Dell Deaton

Theme by Anders Norén

Category: Words That Strike My Fancy

The Word is “recollect”

recollect

transitive verb

  1. to bring back to the level of conscious awareness : [remember] trying to recollect the name
  2. to remind (oneself) of something temporarily forgotten

intransitive verb

  • to call something to mind

— Merriam-Webster

Dates back to watching live television coverage of the US Senate Watergate hearings for me, and the too-often repeated phrase, “I do not recollect.”

The Word is “horology”

horology

  1. the science of measuring time
  2. the art of making instruments for indicating time

— Merriam-Webster

With apologies to my fellow members of the National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors, I rather fancy this word mostly because of how it sounds and behavior that the ignorant assume it to reference.

The Word is “segue”

segue

  1. proceed to what follows without pause —used as a direction in music
  2. perform the music that follows like that which has preceded —used as a direction in music

— Merriam-Webster

Dunno from music (with apologies to Laurie Jo): I stick pretty much with the first definition.

The Word is “obsequious”

obsequious

  • marked by or exhibiting a fawning attentiveness

— Merriam-Webster

For me always goes back to: “Don’t be so damned obsequious!” James Bond (“James St John Smythe”), to Sir Godfrey Tibbet, A View to a Kill.

The Word is “constellation”

constellation

  1. the configuration of stars especially at one’s birth
  2. any of 88 arbitrary configurations of stars or an area of the celestial sphere covering one of these configurations; the constellation Orion
  3. an assemblage, collection, or group of usually related persons, qualities, or things “… a constellation of … relatives, friends, and hangers-on ….” — Brendan Gill; a constellation of symptoms
  4. pattern, arrangement; “… taking advantage of the shifting constellation of power throughout the known world” — H. D. Lasswell

— Merriam-Webster

Definitions 3 and 4, above, are my most frequent connections with this Word and why it’s made the list.

The Word is “effete”

effete

  1. no longer fertile
  2. a: having lost character, vitality, or strength; … macrophages that recycle used iron from effete red cells” — Nancy C. Andrews; b: marked by weakness or decadence; c: soft or delicate from or as if from a pampered existence; also: characteristic of an effete person
  3. effeminate, “a good-humored, effete boy brought up by maiden aunts” — Herman Wouk

— Merriam-Webster