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Cantabrigian: (kant-uh-BRIJ-eeuh-n) adjective      

            1. Of or relating to Cambridge, England, or Cambridge, Massachusetts.    

            2. Of or relating to Cambridge University.

noun      

            1. A native or resident of Cambridge, England, or Cambridge, Massachusetts.    

            2. A student or graduate of Cambridge University.   

[From Medieval Latin Cantabrigia, Cambridge, England.]  

Nauruan: (nah-OO-roo-uhn) adjective      

            Of or relating to Nauru, an island country of the central Pacific Ocean just south of the equator and west of Kiribati.    

noun      

            A native or inhabitant of Nauru.

  As Henry Mancini's Theme from Romeo & Juliet swirled through the room and Maraj (not her real name) envisioned a Cantabrigian shower of Autumn leaves and recalled the persistent kisses of lovers past, the gopher snake her maintenance man Walter Blevins gave her began to regurgitate a brown mouse.

 Maraj put a hand to her lips as she peered into the aquarium, trying not to lose her own lunch. If Walter really thought the snake was exotic enough to tempt Maraj to join him under a Nauruan moon, he was crazy.

  It wasn’t like Maraj wanted to call Walter and ask him to take back his present. That might make him think he had a chance.

  While keeping an eye on the snake, Maraj called Rainee, her most reliable helper, organize-stuff, return-clothes-to-the-boutique, problem solving-type person, and asked her to come over right away to help Maraj return a present that just wasn't working.

   In short order, Maraj would learn of Rainees’s weak stomach that would sour Maraj’s plan to have Rainey put the snake and the carcass of the sopping-wet mouse in Walter’s mail box.

   Until then, while she waited for Rainee to arrive, Maraj worked on a real organization project – filing party invitations in alphabetical order. -- 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