#if you enjoy language and etymology please check it out

[masteraqua]

does anyone have recommendations for educational podcasts? i really like The Allusionist, but i'm running out of episodes in the backlog to listen to 🥺

[maverick-werewolf]

Werewolf Worldbuilding Sheet

Instead of a werewolf fact this week, have something I’ve been working on for a little while now. I was sent an ask about a good werewolf worldbuilding sheet. Me being me, willing to settle for no one else’s werewolf things, I thought - hey, why not make my own? I love worldbuilding werewolves and I’ve tried to make sure to think of literally everything to do with mine, so I thought I’d put together a relatively simple werewolf worldbuilding sheet! (and maybe a vampire one in the future!)

I will first extrapolate on each section of the sheet and provide some thoughts/examples (and relevant werewolf facts to turn to for ideas!)...

What is lycanthropy and where did it come from? This is always something to consider. Note, of course, that where it came from may be a mystery, and that’s fine too. You don’t have to always do the “it came from a demon or a witch” thing like literally everyone else in the universe. Folklore provides us with some interesting material to help think on this - here are some helpful werewolf facts: What IS a werewolf? --- Curse, not Disease --- On Werewolf Biology --- When Werewolves Went Feral Part 1 --- and Part 2

How does one become a werewolf? Pretty simple question, but always complicated to answer! Well, potentially. How does someone become a werewolf in your story? Definitely a helpful werewolf fact for ideas - but also refer to several from the first question: Becoming a werewolf

Are there different terms for werewolves? Something else to think about! Are your werewolves even called “werewolves?” They don’t have to be, of course, but you know, it’d be cooler if they were. And most monsters, especially in older times, didn’t have just one name - not to mention other languages in your universe that would have their own terms for a werewolf. Useful werewolf fact: Etymology

Are there different kinds of werewolves or similar shapeshifters? This is kind of a weird one, I know, but hey, it’s something to think about. I for one don’t go into the “werewolves are just one kind of shapeshifter that happen to all be pretty much exactly like werewolves but different animals” (looking at you, D&D and WoD), but lots of people do, so that’s up to you! Helpful/potentially relevant werewolf facts: What is and isn’t a werewolf --- Where were the werewolf hybrids --- On shaping other shapeshifters --- Berserkers --- Vrykolakas --- Loup garous and rougarous --- Magic skins

What do the werewolves look like? A big one to decide! I’ll try not to influence you, but, you know, werewolves are called werewolves, just try to remember that. Useful werewolf facts: Physical Appearance --- Werewolves have tails --- Wolves are big, werewolves are bigger --- Hands and claws --- Fur colors --- Eye colors --- How to identify a werewolf --- Werewolves walking upright

Do werewolves have packs? Werewolf packs saturate our current generation of pop culture, but they are indeed very popular. Consider, however, that werewolves’ characterization is severely degraded if they are basically unable to exist without a pack and/or devote themselves entirely to seeking a pack instead of being a person at all; not that werewolf packs are bad, but something to consider. Useful werewolf facts: Is alpha, beta, omega really a thing? --- Communities and families --- Inheritance/offspring

What are a werewolf's powers and abilities? There might be more than you think! Have fun with it! Just remember, werewolves should totally be OP. Like, way OP. No, I’m not kidding. They’re awesome. We love werewolves on this blog, remember? Useful werewolf facts: Powers and abilities --- Eye/vision powers --- Spirit projection --- Werewolves can outrun you --- Werewolves can swim --- Werewolves can climb trees --- Gluttony/swallowing things whole

Do they have any weaknesses, and why? Another big question! Do your werewolves have weaknesses? Or do they not? If so, of course - what are they? Useful werewolf facts: How to kill a werewolf (weaknesses) --- Silver --- Belladonna and wolfsbane --- Werewolf and monster hunters

What triggers a werewolf transformation? The BIG one! Well, one of the big ones. Super, super important. Is it more than one thing? What are they? Details! Useful werewolf facts: Transformation triggers --- Transformation sequence --- On werewolf biology (again) --- Full moon --- The Arcadians

What triggers a werewolf to return to human form again? What it says on the tin. This can vary a lot! It’ll definitely be influenced by the first question, but it’s something to maybe think about separately.

