BS: What's in a Name?

Subject: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Wordsmith
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 04:04 AM

My online nom de blog (I tried to find the French translation for blog, but couldn't…do the French blog? I'm sure they do.) is Wordsmith. An online search for that word states: a fluent and prolific writer, especially one who writes professionally. My paperback edition of The American Heritage Dictionary doesn't even list it. I left my preferred dictionary, The Merriam-Webster's, in my cold storage unit, along with my hard-covered Roget's. I don't even bother with the OED, even though it still is biblical to me. The online M-W defines the word as: a person who works with words; especially: a skillful writer.

I decided many years ago that if I opened a writing business I would name it either Wordsmith or Word's Worth. I know from searching tonight, that many businesses now use the first title. Disheartened, I didn't bother to check the second one. This is my personal history with the word. Have I written prolifically? Yes, all of my life, in one form or another. Am I fluent? In English? I'm still learning (and forgetting) after all of these years. Grammar was never one of my favorite subjects. It was to be endured, I felt. Yet, that's what grammar books are for, I often thought. I left those behind as well. Yes, I do have a degree in it, but that was long ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Have I ever written professionally? Yes, indeed, I have. I was paid to write ad copy, and I was also employed as a technical writer and editor by a medical publishing house. If you think making stainless steel hip replacements to CAT Scanners, not to mention bandaging materials, sound attractive and glamorous is easy, well, then perhaps, you need a brain scan, she said, jokingly Yes, I've even tried my hand at fiction…never got a cent for it, though…nor any of my poetry. Nor am I currently paid to blog. I wish.

Rather late in life, I've discovered that I probably would've made a good critic: television, film, or food. Or just a writer of the same. Having retired, it's too late for that. So, here I am, writing a blog about why I chose the nom de blog of Wordsmith. Am I skillful? I'd like to think so. Am I clever? Not in the definition. Do I love the English language? I've adored most of it all of my life. Do I deserve the title? Perhaps not, but this isn't a business, and I've been using it on other sites as fair warning: I use big words. I try to use them properly, but sometimes, even the best of us fail or get lazy. I try not to word police on any sites, either, but don't mind if someone corrects my faulty usage. Mainly, I communicate with people of all ages and backgrounds in order to meet people on common ground. Sometimes, it's better to ignore misspelling or improper usage if you get the gist of what the person is trying to say, and you're really interested in the person behind the words.

I chose Wordsmith as a tribute to what might've been. As Shakespeare wrote, A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.   Or as Gertrude Stein might've written, A rose is a rose, by any other name by any other name, would smell would smell, as sweet as sweet. Nor would I dare place my writing on either of their levels of achievement. My favorite dead female poet is Emily Dickinson; my favorite dead male poet is William Wordsworth. My favorite living female poet is Nikki Giovanni, and male is Lawrence Ferlinghetti. So, what's in your name?

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 04:40 AM

Liz the Squeak... does exactly what it says on the tin.

I'm Liz. I squeak.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Wordsmith
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 04:45 AM

Thanks, Liz, pleased to meet you!

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: The PA
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 07:56 AM

The PA, Personal Assistant to MD, its what I do. Was that too obvious?

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Becca72
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 08:26 AM

As creative as I am...Becca is my first name (or nickname anyway) and 72 is the year I was born. Bet nobody could crack that code, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 08:34 AM

A brother-in-law is also a Bruce. To keep us straight, my nephews at one time refered to us as bearded Bruce and red Bruce (hair color).

Then he grew a beard...

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 08:41 AM

Back in the days when I had a job, I worked in a Federal Govt Agency & would call my colleagues in other states, introducing myself as ...

sandra in sydney (almost 2 weeks into retirement!)

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: bobad
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 08:52 AM

Wordsmith

The French term for blog is blogue.

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 09:19 AM

Rapaire -> ropaire, m...3. Hist., rapparee...
                        Foclaoir Gaeilge-Bearla, 1977.

(Also can mean slasher, stabber, person of violence, gallowsbird and in the feminine, virago.)
                     
...Black Billy Grimes of Latnamard, he racked us long and sore --
God rest the faithful hearts he broke! -- we'll never see them more.
But I'll go bail he'll break no more while Trugh has gallows trees;
For why! he met one lonely night, the fearless Rapparees --
The angry Rapparees!
They never sin no more, my boys, who cross the Rapparees!....

                                  -- a peasant ballad of 1681,
                                  quotes in Padraic Colum, A
                                  Treasury of Irish Folklore
                                  (New York: Crown, 1954), p. 232ff.

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Scrump
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 10:04 AM

Blimey, I dunno what my name means. Ask me dad.

