Today, let’s visit the letter C.  Consonants are a bitch to think up lists for because in English, rarely can you put two together to begin a word.  So once again I have two for you, except for cs and ct.  If some are in other languages, we’ll both learn some new words.  I’m learning as we go also.

Onward!

Canard – a false or baseless rumor.  French for duck; may stem from a very old saying “to half-sell a duck,” or to cheat someone.¹

Catafalque – the platform a dead dignitary rests on when his or her body lies in state.

Celebrity – a person of renown, a famous person.  What few writers will ever be; these days, seems dependent on having a spray tan, a purse dog and a very low IQ.

Centaur – a mythical being with the head, arms and torso of a human and the hindquarters of a horse.  In Harry Potter, they live in the forest surrounding Hogwarts Castle and are fierce, proud creatures.

Challah – (KHAL-uh) A Jewish egg bread eaten on Sabbath and holidays.  Traditionally braided.  I’ve personally never tried it because I sadly don’t know any Jewish people, but it looks delicious, doesn’t it?

Mmm, mmm!

Chifforobe – combination piece of furniture that looks like a small armoire stuck to a chest of drawers.  The word is mostly used in southern regions.  In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell claims she asked Tom Robinson, her accused attacker, to come into the yard to bust up an old chifforobe for firewood.

Cilice – (SIL-is) originally, a haircloth garment worn by monks to produce repentant discomfort.  Now means any garment/device used for that purpose.  In Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, Silas wears a metal cilice around his leg that draws blood.  Modern metal cilices typically do not.  This is an example of artistic dramatic license.

Citrine – a greenish-yellow color.

Cliché – an overused phrase or word, such as flat as a pancake, pure as the driven snow, etc.  Writers should avoid these.  They make writing look amateurish and stale.

Cloaca – (klo-A-kuh) originally Latin for sewer.  The place where poo, pee and eggs come out of a chicken.  Don’t think about this before breakfast.

Copyeditor – the person who looks at manuscripts or ad copy for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.   All writers should be able to do at least a basic copy edit on their own work before submitting it to anyone!

Coelacanth – a lobe-finned fish with bluish scales. A deep-water dweller, thought to be extinct until a South African ship accidentally brought a live one up in a shark gill net in 1938.

Looks like he’s smiling.  You would be too if you’d made it through several million years of evolution.

Crepuscular – I bet you thought this had something to do with pus, didn’t you?  No, it means pertaining to, active at, or resembling twilight.   I guess that makes Edward Cullen crepuscular.

Crookshanks – Hermione’s cat in the Harry Potter books;  an ugly, orange, squashed-faced tom she regards with real affection.  He is half Kneazle, giving him unusual intelligence and an uncanny ability to ferret out untrustworthy people.

Part One of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out in theaters November 19^th!

Okay, Potternerdgasm over.  Back to the list!

CSI –crime scene investigation.  The TV drama CSI has been responsible for something real-life detectives and prosecutors term “the CSI effect,” meaning juries have come to expect miraculous revelations from crime scene techniques, which will point an unyielding finger at perpetrators.  In real life, this seldom happens.

Cthulu – one of H.P. Lovecraft’s Elder Gods, or Old Ones, ancient, sorta evil alien beings worshipped as deities.  Commonly known for looking as though his head was replaced by a squid, like Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Meme attempted.

Cudgel – an old-fashioned word for a heavy stick used as a weapon.  As in fairy tales: The robber set upon the miller with a cudgel and relieved him of his bag of treasure.

Cupola – (KYOO-pu-luh) that little dome-like thing on top of buildings that sometimes looks like a tiny gazebo.  Can be square.  Seen commonly on top of barns, domes, houses and towers.

Cupola mounted on a roof.

Image by ralph_man / Flickr.com

Cyanosis – a blue discoloration caused by lack of oxygen in the blood, as with blockage or cessation of breathing, or exposure to cold air or water.  Usually visible on a person’s lips.  Corpse-y detail mystery writers should remember.

Cyberpunk – science fiction genre characterized by high-tech, dystopian elements such as cybernetics, dope, urban decay and direct interactions with computers and human brains.  Very postmodern and film noir-ish.

