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Dunkirk: (DUN-kurk) noun                

            1. A desperate retreat. 

            2. A condition in which a desperate last effort is the only alternative to total defeat.   

[After Dunkirk (also Dunkerque), a city of northern France on the North Sea. In World War II more than 330,000 Allied troops were evacuated from its beaches in the face of enemy fire (May-June 1940).] 

            It seems that for a few on Open.Salon, newly born 2010 has quite prematurely become their creative Dunkirk. -N

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Solecism: (SOL-i-siz-ehm, SOA-li-) noun                 

            1. A nonstandard usage or grammatical construction.                 

            2. A violation of etiquette.                 

            3. An impropriety, a mistake, or an incongruity. 

[Latin soloecismus, from Greek soloikismos, from soloikizein, to speak incorrectly, from soloikos, speaking incorrectly after Soloi (Soli), an Athenian colony in Cilicia where a dialect regarded as substandard was spoken.] 

            He looked deep into her eyes and she returned his searing gaze.  As former U. S. Marine and part-tme blogger Harvey Gartner put his arms around Maraj and crushed her to him in a passionate embrace, she briefly wondered if perhaps this interlude at the cemetery was a solecism she would later regret.
-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