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Slipshod (SLIP-shod) adjective

            1. Careless; sloppy; shabby.

            2. Wearing loose shoes or slippers, especially those worn down at the heel.

[From slip (slide) + shod (wearing shoes), past and past participle of shoe.]

 

Gumshoe (GUM-shoo) noun

            1. A detective.

            2. A rubber overshoe.

[The word is an allusion to the quiet snooping that a detective is supposed to do. Wearing rubber shoes, one can move around without making much noise.]

            To get a better look at her, the old gumshoe slid his dirty reading glasses down his worn face as Maraj sauntered across the hotel lobby. She was not his mark, but something about her made him feel jumpy. Was it jumpy? Or something else, perhaps a feeling he hadn’t had in years. A good feeling. God, she was stunning. Harry sat up and moved toward to the edge of the stiff leather chair as Maraj neared the lounge area. He looked at those legs and was overcome by a need to speak to her.

            As the lovely vision in yellow, clicking, high-heels approached, Harry got up from his chair, unconsciously adjusted his stained tie and asked, “Are you looking for someone?”

            Maraj paused to look at the slipshod, sloppy, stern-yet-hopeful looking old man, raised her eyebrows above startled eyes and replied, “No.”

            Then she was gone.

 

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Cordwainer (KORD-way-nuhr) noun

            A shoemaker.

[From Old French cordewan, from Spanish cordobán (from Cordoba).]

 

Goody two-shoes (GOOD-ee TOO-shooz) noun

            A smugly virtuous person.

[After the title character in The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, a children's book believed to have been written by Oliver Goldsmith.]

            Harry Cordwainer was stunned and dejected, but more curious than despondent. Who was she? He approached a bellman and asked about the beautiful woman in the yellow high-heeled shoes who walked by not a minute before, pausing just long enough to curtly dismiss Harry’s presence on the planet. The young bellman nodded and said, “Oh yeah. She stays here every few months. She has a beautiful name too. Maraj I think. M-A-R-A-J. Cool spelling, huh? I don’t know who she stays with or what she does.”

            Not being a goody two-shoes, Harry, the private investigator now on a personal mission, paid the young man $50 and said he would be back for more information.

            “Find out where she lives.”

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Background: 

Along with countless other people the world over, I enjoy my subscription to A. Word. A. Day. that results in a daily email message with interesting, sometimes completely unknown-to-me words, along with pronounciation guide, etymology typical usage and more.

The New York Times hailed AWADmail as: "The most welcomed, most enduring piece of daily mass e-mail in cyberspace."

One day way back when, I decided that for learning, it would be helpful and fun to use the words AWAD sent to me in a sentence or two. Of course I found myself going beyond that and using them in not-so-obvious ways that entertained my friends as well as myself. Sometimes I use words incorrectly on purpose. But if you know the meaning, you get the joke. It is kind of a backward way of doing things, but that's creativity, right?

The first character inspired by AWAD was Maraj (not her real name.) She has quite a few fans. At the encouragement of several persistent friends, I decided it was time to share her and the others with my new friends here at OS, and begin on the first day of 2010. 

I'm offering vocabulary words I received from AWAD and what I wrote to practice using them. Tell me this isn't a much more fun way to work on improving one's vocabulary. Enjoy. Maraj and more will be back – and check out www.wordsmith.org to sign up for the free subscription. They don't know me, but for fun tell them I sent you. Like OS, it can be addictive. -- Natalie