Sunday Rest: spectre. Word Not To Use Today.

A spectre (specter in the USA) is a chillingly dreadful apparition. It's more terrifying than a ghost, even (ghosts can be quite chummy, sometimes, in a rather cold, regretful, and slightly clammy sort of a way). A spectre is a spine-dissolving echo of horrors past, and of more, still more deadly, yet to come.

A spectre is out to terrify, warn (though uselessly: you are DOOOOOMED!) and instil panic and dismay. It will turn your hair white, make your horrified eyes start glueily from their sockets, and cause your heart to die horribly in your breast.

It will loom, haunt, and cast a relentless deathly shadow.

And what does its name sound like, this shade, this ghoul, this eater of content?

By John Tenniel!

An under-qualified optician.

Ah well.

Word Not To Use Today: spectre. This word comes from the Latin specere, to look at.