Thursday, September 25, 2014

Word of the day: palaver

Merriam Webster’s Word of the Day is palaver. When I see that word, I think of James Joyce’s story “The Dead,” in which it’s spoken by Lily, the caretaker’s daughter:

The girl glanced back at him over her shoulder and said with great bitterness:

— The men that is now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you.
Other words, other works of lit
Apoplexy, avatar, bandbox, heifer, sanguine, sempiternal : Artificer : Ineluctable : Iridescent : Magnifico : Opusculum

comments: 1

Anonymous said...

Scene: Asphalt-paved classroom.

A Language Cop pulls over students gossiping in a clearly marked lecture zone.

Cop: Palaver! Your talking too much!

Student One: Where's the citation?

Student Two: We've got writes! It's about our free dumb of speech.