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: John Hardly
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 10:13 AM

"...Black Billy Grimes"

Billy Grimes is white, as is his son, Franklin, who has followed him into the evangelism gig.

No need to thank me, nor to be embarrassed. Not everyone knows these things. Sometimes it just takes a wordsmith to set things straight.

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 10:37 AM

Speaks for itself...collector/buyer of!

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: ranger1
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 11:17 AM

My profession and a bow to one of my favorite TV series (Babylon 5).

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 11:32 AM

I am a cat and I laugh...actually it's a contraction of my first and last names with the a little poetic license.

I can relate to the writer thing, having been one all of my life,too. I like the use of words in unusual ways, too...hence my first book was called "WindWords of Wyoming." (The wind does blow a lot there!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 04:05 PM

For Hundreds of years, sailors in the Royal Navy were given a tot of rum every day. By the twentieth century, the daily rum issue had become highly ritualised, with a mystique, a set of paraphernalia, and a language all of its own. The rum itself, which usually came from South Africa or Australia, rather than the West Indies,was mixed with water, 2 parts to one, which went " off " very quickly, thus preventing sailors from storing or keeping it for possibly lethal later piss-ups ( pisses-up ?? ). The resulting mixture was known as 'Bubbly', and as the sailors drank their daily ration of one eighth of a pint of this powerful stuff every lunchtime, there would be those people who tried to get more by cadging "Sippers" or "Gulpers" from their mates, usually in return for the promise of some favour or other.! These pesky devils were known as Bubbly Rats, and yes !!--- I Was one !! When the government stopped the rum-ration in 1970 ( Too many pissed sailors in the afternoons ! ) I was heartbroken !! Like thousands of others...!

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: autolycus
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 05:38 PM

Word's Worth?   That name rings a bell.


   I love seconhand LPs, ditto books, love charity shops, carboot sales, coming up with gems overlooked by others.

   Autolycus was "a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles" in Shakespeare.

   QED.





       Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Rowan
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 06:49 PM

Rowan happens to be my given name. At one stage (I happened to be a botanist) I entertained myself by reading up on its meaning and found Robert Graves (now, he was a real wordsmith) had quite a bit to say on it.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 07:06 PM

Wonder if Max Bygraves leaves his raincoats in cemeteries?

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Feb 07 - 09:29 PM

Only after he's dropped there so that it can be found by someone who picked him up when he was hitchiking the in rain and...you know.

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Crystal
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 05:00 AM

Crystal, because it is the sort of name you give yourself when you are 15 and on the internet for the first time! I'm still using it 9 years later because I now have a number of friends who know me by it!

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Splott Man
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 11:49 AM

Splott was where I lived for 20 years, it's a district of Cardiff, although the name is not unique.

And I'm a man.

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Scoville
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 12:29 PM

From the Sayers & Scoville Hearse Company. Vintage car enthusiast with a morbid streak.

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 05:35 PM

Mine's backslang.

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 10:30 PM

What's in a Name?

Jellybeans!

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 11:27 PM

Scoville, where we used to live there was a beauty salon with an old hearse parked out front. Emblazoned on its side was the name of the salon with their slogan, "We'll curl up and dye for you!"

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Wordsmith
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 03:02 AM

Well, thank you all for quite an enjoyable read. bobad, you never did say what's in your name, but thanks for the French translation. ranger1, never knew you were a fellow (gal) Babylon 5 fan. I was also semi-into Farscape...would've been more faithful if I'd've had a cable connection for all its episodes. I do have the complete first year set on DVD, as well as the final ending.

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Scoville
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 11:52 AM

There used to be a hair place here that was NAMED "Curl Up and Dye". My dad nearly rear-ended the car in front of him the first time he saw the sign.

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: bobad
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 12:17 PM

Not too much creativity involved in my handle, Wordsmith, just a combination of my first name with the first two letters of my last name. It also works back to front and I sometimes use that.

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Alec
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 01:52 AM

In my case it is simply the one my parents gave me.

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 07:00 AM

Return of the Fat B****rd was the title of an article about Alexei Sayle.

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: Wordsmith
Date: 07 Mar 07 - 03:33 AM

Well, thanks again, everyone. Sorry I've been MIA...tried to get my taxes done early, but doesn't look like that worked...then I wrenched my knee and had to keep it elevated and iced, which eliminated my time at the PC. It's getting better...doesn't hurt like it did.

Subject: RE: BS: What's in a Name?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 07 Mar 07 - 03:40 AM

My first name and the first initial of my previous name. that has now changed but I've been jacqui.c too long to change it to jacqui.m.