Welcome to another epic installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! It's time for summer reading, as evidenced by the number of summer reading folders flying out the door here at the Library. As of the moment of this post, 455 summer reading folders have been picked up by our patrons. Wow!
Summer is a great time to work on expanding your vocabulary, so let's get started with the Word of the Week:
Cantankerous: We must thank Oliver Goldsmith for developing this word from an older source. In She Stoops to Conquer, he proclaims, "There's not a more bitter, cantanckerous road in all christendom," meaning that the road would try one's soul, is perverse, contrary, ill-natured. Apparently, Goldsmith dug up a word of similar meaning, long since obsolete or surviving only in country speech, contecker, a person who "contecks", quarrels, disputes, is contentious. But whatever his source, he gave us a mighty useful word. -- "Horsefeathers and Other Curious Words", Charles E. Funke, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1958.
Example: The reputation that reference librarians have for being cantankerous is totally undeserved. Just ask one and you can be sure that you'll hear all about it! ; )
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