Can a werewolf be “cured”? This can depend, of course, on what exactly your werewolves are/how they work, but it’s always useful to know the answer as to whether or not there’s any hope of someone being totally human again. Plese see previous questions for other useful facts, like if your lycanthropy is a curse in the first place! Useful werewolf facts: How to cure lycanthropy

Can the werewolves control themselves, or ever learn how to do so? Are your werewolves even uncontrollable in the first place? Is there any hope for a sad werewolf to ever gain control, if so? Useful werewolf facts: When Werewolves Went Feral Part 1 --- and Part 2 --- Personality changes

How do werewolves act in their werewolf form and why? Are your werewolves full of rage? Are the hungry? Do they eat people? Why? Would they hunt specifically people, or what? Useful werewolf facts:  When Werewolves Went Feral Part 1 --- and Part 2 (yes, again) --- Werewolves vs Evil --- Personality changes (again) --- Werewolves don’t bark --- Werewolf diet --- Werewolves vs vampires (my most controversial post lol) --- Werewolves as noble knights --- The trial of Peter Stubbe -- Werewolf Intelligence (and speech)

Are werewolves immortal, or anything approaching it? How about that immortality? Useful werewolf facts: Immortality and aging --- Powers and abilities (again)

How are werewolves treated/seen by others? Are they outcasts? Kill on sight? Hunted from the very moment someone finds out what they are? Do they have to hide the fact that they are a werewolf? How does it work? Useful werewolf facts: Hiding being a werewolf

Do werewolves remember anything about their transformations? What it says on the tin! Do they, or do they not? Is it hazy? Do they have no memory of it at all and might not even realize they are a werewolf? Or do they remember everything? Useful werewolf facts: Memory

------------

Please note of course that my werewolf facts are here to give you ideas, not be instructions. Werewolves of your creation are of your creation, and thus you should create them the way you want and like them! I don’t want to dictate to anyone the way werewolves “should” be, although I absolutely have my personal preferences. The werewolf facts are meant to give you ideas and, hopefully, be a good jumping off point.

Folklore isn’t always the coolest portrayal of werewolves - it’s just better, IMO, to use folklore as a basis or at least as an idea basin instead of ignoring it entirely. The folklore for werewolves is awesome, just like all folklore. But pop culture has given us some cool things, too.

And remember, if you have any other questions or want to throw ideas at me or ask me my thoughts on anything, I am more than happy to talk werewolf ideas with you! Please, share your werewolves with me! I promise they don’t have to be ultra-folkloric for me to love them (mine actually aren’t, in many respects), since I’m a big fan of several very Hollywood things as well. I’m also always here to give writing advice.

Enjoy!

Other posts you may find useful:

What to Do and what to Avoid when writing werecreatures

Werewolf tropes I like and dislike (and why)

More on werewolf tropes

Reframing “werewolf angst” into “werewolf anxiety” (very important!)

On pop culture werewolf designs and Underworld’s influence

Werewolves are not British

The Beast of Gevaudan and what isn’t a werewolf legend

Wargs/worgs

------------

BLANK VERSION OF THE SHEET:

What is lycanthropy and where did it come from?

How does one become a werewolf?

Are there different terms for werewolves?

Are there different kinds of werewolves or similar shapeshifters?

What do the werewolves look like?

Do werewolves have packs?

What are a werewolf's powers and abilities?

Do they have any weaknesses, and why?

What triggers a werewolf transformation?

What triggers a werewolf to return to human form again?

Can a werewolf be “cured”?

Can the werewolves control themselves, or ever learn how to do so?

How do werewolves act in their werewolf form and why?

Are werewolves immortal, or anything approaching it?

How are werewolves treated/seen by others?

Do werewolves remember anything about their transformations?

