Number 12
Choose a word – any word. Or have someone choose one for you.
Go to Online Etymology Dictionary at http://www.etymonline.com. Place your word in the search box, and you will get a list of related words.
Use all or some of the words that appear underneath your initial word choice to create a poem draft.
obtuse (adj.)
Choose a word – any word. Or have someone choose one for you.
Go to Online Etymology Dictionary at http://www.etymonline.com. Place your word in the search box, and you will get a list of related words.
Use all or some of the words that appear underneath your initial word choice to create a poem draft.
obtuse (adj.)
early 15c., "dull, blunted,"
from Middle French obtus (fem. obtuse), from
Latin obtusus "blunted, dull," also used
figuratively, past participle of obtundere "to beat
against, make dull," fromob "against" (see ob-)
+ tundere "to beat," from PIE *(s)tud-e- "to
beat, strike, push, thrust," from root *(s)teu- "to
push, stick, knock, beat" (cognates: Latin tudes "hammer,"
Sanskrittudati "he thrusts"). Sense of "stupid"
is first found c.1500. Related: Obtusely; obtuseness.
c.1200, "dull, obtuse,"
perhaps from or related to Old Norse blundra (see blunder (v.)).
Of tools or weapons, late 14c. Meaning "abrupt of speech or
manner" is from 1580s.
c.1400, (transitive) "to render
dead, make dull," used occasionally in English, especially in
medical jargon; from Latin obtundere "to blunt, make
dull, weaken, exhaust," literally "to beat against"
(see obtuse). Related: Obtundation; obtunded.
c.1400, from Middle French contusion,
from Latin contusionem (nominative contusio)
"crushing, bruising," from contus-, past participle
stem of contundere "to beat, break to pieces,"
fromcom-, intensive prefix (see com-), + tundere "to
beat" (see obtuse).
1766, "allege to be of unsound
mind" (legal term), from Late Latin stultificare "turn
into foolishness," from Latin stultus "foolish"
(literally "uneducated, unmovable," from PIE
root *stel- "to put, stand") + root of facere "to
make" (see factitious). The first element is cognate with
Latin stolidus "slow, dull, obtuse" (see stolid).
Meaning "cause to appear foolish or absurd" is from 1809.
Hence stultiloquy "foolish talk, silly babbling"
(1650s). Related: Stultified; stultifying.
late 13c. "make a hole in; force
one's way through," from Anglo-French perser, Old
French percier "pierce, transfix, drive through"
(12c., Modern French percer), probably from Vulgar
Latin*pertusiare, frequentative of Latin pertusus, past
participle of pertundere "to thrust or bore through,"
from per- "through" (see per) + tundere "to
beat, pound," from PIE *tund-, from root*(s)teu- "to
push, strike, knock, beat, thrust" (see obtuse).
Related: Pierced; piercing.
"hard work," c.1300,
originally "turmoil, contention, dispute," from
Anglo-French toil (13c.), from toiler "agitate,
stir up, entangle, writhe about," from Old
French toeillier "drag about, make dirty" (12c.),
usually said to be from Latin tudiculare "crush with a
small hammer," from tudicula "mill for crushing
olives, instrument for crushing," from Latin tudes "hammer,"
from PIE*tud-, variant of *(s)teu- "to push, stroke,
knock, beat" (see obtuse). Sense of "hard work, labor"
(1590s) is from the related verb (see toil (v.)).
figure having four equal sides and two
acute and two obtuse angles, early 14c., from Old
French losenge "windowpane, small square cake,"
etc., used for many flat quadrilateral things (Modern
French losange). It has cognates in Spanish losanje,
Catalan llosange, Italian lozanga. Probably from a
pre-Roman Celtic language, perhaps Iberian *lausa or
Gaulish *lausa "flat stone" (compare
Provençal lausa, Spanish losa, Catalan llosa,
Portuguese lousa "slab, tombstone"), from a
pre-Celtic language.
Originally in English a term in heraldry; meaning "small cake or tablet (originally diamond-shaped) of medicine and sugar, etc., meant to be held in the mouth and dissolved" is from 1520s.
Originally in English a term in heraldry; meaning "small cake or tablet (originally diamond-shaped) of medicine and sugar, etc., meant to be held in the mouth and dissolved" is from 1520s.
an excuse for a dance number
You would think that we met in a
screwball comedy
the way she hit me in the chin
the blunt object shattering into an
explosion of ,
what turned out to be,
real glass.
My face one big bloody purple
contusion.
I laughed
trying to stultify the situation
her piercing eyes
blue enough to obtund my senses
this was not her fault
I was distracted by her grace
and I was toiling under the notion
that angels never trip
never fall
and I wanted to speak
to throw out some pick up line to
soften the edges
but he arm had crushed my throat as we
tumbled to the ground
and all I could manage was
a wheezing, raspimg, sputtering, cough.
She, being a classy lady,
offered me a lozenge,
brought me tea with honey,
took my hand,
and taught me how to waltz.
I took the challenge. The word assigned to me (by the creator/maintainer of Etymonline) was April. It yielded two full pages of "related" words, from which I used ten: April (the title), gremlin, wasteland, cocoon, profiteer, murk, sunny, summer, spring, and time.
ReplyDeleteApril
With gremlin Winter skulking back
To plot again, repair, cocoon,
The sodden wasteland in his track
Lies blinking at the bluing moon
Though destinies of Summer lurk—
The profiteer at wilting bloom,
The rigid clash of glare and murk,
The parching sunny knell of doom—
It treasures the uncoiling Spring,
The tender, slender slip of time
When promise thrums in ev’rything
And wakes again the urge to climb