Brilliant Words

Words of Wonder #8

Phototropism

Sun in an empty room. A potted plant creeping toward the window, extending tendrils, sending out leaves to catch the energy of the morning rays. Why didn’t Edward Hopper paint houseplants?

Maybe that’s the territory of Vincent Van Gogh: a field of sunflowers, all turning in the same direction as if posing for a photo. Which suggests another brilliant word— heliotropism: following the sun.

Umbracle

I hereby declare that all park benches must be placed squarely in the shade of a tree from the months of May through September. Any bench not in compliance will be forcibly uprooted and moved. As for the other months, well—it’s nice to sit in the sunshine.

Umbracle is a obsolete word. It’s related to umbrella, deriving from the Latin word umbra, which means shade or shadow. Umbra also gives us umbrage: to take offense. Some have suggested taking umbrage may be related to throwing shade.

Syzygy

This word often refers to the position of the sun, moon, and earth during an eclipse. But it can also “describe interesting configurations of astronomical objects in general,” according to the Wikipedia entry.

Try to say syzygy three times fast—preferably around fellow astronomers. And if you’re lucky enough to draw two Ys, a Z, and a blank tile, don’t miss your chance play it in Scrabble. Preferably on a triple word score.

A Words of Wonder post wouldn’t be complete without a poem. Here’s one by stargazer, poet, and self help author of "Manly Health and Training,” Walt Whitman:

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer 

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

Obeliscolychny

The lighthouse: a place of extremes. The extreme beauty of the sea. The extreme limit of the land. The extreme conditions of the weather. The extreme isolation of the job of lighthouse keeper, once a storied career, now nearly obsolete—just like this word.

Let’s bring back obeliscolychny. If not in common conversation, at least in the final round of the spelling bee. How many intrepid spellers will crash on its rocky shores?

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The countdown to POETRY COMICS continues! Launch day is less than two weeks away. I’ll be signing pre-orders at my local independent bookstore, Watermark Books & Cafe. There’s still time to get a signed, personalized copy and an art print to go with it.

Thanks for your support and enthusiasm for this book! Here’s the link to pre-order from Watermark and elsewhere; it will be available worldwide March 26 from Chronicle Books: https://poetrycomics.chroniclebooks.com/