-------------

And of course, don’t forget to check the werewolf fact masterlist for even more info on folkloric werewolves (and my sundry opinions on pop culture werewolves)!

Be sure to give me a follow for lots more werewolf facts, vampire facts, answering all your asks, and a whole lot more folklore and writing, as well as writing advice!

(If you like my werewolf blog, be sure to check out my other stuff! And please consider supporting me on Patreon - every little bit helps keep this blog running!

Patreon --- Wulfgard --- Werewolf Fact Masterlist --- Twitter)

[rainisland6-blog]

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Early usage of the expression appears to be extra typical in Australia/NZ and also U.S.A. than England. The earliest clear reference I've located is for 'Reward Goody Gumdrop Ice-cream' which was marketed by the Baskin-Robbins ice-cream parlour stores in their early years, which was late 1940s/early 1950s in UNITED STATES. Somewhere else it is suggested that Reward Goody Gumdrop Ice Cream initially appeared in the USA in 1965. There additionally seems to be a traditional use of the expression for ice-cream containing gumdrop sweets in New Zealand. The use of the goody gumdrop expression in common speech would certainly probably have actually pre-dated its use as a branding gadget for ice-cream.

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This is an adaptation of the earlier expression to be 'around' something or someone meaning to be obsessed or absorbed by. A comparable expression to the 'economical suit' metaphor is 'throughout him/her like a rash' which is adaptable in terms of sex, and also again likens individual focus to something clearly 'on' the sufferer, like a suit or a breakout. I'm eager to find the earliest use the 'cheap match' expression - please inform me if you recall its use prior to 1990, or better still can suggest a substantial popular early estimated example which could have established it. Chambers Thesaurus of Etymology differs a little with the OED in suggesting that charm changed the earlier English spelling charism around 1875. The preference of the 1953 Much shorter OED for the words charism and also charm suggests that preferred use of charm came a lot later than 1875. Chambers says the Greek root words are charm and also charizesthai, from charis and also pertaining to chairein, indicating rejoice. According to Chambers once more, the adjective charming showed up in English around, from the Greek charm, suggesting favours offered.

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The word likewise showed up very early in South African English from Afrikaans - more evidence of Dutch origins. This table significance of board is just how we obtained the word boardroom also, as well as the popular very early 1900s furniture piece called a sideboard. See likewise the expression 'move the board', which likewise refers to the table significance of board. Various recommendations have been mentioned in Arabic and Scriptural works to suggest that it was originally based upon Middle- as well as Far-Eastern customizeds, in which blood rituals symbolised bonds that were stronger than family members ones. ' The blood of the commitment is more powerful than the water of the womb' is an explanation priced quote by some analysts.

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If any individual understands of any details recommendations which could sustain this idea and also to connect it with the Black Irish expression please tell me. This usage is more probable to be a misconception and also misuse of an earlier definition of the 'black Irish' expression, based upon black meaning mad. for the birds - useless, unreliable truths, unacceptable or trivial, suggesting that something is only for weaker, unintelligent or minimal individuals - American beginning according to Kirkpatrick as well as Schwarz Dictionary of Idioms. Decharne's Thesaurus of Hipster Jargon really referrals a quote from the Hank Janson novel Chicago Chick" 'It's crazy man,' I informed him, 'Actual insane. Purely for the birds.'" - however does not state whether this was the original use. Brewer's Thesaurus of Phrase and also Fable certainly makes no mention of it which suggests it is no earlier than 20th century. The term suggests the tiny brains of birds, and also expressions such as 'bird-brain', as a metaphor for people of restricted intelligence. amateur - non-professional or un-paid, or much more just recently a disparaging term meaning unprofessional - the word stems from the exact same punctuation in Old French 'amateur' significance 'fan', originally meaning in English a lover of an activity.

Earliest use of break definition good luck was predominantly U.S.A., initial tape-recorded in 1827 according to Partridge. boss - supervisor - while there are myths recommending origins from a particular Mr Employer, the real derivation is from the Dutch 'baas', meaning master, which was adopted into the US language from Dutch settlers in the 17th century.

