I’m a New Zealand writer with over thirty years hands-on professional experience as a published author and in publishing. My main interests are in the sciences – physics, particularly, though I’m deeply curious about a lot of stuff, especially the human condition. I have qualifications in writing, music and anthropology among other fields, and hold multiple post-graduate degrees in history. I’m also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society at University College, London. I write a lot. My published writing, sold on merit, includes over 550 articles, academic papers, reviews, novellas and short stories, and over 50 books on topics ranging from travel guides to biography, engineering, military and social history. I’ve been published principally by Penguin Random House.
This week I thought I’d share some of the sources for my obscure words. They come from several places but mostly my collection of dictionaries, which includes Webster’s Unabridged Third New International and the 11-volume First Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which I have in its two-volume micro-print edition of 1970 – four pages … More The obscure word of the week’s sources
New Zealand’s upcoming election is, without question, one of the most important the country has held in decades. It isn’t just a matter of policies to manoeuvre the country through the churning waters of Covid-19. It’s more fundamental. The neo-liberal paradigm that has essentially been the governmental ‘operating system’ since the 1980s is well past … More The most important election in decades
This week’s obscure English word is adsum. It is directly from Latin and means to indicate one’s presence, for instance during a roll call. Usually, of course, the answer is simply ‘here’. One can imagine it being used at assembly in any large English boarding school: Headmaster: Timpton Minor! Timpton: Adsum, sir. Headmaster: Ah yes. … More The obscure word of the week is adsum
I watched ‘The Social Dilemma’ a few days ago, the Netflix semi-dramatised documentary exposing the business model behind social media, and what it’s doing to world society. I wasn’t surprised; the social outcomes have been clear for a while. The ‘confirmation bubbles’ to which social media reduces people are a function of the way in … More The social media dilemma and its consequences
This week’s obscure English word is empanoply. It means to enclose in a full suit of armour. It’s related, of course, to the word ‘panoply’, which today means an impressive display or collection; the prefix ’em-‘ means ‘to apply’ in this case. And I guess a fully-armoured knight was, indeed, a pretty impressive display. The … More The obscure word of the week is empanoply
Of late one of my computers has been randomly blue-screening on startup. It started after Microsoft’s March update, disappeared in May, came back after the July update, and keeps on coming back. Sometimes it’s so apocalyptic a lockup that all I can do is crash the machine off at the wall and start from dead … More Blue-screens are the users fault, right?
This week’s obscure English word is paroicous. According to my Unabridged Websters Third International dictionary it means ‘having archegonia and anthiredia on the same branch with the antheridia’. This is correct information, but it’s about as informative as being poked in the eye with a stick. The more informative meaning is that this is a … More The obscure word of the week is paroicous
It’s fair to say that 2020 has been the worst year in living memory. The world has, in the span of just a few months, been plunged into one of the most widespread and severe crises since the Second World War. Even the Cuba Crisis of 1962, with all its implication of nuclear armageddon, was … More How to understand 2020 – the worst year in living memory
This week’s obscure English word is inodiate. It means to make something odious or hateful. Your challenge: write a sentence or two in the comments using this word. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2020
One of the things that has puzzled a lot of people about the Covid-19 is why it affects some people very severely – even to death – and yet others can be completely asymptomatic and not even know they had it. This very wide range of possible severity has fuelled a good deal of ill-informed … More Why Covid-19 affects some and not others – maybe
