Recalcitrant – Wordplay Wednesday™ 03/20/2019

Apply Sparingly and Choose Your Battles Carefully  

There’s a time and place for this word. However, it should come with a warning label: Not to be displayed as a permanent personality trait. It is best exercised sparingly, lest you be forever branded as a difficult person ...

RECALCITRANT (ri kalʹsi trant) adj. – 1) refusing to obey authority, custom, regulation, etc., stubbornly defiant; 2) hard to handle or deal with (n. a recalcitrant person). [WW #208]

Recalcitrant came to me in an early morn dream-state, its four syllables repeating slowly and incessantly through my not-quite-awake brain.

Redhead facts & fun

Redheads are often described as “stubbornly defiant” so I suppose it’s no wonder I applied it to myself while it mulishly pushed me awake.

And Microsoft’s Word dictionary adds a few more rowdy synonyms defining recalcitrant: unruly, intractable, disobedient, and the dreaded, wayward.

However, it’s obvious by the news and plethora of all types of people who push their agenda in recalcitrant obstinacy, that it isn’t “owned” by redheads. We simply personify it.

Word Challenge: RECALCITRANT. As one with a long, recalcitrant history, a word of advice … know when to use it. Lift your head high, and pick your battles for the right reasons (and be reasonable enough to compromise), as you fit recalcitrant into your week of audacious writing.

Learning knows no prejudices or boundaries, and it isn’t fattening! Expanding your mind is a no-cost, simple joy. Do you feel that way too? What’s your inspiration? Share your creative genius and Wordplay Wednesday comments below.

Write first for yourself … only then can you write for others. (L.Rochelle) 

Cheers to learning a new word on Wordplay Wednesday!

           

@PenchantForPen

@Irishwriter

LinDee Rochelle is a writer and editor by trade, and an author by way of Rock & Roll. She has published two books (of three) in her Blast from Your Past series about pioneering R&R Radio DJs. The true behind-the-mic tales make GREAT Holiday Gifts available on Amazon (eBook and print): Book 1 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The First Five Years 1954-1959; and Book 2 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The Swinging Sixties. Coming soon … The Psychedelic Seventies!

E-N-Dzzzzzzzz  

Bonnyclabber – Wordplay Wednesday™ 03/13/2019

Green Milk ~ Ew? Or Yum! 

When Americans think of Ireland, we often imagine rural farmers and green pastures. Though it has its urbanites, as we do, much of the rural vernacular with roots in the kitchen, still permeates modern syntax.

BONNYCLABBER* (bänʹē klab’ɘr) n. – [derived from Irish] thickly curdled sour milk.  [WW #207]

In case you don’t spend all that much kitchen time using the multitude of baking dishes languishing in your cupboards, you may not know that your bonnyclabber could be useful, rather than distasteful.

Baking and cooking with bonnyclabber not only brightens your yummy baked goods, but utilizes a food product you would normally toss down the sink.

Put the milk carton back in the fridge and mark it “FOR BAKING” and have a fun weekday event baking pies on “Pi Day”—March 14^th—or an aromatic weekend of green Irish shamrock cookies for St. Patrick’s Day! (March 17^th) Your bonnyclabber will fit right in.

And if you want a little more Irish to go with your week and Irish-American Heritage Month, a straight-from-Ireland word will motivate you to enjoy a jaunty jig or two when your yummy pies, cookies and cakes are done!

 

IRISH WORDPLAY WEDNESDAY: BACHRAM (“BOCH-rum”): Bachram is boisterous, rambunctious behavior, but it can also be used figuratively for a sudden or violent downpour of rain.

We’ll skip the downpour of rain—had enough for the winter—so let’s get bachram and tip a pint of green beer to go with our bonnyclabber pie. Gabháil le do shláinte agus do shaibhreas! (Cheers to your health and wealth!)

This week, grab your copy of Paddy’s Request, a delightful tongue-in-cheek eBook that perpetuates the fun myth of St. Patrick and the snakes, by the inimitable John F. Harnish. Curl up with your fave green libation, and enjoy your tasty treats made with bonnyclabber while you read!

Word Challenge: BACHRAM (Irish) / BONNYCLABBER*. I don’t know about you, but when I bake with libation in hand, I can become a tad bachram. Makes it tough to measure the ingredients! Enjoy, as you fit bonnyclabber into your week of Celtic writing. (*Bonnyclabber is in the English dictionary.)

Learning knows no prejudices or boundaries, and it isn’t fattening! Expanding your mind is a no-cost, simple joy. Do you feel that way too? What’s your inspiration? Share your creative genius and Wordplay Wednesday comments below.

Write first for yourself … only then can you write for others. (L.Rochelle) 

Cheers to learning a new word on Wordplay Wednesday!

           

@PenchantForPen

@Irishwriter

LinDee Rochelle is a writer and editor by trade, and an author by way of Rock & Roll. She has published two books (of three) in her Blast from Your Past series about pioneering R&R Radio DJs. The true behind-the-mic tales make GREAT Holiday Gifts available on Amazon (eBook and print): Book 1 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The First Five Years 1954-1959; and Book 2 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The Swinging Sixties. Coming soon … The Psychedelic Seventies!

E-N-Dzzzzzzzz