By the way Maker also suggests that the Camel, 'ruch', became what is currently the Rook in chess. It seems that playing cards were initially called 'the Books of the Four Kings', while chess was referred to as 'the Video game of the Four Kings'. Maker likewise points out a reference to a particular Jacquemin Gringonneur having "repainted and also guilded three packs for the King in 1392." Unconnected however remarkably, French jargon for the horse-drawn omnibus was 'four banal' which equated after that to 'parish stove' - what a terrific expression. Bottom also alludes to a kick up the behind, being an additional technique of propulsion and also ejection in such scenarios. Partridge/OED suggests the luck aspect possibly originates from billiards, in which the initial shot damages the initial development of the balls and leaves either opportunity or trouble for the challenger. This feeling is supported by the break meaning reprieve or relaxation, as in tea-break.

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sitting duck - very easy target or something that is at risk or defenceless to strike- an allegory from shooting field sport, in which a resting or hatching out duck, would be an easier target than one flying airborne. Strangely there is very little etymological recommendation to the really usual 'sitting duck' expression. doolally - crazy or crazy - originally a military term from India. Soldiers at the end of their term were sent out to Deodali, a town near Bombay, to wait to be shipped residence. The hot environment, irritation and also boredom caused strange behavior among the postponed troops, who were claimed to be struggling with 'doolally touch', which was the complete expression. In the late 1600s a domino was a hood, affixed to a cape put on by a clergyman, additionally a shroud put on by a woman in mourning, and later on a domino described a cape with a mask, put on at masqueredes. This was from French, stemming originally from common spiritual Domino references in priestly language.

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Remarkably the old Indo-European origin word for club is glembh, really similar to the root word for golf. expat/ex-pat - person living or working abroad - the modern-day 'deportee' (and significantly hyphenated 'ex-pat') expression is frequently thought to be a reducing of 'ex-patriot', but this is not true. Around 1800 the expatriate word became utilized as a noun to indicate an expatriated individual, yet still after that in the sense of a gotten rid of individual, rather than one that had willingly moved abroad. The very early use of the migrant word defined the loss of citizenship from one's homeland, not a short-lived or relatively easy to fix situation. Using migrant in its modern interpretation seems to have started around 1900, and was popularised by Lilian Bell's novel 'The Expatriate', about affluent Americans residing in Paris, published in 1902. Strictly speaking therefore, the correct type is expat, not ex-pat.

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In 1968 the pop team 1910 Fruitgum Company had a little UK chart success with a track called Reward Reward Gumdrops, as well as there is no doubt that the expression was strongly established in the UK, UNITED STATES as well as Aus/NZ by the 1960s. There is some organization with, and understandably some impact from the 'Goody 2 Footwear' expression, in that the definition is essentially mocking or putting down a gain of some sort. Golf is a Scottish word from the 1400s, at which time the word gouf was likewise utilized. Related to these, kolfr is an old Icelandic word for a rod or blunt arrowhead. All these acquire ultimately from Proto-Germanic kulb, in turn from the old Indo-European word glebh. The major opinion suggests that words golf perhaps entered Scottish language from Dutch, where similar words were made use of specifically referring to games involving striking a round with a club.

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cul-de-sac - dead-end road, a roadway shut at one end/blind street - this extensively made use of English road indication and also term is from the French, meaning the exact same, from cul and also cavity. By the way, calling someone a 'cul' in French relates to the disparaging English term 'arse', since cul also implies the bottom or backside of an individual. I am notified likewise that cul de sac is considered a rather vulgar expression by the French when they see it on British road indications; the French usage instead the term 'standstill' on their own dead-end road signs. The orginal usage comes from the French créole, from Portuguese crioulo, related the Portuguese verb criar, to increase, from Latin creare, implying fruit and vegetables. The name 'Socks' was rather pronounced the victor, and also the pet cat properly named.

