished, ask yourself how you honestly feel.

If you have wholeheartedly entered into this, you will feel more upbeat and happier than when you started. Reality has not changed except for the passage of time, but your biochemistry is kicking into gear because of what you are doing with your mind. The result is yet another release of those endorphins and a natural high.

Whatever Works For You

Placing yourself in an appropriate frame of mind is vital if you are to produce good work. This is a natural way of loosening yourself up and providing some extra motivation without the need for caffeine. Visualisation works best for me when I am alone and have no distractions going on around the house but standing on a cramped tube is no bar to using this technique. We are all different and have different memories that will trigger feelings of well-being and a sense of satisfaction or happiness.

Childhood memories are very powerful for evoking these sensations but it can be a holiday, a business success, a great looking girlfriend/boyfriend you met, something your children did or your favourite team winning a game. It makes no difference what you visualise as long as it holds some powerful memory of excitement, happiness or satisfaction.

As you are engaged solely in the recesses of your own mind it is also completely private so don’t be bashful - another hidden benefit

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I had a brilliant Christmas Day with my family! I spent the day at my ex-wife’s with our children and stuffed myself silly with ham and turkey. Yes, I do have a happy divorce from my ex-wife which is why we are like brother and sister today

One of my son’s presents was “i before e (except after c)” by Judy Parkinson and is a throw back to “old-school ways to remember stuff” - I just loved reading it, not least for the nostalgia and also to give me something to post about and “Yes, yes, yes!” - I’m scraping the barrel but give me a break, it is Christmas!

One of the verses used to educate the little darlings of 1855 was written by David Tower and Benjamin Tweed and it goes like this:

“Three little words you often see
Are articles: a,an and the.

A noun’s the name of anything,
As: school or garden, toy or swing.

Adjectives tell the kind of noun,
As: great,small, pretty, white or brown.

Verbs tell of something being done,
To read, write, count, sing, jump or run.

How things are done, the adverbs tell,
As: slowly, quickly, badly, well.

Conjunctions join the words together,
As: men and women, wind or weather.

The preposition stands before
A noun as: in or through a door.

The interjection shows surprise
As: Oh, how pretty! or Ah! How wise!

The whole are called the parts of speech,
Which reading, writing, speaking teach.”

The book then went on to deal with punctuation in poetic fashion; Cecil Hartley wrote “Principles of Punctuation” in 1818:

“The stops point out, with truth, the time of pause
A sentence doth require at ev’ry clause.
At ev’ry comma, stop while one you count;
At semicolon, two is the amount;
A colon doth require the time of three;
The period four, as learned men agree.”

Now I think learning English was made a lot more fun in the olden days than it certainly was for me, but then again back in 1818 I’d probably be a chimney sweep covered in soot, a powder monkey getting blown up in a battleship or dying of malnutrition in a cotton mill at the age of 6.

Halcyon Days!

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