I’m not familiar with this genre, but I’ve been dabbling in sci-fi recently.  If you have any recommendations of books or films you think I or other readers might enjoy, please share in the comments.  If I got it wrong, please tell me.  Thanks!

Czardas – Hungarian: czardas (CHAHR-dahsh) an intricate folk dance, the national dance of Hungary!  Look here for one performed at a Hungarian dance academy.

Czarism – a government like the one under the Russian czars, despotic.

1.  Citation: Modern Language Association (MLA): “canard.” Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 24 Oct. 2010. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/canard>.

Forgive me if I’m out of it today.  I stayed up waaaaay too late last night talking online and watching a movie on Netflix last night.  I love the Internet.

Today’s letter is B.  It’s the second letter of the alphabet and an important one.  Without it, we wouldn’t have beds, bottles of beer, barnacles, Beavis and Butthead or be able to yell “Booyah!”

Because the list is so short, I’ve included two words for each consonant / vowel combination.

Bacchanalia – wild revelry of Greek and Roman times, celebrating the god Bacchus (also known as Dionysus.  He was the little fat guy with the wine in the Fantasia centaur cartoon).  The word has come to mean any drunken hoopla with lots of food, sex, and rock-and-roll.

Balletomane – someone who is nuts over the ballet.  I have two of them in my family.

Beignets – a square doughnut sprinkled with powdered sugar, famous in New Orleans.  See the word link for a recipe.  If you try it, please bring a batch to my house for café-au-lait.

Bedaggle – to soil by dragging along the wet ground.  As in:  “Yarr, matey!  Don’t bedaggle me best jacket whilst yer doin’ laundry or I’ll keelhaul ye!”

Bhelpuri – an Indian snack made of puffed rice, potatoes, vegetables, chutney and sauce.  It’s so beloved by an online friend that he chose it as his screen name.

Bhut (Sanskrit) or bhoot – a ghost, the restless spirit of a deceased person.

Biretta – that funny square hat Catholic clergy sometimes wears.  See a picture of a priest rocking one here.

Bilious – of or pertaining to bile.  In medieval times, ill-tempered, thought to be the result of an excess of the bilious humor.  Used as an adjective to describe a crabby, unpleasant person.

Blarney – a town in County Cork, Ireland, home of Blarney Castle and the famous Stone of Eloquence, also known as the Blarney Stone.  It is said whoever kisses the stone will receive the gift of gab, referred to as blarney.  TripAdvisor has rated it the world’s most unhygienic attraction, due to the estimated 400,000 sets of lips pressing against it every year.

Blowback – in forensics, refers to a vacuum effect created upon the discharge of a firearm, which can pull bits of material into the barrel.  Blood or tissue from a close contact gunshot wound would be a good clue for your fictional detective to find in a murder weapon.

BMX (bicycle motocross) – an extreme sport consisting of grown people riding teeny stunt bikes over difficult terrain and attempting to not kill themselves.  Could be a great setting for an adventure / action story.

BM – we all know what this acronym stands for.  Eat your prunes.  As Dick Halloran (Scatman Crothers) says in Stephen King’s The Shining, “You got to be regular if you want to be happy!”

Bohemian – a starving artist / poet / writer / sculptor.   To be a true Bohemian, one must be steeped in poverty and involved in some form of artistic pursuit, thus leading an alternative lifestyle.  In fashion, refers to a form of hippie chic influenced by counterculture dress of the 1960s.

Borzoi – a large, beautiful dog also known as a Russian wolfhound.

Bracket – [Like this] in American English.  In British English, (like this).  Or {like these}!  Used to set text apart.  Also useful for making little pictures, like this:

^^()^^ a bat;

{-_-} a baby;

{[]-[]-[]-[]} an open concertina;

{[][][][]} a closed concertina.

Brobdingnagian – an adjective meaning of colossal size, originating from Jonathan Swift’s novel Gulliver’s Travels.  Lemuel Gulliver comes upon the land of Brobdingnag and discovers it is inhabited by giants.  Don’t ask me how to pronounce it.  If you know, please tell us in the comments.

Bucolic –  rustic, a country lifestyle usually.  Pertaining to the raising of cattle or a rural existence.

