This week’s obscure English word is ucalegon. It means a neighbour whose house has burned down or is on fire. The word is an eponym from ancient Greek, and refers to Ucalegon, an inhabitant of Troy whose house suffered this fate. Your challenge: write a sentence or two in the comments using this word. Copyright … More The obscure word of the week is ucalegon
This week’s obscure English word is obnixley. It means to do something strenuously or energetically. Your challenge: write a sentence or two in the comments using this word. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2022
This week’s obscure English word is obrotund. It essentially means something that is oblate, ie: something round but flattened at top and bottom. Your challenge: write a sentence or two in the comments using this word. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2022
I write full-time for a living. It’s not easy. The usual way to make a small fortune from writing is to start with a large one. Book sales are important, every one of them. Last week I discovered persons unknown have pirated one of my naval histories – nine times, in fact. They’re being sold … More Piracy, navies and my books
This week’s obscure English word is eugonic. It means something that grows readily in an artificial medium, such as bacteria. Your challenge: write a sentence or two in the comments using this word. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2022
This week’s obscure English word is pomace. It means the residue left after apples have been crushed to extract their juice, derived from French ‘pommade’ around the sixteenth century, itself a derivation of the Latin word ‘pomum’ (apple). I have to wonder about potatoes now. After all, the French call a the humble spud a … More The obscure word of the week is pomace
This week’s obscure English word is mabble. I believe a word with this spelling is currently used as the brand name of a version of Scrabble involving numbers instead of letters, which I presume makes the game title a coined portmanteau term. However, mabble is also a genuine and much older English word of its … More The obscure word of the week is mabble
This week’s obscure English word is gallinipper. It means a biting insect, often a large mosquito. Your challenge: write a sentence or two in the comments using this word. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2022
This week’s obscure English word is finifugal. It refers to somebody who is afraid of finishing anything. Your challenge: write a sentence or two in the comments using this word. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2022
Last week’s attack on Salman Rushdie underscored, for me, one of the harder realities of being a writer. You get hated by total strangers. And sometimes they go berserk. Its sad that authors get targeted, physically or otherwise. One might argue that Rushdie was a special case; but on my experience it’s a risk all … More Salman Rushdie and author danger: a cautionary tale
Matthew Wright 
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