Crystal Clear Proofing: Vocabulary

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Vocabulary

Good Morning Friends! Oh how exciting it is to be back in the Blogosphere!

I want to thank everyone for your well wishes and also for the birthday wishes. It was a happy day! Of course I had to share that outrageously expensive diamond and amethyst tiara with you!

So after recovery and birthday fun and a lot of other stuff thrown in during my absence, this is a super HAPPY day, to be returning to all of my blogging buddies! I sure have missed you!

Okay, now on to business! I thought I'd start with a light post and give you a Weird Word today. CCP will be posting every Wednesday, alternating the infamous tutorials with the Weird Word and the Spelling and Thoroughness Challenges.

Increase your vocabulary with not-very-common and/or not-frequently-used words.

Today's Weird Word is: mentimutation, and its pronunciation is: mentih-mu-ta-shun.

Mentimutation is a noun meaning: change of mind.

His mentimutation was a result of hours of pondering the facts.

Source: Luciferous Logolepsy

21 comments:

Mason CanyonJune 9, 2010 at 7:08:00 AM CDT
Crystal, so happy to see your back. Hope you're doing well.

Love the weird 'new' word.

Mason
Thoughts in Progress
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Susan FieldsJune 9, 2010 at 7:58:00 AM CDT
How wonderful to have you back! I'm so glad to hear you're all mended and enjoyed your birthday!

That is a weird word - too long even for Scrabble. :)
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Creative ChroniclerJune 9, 2010 at 8:06:00 AM CDT
Hey Soul Sister! It is so good to see you back! I know everyone has missed you and your fabulous posts. Love today's word.
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Lola SharpJune 9, 2010 at 9:03:00 AM CDT
I'm here from Alex's blog. *waves* I'm pleased to meet you.

I am known for my mentimutation. I am a woman. It's my prerogative, right? ;)

~Lola
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Elizabeth Spann CraigJune 9, 2010 at 9:04:00 AM CDT
I'm so glad you're back! And that you're feeling better. Just ease back into things and don't take on too much at once (it's the mommy in me..I can't help saying things like that!)

Love the word! And the kitty. :)
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Carol KilgoreJune 9, 2010 at 9:24:00 AM CDT
Welcome back! I missed you. And I love this weird word. It's new to me.
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UnknownJune 9, 2010 at 9:40:00 AM CDT
Thanks everyone for such a wonderful, warm welcome back! It's SO great to connect with you all again!

Lola, it's a pleasure *meeting* you as well! Thanks so much for stopping by!
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SouthpawJune 9, 2010 at 10:02:00 AM CDT
Welcome back! Love the tiara.
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Alan OrloffJune 9, 2010 at 10:58:00 AM CDT
Welcome back, Crystal! The blogosphere was a little lonelier without you!
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Roland D. YeomansJune 9, 2010 at 11:27:00 AM CDT
Your weird word is perfect for my supervisor! I picked a good day to discover your blog. I love your cat editor poster " U haz many spelin erurs. I fix em fer U."

I pray you grow ever stronger, and thanks for the smiles -- you made me stronger for them. Roland
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UnknownJune 9, 2010 at 11:41:00 AM CDT
Southpaw: LOL! Thanks! I'm telling you that bling cost some big bucks!

Alan: I don't care that your comment might be a bit of an exaggeration. I love it, and thank you!!!

Roland: I'm so happy you did find my blog! And, as a result, I found yours! Thank you so much for the prayers. You have no idea … it's really true about the whole "mysterious ways" thing...and you're welcome - I'm glad I could make you smile! Or at least the proofreading kitties did! :)
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Alyssa AstJune 9, 2010 at 12:51:00 PM CDT
Great word! And welcome back!
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UnknownJune 9, 2010 at 1:19:00 PM CDT
Thanks, Alyssa! It's great to be back! And congratulations!
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L. Diane WolfeJune 9, 2010 at 1:52:00 PM CDT
Welcome back, Crystal!!!!! I have missed you and hearing about Frisky and Shadow. Big hugs!
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Alex J. CavanaughJune 9, 2010 at 2:07:00 PM CDT
Belated birthday wishes and pleased you have returned!
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UnknownJune 9, 2010 at 3:57:00 PM CDT
Thanks Diane and Alex!
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Lorel ClaytonJune 9, 2010 at 7:45:00 PM CDT
Welcome back! We've missed you so much.
I love the pondering kitty :)
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Talli RolandJune 10, 2010 at 1:01:00 PM CDT
Yay! Welcome back - glad you're all recovered! :)

