1. To exhibit affection or attempt to please, as a dog does by wagging  its tail, whining, or cringing.    

2. To seek favor or attention by flattery and obsequious behavior. 

[Middle English faunen, from Old English fagnian, to rejoice, from fagen, faegen, glad.] 

Fawn (fon) noun    

1. A young deer, especially one less than a year old.    

2. Color. A grayish yellow brown to light grayish or moderate reddish brown.

 [Middle English, from Old French foun, faon, feon, young animal, from Vulgar Latin *feto, -feton-, from Latin fetus, offspring.] 


            Maraj, not her real name, pranced around the dressing room trying to decide which gown to buy. The green silk brought out the color in her contacts. However the shimmery, fawn colored cocktail dress showed off her cleavage, for which Phil, David, Martin or somebody paid the doctor in cash.  -- N

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Philtrum: (FIL-truhm) noun    

        The vertical groove above the upper lip.

[From Greek philtron, philter, charm, dimple in the upper lip]

             After 37 years of smoking cigarettes, Mabel's face looked like a raisin. Her eyes were hidden in the scrunched up skin around the sockets. Her teeth were yellow like old ivory, despite her diligent use of whitening pastes.

            The deep ridges at the corners of her mouth, which looked like a topographical map of Nepal, and her worn and misshapen philtrum, had erased the sweet cupid's bow lips of her youth. -- N

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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