Nuts and Bolts: pretonic.

 I don't know if a pretonic sounds more like a drink intended to take the edge off your thirst before you start on the gin, or some medicine to keep you in good condition.

It's certainly a more inviting name than vitamin tablet.

Rather sadly, a pretonic is neither of those pleasant and useful things, but a term to describe the bit of a word immediately before the syllable that's most heavily stressed.

The pretonic of the word pretonic is therefore pre, in the word conditioning con, and in the word abracadabra it's ca. 

On the other hand, the words pleasant and useful, having their stress on the first syllable, don't have a pretonic at all.

But I really don't think they're bothered.

Word To Use Today: one with a pretonic, perhaps. Pre- comes from the Latin word prae, before, and tonic is from the Greek tonos, which means tone.

Thing To Do Today: baffle someone.

 As Emma says, one half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.

As Polonius says, to thine own self be true.

Now, just because Emma and Polonius are both rather foolish characters, it doesn't mean that they don't talk sense from time to time. This is a day to embrace your pleasures, however baffling they may be to others.

So: update your moth spread-sheet. Watch the football. Play your recorder. Make a paper flamingo. Take that car engine to pieces. Wear those stilettos. Swim in that river. Watch that soap. Eat some rotten fish (you're probably Swedish if you're doing this. It's called surströmming).

Knit a sock. Go train spotting.

And whatever you do, whatever funny looks you get, enjoy every moment.

Word To Use Today: baffle. This word is, well, baffling. It might come from the Scots dialect word bachlen, to condemn publicly; or it might come from the French bafouer, to disgrace or ridicule, or from the French word beffer, to mock or deceive.

.

Spot The Frippet: jeopardy.

 Today is a day to look for a little jeopardy to spice up our lives.

You could do it literally and add some pepper to your dessert:

photo by Glen MccClarty

or order a shirt in a pattern which might not suit you:

or leave your own umbrella at home:

New Orleans. Photo by Bart Everson

or watch an episode of something scary like, um, Scooby Doo.

Or wear your high heels.

Or go out without your phone. 

Or you could put an entirely arbitrary and unnecessary deadline on some task that's much better done in an un-rushed and careful way...

...and then film it for a popular TV show.

There are just three things to remember.

1. Don't do anything really stupid.

2. Thank your lucky stars that the real jeopardy is being experienced by other people.

3. See if you can think of some way to help them.

Spot the Frippet: jeopardy. This word comes from the French jeu parti, which means divided game (that's the kind of game you play, not a carved-up pleasant) and therefore an uncertain outcome. The word jeu comes from the Latin jocus, which is a joke or game, and parti comes from the Latin partīrī, divide.

Word Not To Use Today: ophiuchusgender.

 If we can accept for the time being that gender defines what turns us on, then to understand this word we obviously need to know what or who Ophiuchus is.

Ophiuchus is a sign of the zodiac used in some systems of astrology. This means that Ophiuchus is a group of stars (or, rather, something which appears to be a group of stars if you view it from Earth) through which the sun appears to rise at a certain time of the year.

The zodiac group Cancer is said to resemble a crab, and Aquarius a lady carrying a jug of water.

Ophiuchus is said to look like a man ( perhaps the god Apollo, perhaps Aesculapius) wrestling with a snake.

It is very hard to believe that this was not originally a joke.

Anyway, there are those who believe that people born on the days when the sun is rising through the constellation Ophiuchus are ardent, and hungry for knowledge. People who call themselves ophiuchusgender might feel that this forms the basis of their choice of romantic partner, or they might be people who change their preferred choice of partner according to where the sun is rising, and so be ophiuchus-orientated only some of the time.

I'll make just one criticism of this word. When you say it, it sounds as if you're very drunk and trying to say officegender.

Well, nearly all of us have experienced that.

Word Not To Use Today: ophiuchusgender. The Greek word ophioukhos means holding a serpent. Orphis means serpent and ekhein means to hold or keep.

Saturday Rave: Before Summer Rain by Rainer Maria Rilke.

 Because it is high summer here in England, I have been thinking a lot about rain. A neighbour has asked me to water her plants while she is away on holiday, but I have been doing more draining than watering.

Ah well.

If you want a poem about rain, what better person could there be to wrote it than a man called Rainer? 

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875 - 1926, was born in Prague. His father wanted him to be a soldier and his mother wanted him to be her dead daughter. He ended up a writer and poet.

Good for him.

Before Summer Rain

Suddenly, from all the green around you,
something - you don't know what - has disappeared;
you feel it creeping closer to the window,
in total silence. From the nearby wood

you hear the urgent whistling of a plover,
reminding you of someone's Saint Jerome:
so much solitude and passion come
from that one voice, whose fierce request the downpour

will grant. The walls, with their ancient portraits, glide
away from us, cautiously, as though
they weren't supposed to hear what we are saying.

And reflected on the faded tapestries now;
the chill, uncertain sunlight of those long
childhood hours when you were so afraid.

**

Word To Use Today: Jerome. St Jerome was a Christian scholar, born about the year 350 AD, whose most important achievement (apart from, perhaps, the saint thing) was writing the Vulgate translation of the Bible. What he has to do with rain I do not know, but I imagine the reference is to the power of his language.

Jerome means sacred name, from the words hieros, sacred, and onoma, name.

Word To Use Today: mulct.

 I mostly like this word because of the sound of it.

Mulct.

Mulct.

Is there another word in the English language which has the letter sequence lct in it? Probably, but I can't think of one.

Mulct sounds as if it should describe something soft and delicious. The rounded mulct of the ice cream shone enticingly in the sun. Or perhaps it should describe the sound of someone wading through melted chocolate.

But it doesn't.

In fact mulct is rather an odd word because it can mean to cheat or defraud someone (why do you defraud someone, and not merely fraud them? Must do some research) and it can also mean to fine them.

I suppose that in both cases you're taking money from someone against his or her or their will, but usually words have the goodie/baddie thing worked out quite rigidly.

Mulct. 

It's a word which needs saying far more often.

And, as we all pay taxes, I'm rather surprised it isn't.

Word To Use Today: mulct. The Latin word multa means a fine.

Logic: a rant.

 There being very little difference, from a language point of view, between the statements Vaccines make you sterile, Having two X chromosomes makes you a woman, and Carbohydrates make you fat, it strikes me that what the world needs now - and needs really quite desperately - is a thorough course in critical thinking and logic.

Word To Use Today: logic. This word comes from the Old French logique, from the Latin logica, from the Greek logicos which means to do with speech or reasoning.

A note in my Collins dictionary says that although the word logica is a neuter plural, it was used as a feminine singular in Mediaeval times. 

Ah well.