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A supposed John Walker, an outdoor clerk of the company Longman Clementi and Carbon Monoxide, of Cheapside, London, is one such individual referenced by Cassells vernacular thesaurus. scam - deceive purposely - the hoodwink word is first tape-recorded in 1562 according to Chambers. It simply originates from the actual significance and use to define covering the eyes with a hood or blindfold.

It specifically connects to specific passions and feeling of gratification or destiny. The fulfillment of individual objective - past educational and adult conditioning. A basis of evaluating whether you have actually taken advantage of your life, when it's too late to have another go. As at September 2008 Google listings 97 uses of this word on the entire web, but most/very many of those appear to be typing mistakes mistakenly joining the words life as well as yearning, which do not count. I'm open to tips or insurance claims of very first use and also source. Sometimes you can see the birth or very early development of a new word, prior to virtually anyone else, as well as definitely prior to the dictionaries. If you are reading this in 2008 or maybe very early 2009, after that this is probably among those occasions.

Words mews is actually from Falconry, in which predators such as goshawks were used to catch rabbits and other game. Falconry came to be exceptionally prominent in medieval England, as well as was a favourite sporting activity of aristocracy till the 1700s. Mew was initially a verb which explained a hawk's moulting or dropping plumes, from Old French muer, as well as Latin mutare, meaning to change. Mew after that ended up being a name for the hawk cage, as well as likewise explained the technique of keeping a hawk closed away while molting. The royal stables, at first established in Charing Cross London in the mid-1200s, were on the website of hawks mews, which created the word mews to move to stables. lifelonging/to long-lasting - something significant yearned for every one of your life/or the verb sense of longing for something for your whole life - a lately progressed portmanteau word.

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Today's symbolic expression as well as definition 'to trick' developed in the very early 17thC from the earlier use of words to mean 'conceal' in the late 16thC. Her transformation is characterised by her having simply a solitary footwear when bad, and being provided a pair of footwear, which marked the start of her brand-new located and also apparently enthusiastically self-proclaimed joy. The expression could be from as much back as the mid-1800s, considering that 'goodie/goody' has actually been used to explain delicious food ever since, which would have lent extra relevance to the definition of the expression. Likewise, words gumdrop as a name for the range of chewy sugared periodontal sweets seems to have actually gotten in American English speech in around 1860, according to Chambers. Nevertheless it's most likely that prominent use of goody gumdrops started in the mid-1900s, among youngsters, when mass-marketing of the desserts would certainly have enhanced.

Charm, which probably expanded from charismatic, which grew from charm, had actually mostly shaken its spiritual associations by the mid 1900s, as well as advanced its non-religious definition of personal magnetism by the 1960s. Even more information regarding the beginnings and interpretations of personal appeal gets on the charisma webpage. Brewer's view is that playing cards were developed from an Indian game called 'The Four Rajahs', which follows the idea that the origins of playing cards were Asian. In The Four Rajahs video game the playing items were the King; the General (described as 'fierche'); the Elephant (' phil'); the Horsemen; the Camel (' ruch'); as well as the Infantry. Similarly Brewer says that the Elephant, 'phil', was converted into 'fol' or 'fou', meaning Knave, equal to the 'Jack'.

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Chambers really contains a great deal even more information regarding the variants of the diet regimen words relating to food particularly, for example that the word dietician appeared as late as 1905. It is remarkable that the initial Greek significance and derivation of the diet plan - course of life - associates so highly to the modern suggestion that 'we are what we consume', which diet is so very closely connected to exactly how we feel and act as people. The modern diet regimen word now reverberates plainly with its true initial significance.

The images of a black cloak as well as mask eye-holes consequently supplied the inspiration for the dominoes game to be supposed - in both languages the video game was initially called domino, not dominoes. Interestingly, nitty-gritty showed up in Italy even later, around 1830, from France, cycle to its Latin origins. So, while the lord as well as master origins exist and no doubt helped the fostering of the name, the precise association is to a black cape as well as mask, rather than lordly supremacy or the winning purpose of the game. The words came into the English language by concerning 1200, and also 1450, from the Greek, via Latin, after that French. The diet definition setting up was additionally influenced by Latin passes away significance days, associating with journal and timing. The Latin kind diaeta also created the German tag as it appears in the words for assembly, Reichstag, Bundestag, as well as Landtag.

