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High-powered postives

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December 01, 2004, 08:03
wordcrafter
High-powered postives
Recently, while admiring a postcard of a glowing Hawaiian sunset, I realized how few words we have to describe such a thing. We have "gorgeous" of course, but what of less familiar terms? As I search for words to present to you, so many that I find are negatives: insulting adjectives, cutting nouns and the like. Why is this? Do strong negative feelings stimulating linguistic creativity? Are those who compile word-collections, from which I draw, themselves drawn to the negative?

I do not know – but let us begin to redress the imbalance, with positive adjectives: not just quiet ones such as 'peaceful', but ones of emotive force. I shall not be deterred by those authors who have used these adjectives in negative ways!

refulgent – shining radiantly; brilliant; resplendent
December 01, 2004, 22:00
wordcrafter
gracile [gracillent]– gracefully slender.
[You will often find gracile used in biology, to distinguish species. For example, amoung the hominids (the "human" family, including modern humans, after the evolutionary split between humans and apes) some were gracile, and others were robust.]

Today's quotes are enjoyable enough to justify their length.Bonus word:
hominid
– modern man, or any other member (now extinct) of the biological family hominidae. Hominids descend from the last common ancestor of man and modern apes.
December 03, 2004, 06:58
wordcrafter
munificent – very liberal in giving or bestowing; very generous; lavish.
December 03, 2004, 22:33
wordcrafter
foudroyant – of dazzling or stunning effect
(that is, like my spouse when dressed for a night on the town - Wordcrafter)
[from the French for "to strike by lightning". In medicine, foudroyant means "occurring suddenly and severely".]
December 04, 2004, 19:06
wordcrafter
puissant – powerful; strong; mighty. (noun: 'puissance')
Most often used in the sense of military or similar power. ("I cried in a loud Voice, Long live the most puissant Emperor of Lilliput!" – Swift, Gulliver's Travels) But our examples show other usages.And a humorous example:

Thanks to the wisdom of the pundits, one can know the outcome of the 1996 presidential election 10 months early. Here at Punditry Central, the task is to examine the predictions, polling and pandering of the nation's most prescient and puissant pundits. And the winner of the 1996 presidential election will be — nobody. ... Careful analysis shows, first, that Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, the Republican front-stumbler, cannot possibly win. The reason is that Dole is too busy serving as a word (usually a verb or adjective) to campaign seriously
– Bruce Chapman, Insight on the News, Feb. 5, 1996
December 05, 2004, 13:49
wordcrafter
lissom – limber; supple; easily bent; able to move with ease
Some wonderful images use this word.
December 07, 2004, 08:16
wordcrafter
Today's word is quite often used improperly, so I'll demonstrate with multiple quotations, starting with the correct usage.

coruscating – 1. giving off bright beams or flashes of light; 2. exhibiting brilliant, sparkling technique or style

The concept is in the Latin root "to twinkle, flash, sparkle". Coruscating can have that meaning literally (1st quote), or figuratively for dazzling visual displays (2nd) or artistic or intellectual performances (3rd and 4th).Those who misuse coruscating perhaps think it combines "corrosive" and "rusting". It is often misused to mean "corrosive" or "scathing". It is also is often misspelled with a double-r.In summary, I'll quote a letter-writer who responded to the last item, correcting the error.

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