Buford Pusser – legendary Tennessee lawman who was the inspiration for the Walking Tall films.  This sheriff kicked ass and took names!  His home, located in Adamsville, TN, is now a museum.  Real people, especially those who have led unconventional or exciting lives, provide writers with inspiration all the time.

Bwahaha! – common Internet expression of villainous amusement in forums and chatrooms.  I should do an Internet expressions list one of these days.

Bwana (Swahili) – a form of respectful address, often from a servant or underling to his boss or master.

Byline – the line under the title that says who wrote a piece.  Like this:  “Catching Sea Monsters at the River Mouth, by Estuary Fisher.”

‘Bye – short for “Goodbye,” and what I will say now that we are done.  See you next time!

I apologize for my long stretch in between posts.  Certain Someone has gotten me hooked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Talk about internal and external conflict in a story arc!  I can’t stop watching, even when I should be doing something more constructive.

During the A to Z Blogging Challenge, I did a vocabulary post using E for that day’s letter.  Lots of people commented on it and I had fun writing it.  I’d like to do some more for you.

It’s very important for writers to have a good working vocabulary.   Read lots of books and magazines, take those little tests in Reader’s Digest, and keep a good dictionary handy so you will know how to use your new acquisitions.  You don’t have to use big words.  Mark Twain said once, “Don’t use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.”

Your letter today is A!

Aardvark – a nocturnal animal that looks like a cross between a pig and a bunny and whose name is fun to say.  Go on, try it.

Abnormal – what people think you are when you spend all your time writing.

Acquire – to get, to procure, as in “Monty acquired a new cell phone with the money Esquire paid him for his article.”

Addition – a new room built onto a writer’s house in which she will sit and stare at the wall for hours at a time.

Aeschylus – ancient Greek playwright who gave much to stagecraft.

Aftward – toward the stern of the ship.  A nautical term ye should know, me pirate mateys!

Aglet – the little plastic thing on the end of your shoelace.  See, you learned a new word today.

Ah – What you say when you finally get up from your computer and stretch, which you should do regularly.

Aircraft – a flying conveyance that will take you on vacation, if you can ever afford one.

Ajuga – a genus of ground-covering plant that usually has blue flowers.  Your literary sleuth could find an important clue dropped in it by the perpetrator.

Akin – having the same properties as something else, as in “The main character in Ardelia’s novel is akin to Genghis Khan in his military prowess.”

Allegory – symbolic concepts in a story, which infuse it with double meaning.  In C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the lion Aslan is an allegorical Christ figure who is sacrificed and resurrected.

American Dream – what you will probably never have if you want to make a living as a writer.  Marry a lawyer or something!

Anthropomorphism – bestowing human qualities on animals or inanimate objects.  “The house is sad because it’s messy.”  “Fluffy loves her new kitty sweater!”  The hell she does.

Aorta – the largest blood vessel in the body; when it pops, you don’t hang around very long.  Take care of it by eating healthy, not smoking and getting your exercise, ya lazy bum!

Apathy – when you don’t feel like writing and all you want to do is lie on the couch and not even play video games and you’re thirsty but you can’t seem to get up and the cat just jumped up on you in a very tender place and you don’t even care.

Aquiver – what you will be when your dream agent calls and says “I love your book and I want to represent you!”

Arsenic – poisonous heavy metal used as a killing agent in old mystery novels.

Asplode – what happens to your head when someone else publishes a book like yours first.

Atl-atl – a spear-throwing device invented by primitive humans.  Shows up in Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children series, devised by the character Jondalar.  Weaving historical details into a book makes it come alive, but be careful not to make them the focus of the story.

Audience – the group of people viewing the talk show you have been booked on to promote your novel, and who will be the first to see you trip on a cable and go sprawling.

Avulse – to excise, separate.  “Cecelia avulsed all the shopping scenes from her book.”

Aw – something people who love you say when you get rejected again.

Axe – give this weapon to your murderer and I guarantee he’ll be memorable.

Aye – something pirates say when agreeing with you.  You want them to agree.  Trust me.

Az – abbreviation for Arizona, a state in the desert southwest I should visit soon.  Might be nice when it gets cold.

This post has been brought to you by the letter A, the number nineteen-eleventy-ought-twelve and the color purpleen.  Toodles!