The terms 'cookie crashing' (related to busts as well as intercourse - utilize your creative imagination), 'cookie duster', and also 'cookie crumbs' (Bill Clinton's downfall) extend the the sexual undertones into a lot more bawdy area. The irony is of course that no-one would have been any type of the smarter regarding these definitions had heaven Peter monitoring not sought to shield all of us. Using words clue - as a metaphor based on the ball of thread/maze tale - describing solving a mystery is very first tape-recorded in 1628, and also previously as clew in 1386, in Chaucer's Tale of Great Ladies. The insinuation is to the clingy as well as evident nature of a cheap suit, likely of a tacky/loud/garish/ tasteless design. When it comes to adulation there may additionally a suggestion of toadiness or sycophancy.

[valisi-clark]

first of all, i want to say that your writing is fucking amazing. maybe someone's already asked this before but what's your writing process like? how do you get into the characters' heads? is there something specific that you do to achieve that?

Oh, anon! You made me do the face! The face that’s like (◕‿◕✿). You know? Where I get that special sparkle in my eye, and I’m just too happy? You know the one.

I love talking about the writing process and writing theory so much. A while back, I started emailing one of my favorite writers about writing theory specified towards a Reincarnation AU because I wanted to know what she thought the parameters should be. How many things can you do in a Reincarnation AU before you jump the shark? I’ve enjoyed those emails so much. And we’ve also talked about the use of language, checking the thesaurus, looking up the etymology of a word. Yaaaayy! *flails hands*

I know that I’ve briefly talked about how I characterize Erwin and Levi in another ask, but I think there are some things that I didn’t mention. So let’s discuss it.

Under the cut because I fucking ramble.

My writing process is a bit amorphous and kind of difficult to explain, but I’m going to do my best. I almost exclusively write for Erwin and Levi so I begin with a plot. Typically, a plot will hit me, and I have to write it. That happened with Smack.

But sometimes I’ll specifically plan a plot around a subject that I want to use, for example Renegade. I fucking love that Styx song, and I wanted to build some Eruris into a criminal world. At first, I really wanted to try and fit Eruris into a moonshine operation, with Erwin as the criminal and Levi as the crooked police officer. But that would have taken so much fucking research. It would have turned out into another 200,000 piece. 

Moonshining comes with a culture. It’s not just making liquor in the woods for cash. Moonshine is tied deeply into the culture of the people from the Apalachians in the United States, and it's an old fucking practice. There’s an entire history behind it, and I would have to find a way to put Eruris into that situation. Do you see how that doesn’t fit? Erwin’s so smart. Why would moonshining ever be on the table for him when it doesn’t make as much money anymore? During prohibition sure. It would be a shit ton of money. But if I put them in that time, then I would have to research that time period. Do you see how this continues to build for the sake of realism and suspension of disbelief? It's actually too much work for very little pay off. 

The plot of the story would have to end with Erwin and Levi either being found by the law (to follow the theme of the song), they would have to find some reason to quit (why when the money is so good?), or they would have to die. Criminal work during the time of prohibition was difficult and deadly. Prisons were deplorable, and trying to run or dying was a better option. Crime can be difficult now, but I would argue that we have a lot more leniency on criminals in our current times than we did 97 years ago. 

If I wanted to commit to another long piece, I would have had no problem building that world. But I’m still currently working on a few other things that I feel more attached to. If I started that piece, I could have burned out. So the plot for Renegade died for a while, until I was driving back home from dropping off my partner at the airport at dawn. And then it hit me. I know a little bit about hacking. Hacking can make money, especially in the area of bitcoins. Erwin would be attracted to computers for their capability. Levi would be attracted to them for the counter culture. Let's add a plane in there. Let's go to Mexico. Light bulb!

