Monday, April 25, 2011

Blogging Challenge "U" Words

Nothing immediately came to mind for a "U" topic, so I thought I'd do a Google search to see if it triggered something. I found this interesting site for cross words. Some of the words are really curious, and I just have to find a way to use them in a story or play Balderdash with:

Ugsome - Ugly; offensive; loathsome
This one has such a caveman sound to it, don't you think?

Uloid - Resembling a scar; scarlike
Okay, this seemed like it would be medical.

Unbe - To cause not to be; to cause to be another
Hmm. Hamletlike. To unbe or not to unbe ... or whether or not to unbe that dude down the street.

Unbishop - To deprive, as a city, of a bishop; to deprive, as a clergyman, of episcopal dignity or rights
I initially thought about a chess move.

Unbosom - relieve oneself of troubling information; to disclose freely; OR to reveal in confidence, as secrets; to confess; -- often used reflexively; as, to unbosom one's self
I won't even say what flashed through my mind, especially when I saw the word unbosomer right below it.
Unboy - To divest of the traits of a boy
So how do you use this in a sentence? Does it refer to a boy becoming a man and casting off childish things? Or something else it might be? I notice there was a group called Unboy.
Unclue - To unwind; to untangle
This was definitely not what I thought. When I tried to find a Google image for this word, a lot of Uncle Sam pictures came up.
Upstare - To stare or stand upward; hence, to be uplifted or conspicuous
I'm trying to envision standing upward ... isn't that kind of what standing is--upward?
Do you like to use unusual words when you write? What do you do to expand your vocabulary? Have you found any particular thesaurus helpful?

6 comments:

  1. I absolutely love to use unusual words, and writing historically, I can often get away with it. Sadly, people in the past generally had a bigger vocabulary than people today. As for good U words, my daughters are fond of ululate. That is, they make a lot of noise, but they also like to use the word ululate to describe the noise they are making!

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  2. I like to read unusual words but only if I can pronounce them. LOL.

    Loved this post!

    Ellie Garratt

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  3. I love my dictionary and thesaurus but I think it's mainly for me. When it comes to writing, I tend to keep it simple.

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  4. Ugsome does sound very caveman-like. :D What a fun word.

    I like the thesauras on Merriam-Webster.com.

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  5. What a fun writing exercise. I've been surprised at how many U words people have come up with to blog about today.

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  6. The "un" words are hysterical, because they don't sound like real words. Somewhere, I must use "unbe."

    I love to come across unusual words or words I don't know. I tend to grasp a favorite word. For instance, I was a bit blocked when writing in an English class one day, so I pulled out the dictionary and started randomly flipping through pages. I discovered the word "phantasmagoric" and I've loved it ever since!

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