Love the kitty, but I hate that word! What a foul-looking word!
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Elspeth FutcherJune 10, 2010 at 3:30:00 PM CDT
I'm so glad you're back! Love the weird word - and the pondering kitty! My cats don't ponder; they plot.
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UnknownJune 10, 2010 at 5:37:00 PM CDT
Lorel, Talli and Elspeth: Thank you SO much! How wonderful to be "welcomed back" so wholeheartedly by everyone! (And I'm glad you like "pondering kitty." :) ♥
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AnonymousJune 11, 2010 at 1:55:00 AM CDT
Great word and fantastic picture. Cat's always seem to look like they are pondering though.
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Reader Comments

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Crystal Clear Proofing posts the greatest writing/editing tutorials. As an editor myself, I go there often to learn subtle nuances in the craft of good writing, as she has this marvelous ability to make those fuzzy, sometimes hard to determine, gray areas of correct writing, well…Crystal Clear!

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I.E AND E.G.
Thank you! I've never know what those meant or how to properly use them!

JOINT AND SEPARATE POSSESSION
Thank you so much! I had a hard time finding what joint and seperate possession means! Once again, thank you!

WAIT AND AWAIT
Oh, I love this site! Do you have a past post about lay, lie and all that good stuff?

This is a very clear and succinct explanation of the distinction between the two words."

LAY AND LIE
OMG! This is GREAT!!! I might actually understand it now! Thanks so much, Crystal. This is an awesome site!

You have a great way of explaining words. Your blog is a wonderful source for writers. I'll have to search your post to see if you have "affect" "effect", I know I use those improperly often.

AFFECT AND EFFECT
Thank you for this great post! I have printed it to keep it handy. Hopefully, it will positively affect my future writing.

Thanks for this post Crystal. I was going to actually email you and request that you explain the difference between these two, because these are usually a problem for me. Thanks again!

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THAT AND WHICH
Another excellent grammar lesson!

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WHO AND WHOM
Perfect! Got it...I keep all these tutorials in a bookmarked file now.

Great tutorial!! I'm saving this one.

Another great tutorial.

QUOTATION MARKS
Great post. Good tips about punctuation.

AWHILE AND A WHILE
Another fine tutorial. Got it added to my Clear as a Crystal file.

What a wonderful tip!

Oh!!! Those examples are perfect and it really makes sense now. Thanks!

APOSTROPHE USE WITH POSSESSIVE NOUNS
Excellent and very thorough. Got this one copied and stored along with ALL your tutorials in my Crystal Clear Writing folder. :)

Another excellent post. I always have trouble with these.

Now that my eyes have re-focused after glazing over, I can say that this is why writers need to hire editors--So they don't have to think too much about grammar. I can't keep all the darn rules straight in my head. Thanks for doing what you do. I am cutting and pasting this into a new word file for grammar tips.

Good one! I'm tweeting this.

Clear and concise. Thanks.

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LEVELS OF EDITING
Crystal, great explanation and post today - I copied it as a word doc and stored it in my "Crystal Clear" file.

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ONE WORD VS. TWO WORDS
Another great post.

Thanks for sharing this list and clarifying these points.

WRITING DATES AND TIMES
Writing dates and times is always confusing for me, so I really appreciate this, Crystal! Thanks.

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PREPOSITIONS
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SEMICOLONS
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COLONS
As always, awesome advice and clarification.

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Helpful as always. Thanks.

DASHES
You should really turn your blog into a book. Now THAT is a grammar book I would buy!

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I like your distinction between the use of dash and colon. It makes sense to me.

Most helpful. I just had to change a host of en dashes to em dashes in my ms.

HYPHENS
Thank you very much for this post!

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Good post, great blog!

OVER THE TOP AWARD
Congratulations, you and your blog are "Over the Top."

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FIFTEEN PUNCTUATION FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Great summary.

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Crystal this is excellent. I've got it stored in my Crystal Clear file folder.

Yeah, I've created a Crystal folder as well and cut and paste all your gems.

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EFFECTIVE WRITING
I think this is one of my favorite rules post yet. So helpful!! May have to post this one on my desk too, I know I'll get one of those flip book easels so I can have all your post handy and in my face to remind me. I need that, you are an editor extraodinaire!!!

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CLAUSES
Thanks! I love these tutorials.

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CHALLENGES
Great idea for a proofreader post!

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***************************************************************************************** "Editors and proof readers are the unrecognized support structure of books. Without them, books would take authors twice as long to complete." Comment left by Leigh Russell (CRIME FICTION)