#wordmeanings — Public Fediverse posts

Tonight I am #CrossAtWords that are obscure or use alternate spellings in #crosswords.

ern - a sea eagle which is usually spelled erne
viand - archaic English for food, but my francophonic brain wants a final E again
anele - obsolete for anoint

This word is cool though:
adit - horizontal entrance to a mine, so perpendicular to a shaft

And I also learned that Adar is a month in the Jewish calendar.

#definitions #WordMeanings

Today the only clue deserving #CrossAtWords was a spelled out letter S. But I do want to commemorate my new vocabulary from today's post-breakfast crossword puzzle:

sarod - Indian guitar
stere - cubic meter (!?)
ret - soak flax/hemp
tret - obscure shipping term for a waste allowance
eft - a newt (I've seen this word in several puzzles now, and this time I actually remembered it!)
bur - a prickly seed husk (aka a burr)

#crosswords #definitions #english #WordMeanings

I am not cross at all these words (some I am even glad to learn!) but a few earned an angry face drawn next to the clue.

smew - a small duck I am unlikely to ever see myself 😢
amah - nursemaid in India
erose - eaten away (suspiciously thin entry in Wiktionary)
sloe - aka blackthorn, a wild plum (relative of roses!)
ameba - who spells amoeba this way!?
rale - crackling noise from the chest, though seldom used in singular

#CrossAtWords #crosswords #definitions #WordMeanings #EnglishLanguage

I have always been confused by folks’ interpretation of high tea as being a fancy affair. I grew up with the understanding it is just supper. Low tea, however, is fancy-ass. Not sure how the meanings changed so much. I grew up calling the midday meal dinner, the evening meal supper or high tea, and a late night snack was lunch. Breakfast is the only meal name I use that remains unambiguous to most folks. I guess this is what happens when I grow up in the Maritimes and Newfoundland. #meals #WordMeanings #tea #HighTea