Weird Words

I just finished reading Charlotte Bronte's last novel, Villette. Would I recommend it? Not really. I much prefer Jane Austen's novels, all seven of which I just finished a couple of weeks ago. I did pick up some weird new vocabulary words from Villette, though. Here they are:

• Hebdomadal, which means weekly, as in "Lucy hadn't had time for her hebdomadal bath. She wondered that Dr. Bretton declined her offer of tea." (I just made that one up; it's not a direct quote from the book. The book is much, much wordier.)


• Contumacity. Merriam-Webster Online only had a definition for contumacy, which means stubborn resistance to authority. If I hadn't seen it in a novel written in the 1850s, I'd swear that one was invented to describe Kelly.


• Condign, which means deserved or appropriate, as in "condign punishment". Why couldn't she just write "appropriate punishment"?


• Collyrium, which means eyewash. Somehow, this word comes from the diminutive of kollyra, Greek for a roll of bread. How on earth did we ever get from breadroll to eyewash?


• Palsp. I think this may have been a typo because I couldn't find it anywhere online. It's kind of a cool word, though - don't you think? It could mean the sound a cat makes when he's coughing up a hairball. "Kathie was startled awake by a palsp in the other room. Might Pork Chop have accidentally swallowed the new kitten? Che was nowhere to be found..." (Hey, believe me, that's as believable as the plot of Villette - maybe more so after this weekend's cat perch incident.)

There were more weird words, but I didn't start marking the pages - so I could go back and find them later - until I was more than half way through the book. I'm not rereading the first half to locate the ones I missed now. Someone else read it and let me know, ok?

Nurses Week is done!

By Wednesday afternoon, I'd already put in my 80 hours for the pay period. I was exhausted and happy! It was a successful Nurses Week. If you don't believe me, read Janet's opinion here.

Yeah, it wore me out but I truly didn't mind. I love Nurses Week because I love nurses. Of course, I may be a little biased - Jessie is a nurse and Kelly is working diligently on becoming one.

So you'll understand why I love nurses, read the following post I wrote on our nursing blog back in November of 2006. (Sorry, it's not accessible to the public or I would just link you to it.)

"I have worked with nurses for seventeen years. They are the best kind of co-workers to have, and this is why:

• Nurses can fix anything – not just patients. Nurses have to be resourceful because they’re on the job 24/7, while most other departments close down over weekends and nights. Probably the maintenance guys hate it when they have to come behind and try to fix something the nurses already “fixed” (do I hear grumbling in the background?), but I think it’s great. Katie W. in the Dream Pool told me this weekend she’s building her second fence. I am so-o-o impressed.


• Nurses appreciate every little thing you do for them. I used to run down to Dietary and pick up bedtime snacks for the diabetic patients on PCU. The nurses just thought I was wonderful. Last month, I made arrangements for everyone to attend the Spartanburg Magnet Hospital workshop. You’d think I had given each and every one of them diamond earrings for their birthdays. They were all so sweet and appreciative. I don’t even get that kind of appreciation at home.


• Nurses are trustworthy. According to this year’s Gallup survey of 1,000 Americans, nurses were the professionals that were trusted most – even more than doctors and police officers! That’s saying something, I tell you.

There are other reasons I love working with nurses. They like food, I like food. They work hard and they know how to have fun. But mostly, I love working with nurses because they are among the most caring creatures in the world. Most of you know that my daughter is a NNICU nurse. How she does it I will never know. She didn’t get it from me. "

So it was my pleasure to bring you strawberry shortcake, Janet, because - yes! - you are marvelous. Next trip, maybe you can come along with us! (If you didn't read Janet's "opinion" at the link shown above, that last may appear to be a bit of a non sequitur to you...)