Nuts and Bolts: fortis.

A fortis - (the plural is fortes*) - is a sound made with a lot of breath pressure or muscular effort.

The sounds p and f are examples (hold your hand in front of your mouth and say a p sound, and feel the breath pressure. See? Talking is exercise!).

Fortis can also be used as an adjective to describe such a sound.

In English the fact that some sounds take more energy to say than others doesn't make a lot of difference as far as meaning is concerned, but in the Ewe language of West Africa (no, it's nothing to do with sheep) then the strength with which a consonant is pronounced can be jolly useful in distinguishing one word from another.

Word To Use Today: why not work off some extra holiday weight with some words with fortis consonants. 

Pippistrelle, perhaps. Or pepper. Or puff. Or, if you don't want to get too energetic all at once, tapir:


photo by  Bradypus

Of course, if you've really overindulged then Peter could always pick a peck of pickled peppers, couldn't he?

*You say it FORteez.