That's sort of how stories happen for me. If they aren't going to happen randomly, I can sometimes plot them out long enough to know if they will work or not. I want to make sure that my investment is going to be worth whatever ending I decide to create, for myself as well as the reader. Part of being able to feel a story is intuition too, which can't be taught in my opinion. It either feels right, or it doesn't. But a more technical version of this would be a pro and cons list.

The process of getting into a characters head is actually more hands on than the writing process. I read the manga, and I watch the anime. But I don't just watch the anime. I pick out scenes with the characters that I need to focus on, I minimize the window, I close my eyes, and I listen to the Japanese voice actors. This works even better if you can find a compilation of that character talking on YouTube. I listen to directly to the vocal manifestation of the characters. Specifically, I prefer the Japanese voice actors because I can listen directly to the inflection, the way that they give words to character, rather than focusing on what's actually being said. And I study a character's canon dialogue to pick out their phrases. What is this character willing to say? What are their catch phrases? Why is Hange so loud? How many times is Mike going to sniff in this one scene? Then, you mentally record those pieces. You save that information and apply it to all of the rest of the headcanons that you've created for this character. Keep the canon information, and add your own beliefs to round them out.

I mostly write for the vets, and the vets don't get very much screen time in comparison to the 104th. That means that there's plenty of room to add what you want, but you can't add something that's out of character. So I make them into real people in my mind. And typically, when I'm struggling with writing something, it's because I'm trying to make a move that goes against the nature of the character.

So when Mike was giving me a hard time in Smack, it's because I was trying to make him talk. I wanted him to talk about his feelings to give the reader some satisfaction. A reader can exorcize feelings through a character that they empathize with, and I wanted to give them some relief through Mike. But Mike didn't want to talk. Because Mike isn't extremely verbal anyway. And I already took some liberties with his vocalization earlier in the story because he's a bit different in Smack. He's lived a completely new life, and it's changed him a little. But when things are bad, Mike still doesn't want to talk about it much. Mike speaks best with actions rather than words. He wants to fix things. 

We see Mike's protective side in Season 2 when he decides that he's going to distract the Titans for the sake of the rest of the unit. It's fucking dangerous. He knows that they don't have another choice, but what if something went wrong besides the Beast Titan? What if he broke an ankle? Mike can't think about those types of things. He acts based on his intuition, and he has to adapt to the situation to survive. Unfortunately, the shock of hearing a Titan speak was too much. No one could have predicted that (except Hange who had Ilse's journal at this point right?, so why wasn't Mike privy to that information?). If Mike had lived beyond finding out that the Beast Titan could speak, what would have happened to him? Would he have gone completely non-verbal from shock? Would he become more verbal due to the necessity of sharing that information with the right people as quickly as possible? How would his character have changed after that life altering experience?

Getting into a character's head basically boils down to spending time with them. Listening to them, looking at them, following their arcs, and I personally like to talk to them in my head. When I’m writing, I like to believe that I’m just an observer. I’m recording what’s happening rather than directing it. Sometimes the actors cooperate, and sometimes they don’t. 

Right now, Smack is on hold because Erwin's tired. We both are. Getting to this point has been fucking exhausting, and we need some time off. But I haven't made an announcement about it because I think a lot of readers are trying to relax now that the climax of the story has happened. So we’re all taking a break, getting back on our feet. 

I know this is a long ass post. I hope it wasn't boring. If you ever have any questions, please hit me up! I love this shit!

Thank you, anon. Have a great day!

[fawkesmulder]

X-Files Fanfic: “Bon Fox, Bad Fox” Chapter 1

I finished the first chapter. My heart is pounding, my palms are sweating, I can’t believe I’m posting this?? 

Much thanks to my sister for being my ba(e)ta. She’s on here somewhere but won’t tell me her url, lest I find out how much of a weeaboo she really is.  

