More Wanda’s Words, Stream of Consciousness, and Letters as Nicknames

December 5, 2017 – To prepare my Wanda’s Words blog entry, I tried to categorize my latest little list of words but failed.  They are just some words I’ve come across reading the newspaper (my usual source) or library books I’m reading.  This time I have some “e” words and a “j” word.  “EJ”, I thought, happily, “Can I call my category “EJ” or is it just someone’s nickname?”  Is EJ a name anyone goes by?  Have you ever known an EJ?  Then my mind went racing, my James Joyce word-freak stream of consciousness…I’ve known AJs, BJs (volleyball friend), CJs, DJs (“Deej” from the Roseanne show, you TV watchers), JJs, KJs (from high school days), RJs, TJs (out the wazoo, as they say), and VJs.

Think about this for a second.  Are there that many middle-named men and women: John, James, Jane, and Jean that “J” is the perfect letter with which folks make a combo-initial-nickname?  What other middle names beg to be combined into a combo-initial-nickname?  Have you known an MB for Mary Beth?  I think there are a few…  How about double letters like CC or CeCe – not necessarily for a name akin to Carrie Catherine but more likely a diminutive for Cecelia, right?  Like DD for Deirdre and GG or Gigi for Georgia or Gianna or even Gilbert.  I call my friend Heidi, “Triple H”, because those are her initials.  Does she know I was a fan of the WWE wrestler Triple H back a few years ago?  And that I’m her fan, too?

I once had a coworker who went by “WG” but that was only because his first and middle names were absolutely heinous.  What were his parents thinking?  “WG” has far too many syllables to make a decent nickname but it was better than using Wilberforce as a first name.  Maybe “Wil” would have been okay.  But no, “WG.”  Wilberforce is a name with a great history (Wilberforce University is a HBCU named after William Wilberforce – abolitionist – who was an English politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to stop the slave trade) but darned clunky on the tongue and to the ear.  Just call me “WG”.  Dub-ah-u Gee.

I guess there are “JKs” out there, but I’ve never known any that weren’t car salesmen (get it?) or on the side of moving vans.  There’s DL Hughley but I’ve never heard of another DL or another combo with “L” as the second letter.

As I run through the alphabet in my head, I think, no, I don’t want anyone to have to be called “PP” but there are plenty of “JRs”, aren’t there?  And “JTs”, too!  Calling someone “DT” could be bad – especially if they are an excessive drinker!

I can’t think of any good combos with “S” as in “Hey, BS, how you doin’?”  And let’s not call anyone “PU” okay?  And the only “V” name I can think of is “JV” but that just sounds like you’re still trying to make the varsity team.

Wow, how off track have I run?  Here are the Wanda Words for you:

Elide – to suppress or alter, to strike out (something, such as a written word), to leave out of consideration, to omit

>>Stick with me on the next one…read through the definitions (I just thought you’d like to see the first, in case you think you know everything but feel like you need to be taken down a peg – because I have NO idea what it means!).<<

Elegiac – of, relating to, or consisting of two dactylic hexameter lines the second of which lacks the arsis in the third and sixth feet;  written in or consisting of elegiac couplets; noted for having written poetry in such couplets; of or relating to the period in Greece about the 7^th century b.c. when poetry written in such couplets flourished;  of, relating to, or comprising an elegy (a song or poem expressing sorrow or lamentation especially for one who is dead); expressing sorrow often for something now past or an elegiac lament for departed youth – ‘The sight of an old ruined church or castle can be a pleasantly elegiac experience.’

Juridical – of or relating to the administration of justice or the office of a judge; of or relating to law or jurisprudence, legal.

Until next time…