So the story is based on the best film to ever come out of Quebec, “Bon Cop, Bad Cop” (2006). Get ready for a raucous French Buddy Cop AU story filled with cutesy MSR, major Canadiana, and explicit explicitness (in later chapters, anyway). If anyone has trouble with the french bits, let me know and I can make them more understandable??

Oh man you guys my elbows are sweating, I’m so nervous. Okay (covers face) here it is:

Before we Begin:

A SHORT LEXICON OF COMMON QUÉBECOIS SWEAR WORDS (derived mostly from terms used in the Catholic Church. I don’t make this shit up.):

Câlisse = originally comes from the word “chalice”, variant of “fuck”

Ostie = was originally “hostie”, from the word “host” (as in the eucharistic kind), also a variant of “fuck” but sometimes an adverb: “ostie de ___” = “really fucking ___”

Tabarnak = originally comes from the word “tabernacle”, yet another “fuck” variant

Crisse = originally comes from the word “Christ”, a “fuck” variant that, depending on the situation, can be used as a noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, you name it.

Maudit / Merde = the actual French term for “fuck”, no etymological relation to the Catholic Church as far as I know.

BON FOX, BAD FOX CHAPTER ONE

5:15am; Montréal, Québec. An apartment in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce district.

Something was buzzing. It probably wasn’t important, but it was annoying as hell.

If I ignore it, thought Détective Fox Muldère of the SPVM, eventually it will stop.

It did.

Muldère traced his eyes quickly back to the french translation of “Hinterkaifeck: Der Mordfall” in his lap, eager to forget the disturbance.

The buzzing recommenced almost as quickly as it had stopped. With an air of exaggerated annoyance, Muldère peeled his eyes away from the book once again — mid-sentence, if you please — to glance at his wristwatch.

Nobody ever phoned him this early. He knew this to be an absolute fact, as Muldère rarely slept past four am on a good day. Suffering a longstanding relationship with insomnia and ineffable boredom, Fox Muldère spent most of his scheduled sleep time self-educating himself on any subject that mildly interested him. He had spent the better part of his adult life drifting through the layers of the SPVM, from Police Psychology to Criminology to the drug squad to his current status as an enquêteur. His newest attempt at satisfaction came from reading books on unsolved murders linked to the paranormal, trying to piece them together in his head.

The phone buzzed again, maybe louder this time. He had never bothered to set up his call display settings. Every time the phone rang, answering it was a gamble. Would it be work? His mother? An angry woman he’d slept with and forgotten to call back?

“Câlisse,” he muttered at the thought of any of those options, reaching over with another bout of exaggerated effort to grab the phone and shut it the fuck up.

“Muldère.”

He listened to the cracked, aging voice of Guy Bouchard, his superior officer at the station, official ranking chain-smoker, and only sometimes an asshat. Calling him in, of course.

“C’est ma journée off,” Muldère tried to cut in, as the Sergeant continued on.

A moment later, he slammed the book shut. In an exaggerated fashion. Muldère’s dramatic outbursts were for the benefit of no one. He lived alone, and liked to keep it that way.

“Okay, okay, j’arrive,” he conceded. He threw the phone into the mess of cushions and heaved himself up off the couch. He wasn’t sure what it was he was so upset about; day off or not, a dead body and a possible murder was exactly what he needed to kill the boredom that would have surely haunted him all day. Maybe it was just the principle of being called in. Summoned. Like a dog. Drop what you’re doing and mobilize your shit.

Whatever, at least it’s something to keep me busy, Muldère reconciled as he slid into the shower and enjoyed the scalding heat against his backside.

7:00AM; Québec/Ontario border

Detective Dana Scully of the OPP pulled down the visor in her front seat to check her reflection.

Hair freshly blowdried.

Makeup noticeable but not overbearing.

Mole under her nose covered to perfection.

Eyebrows tidy and poignant.

Satisfied, she pushed the visor back up and got out of the car, smoothing down the skirt of her crisp new suit.

Her father used to say that fear and excitement were the same emotion, that it all depended on how you choose to perceive it. Keeping this in mind, Scully tried to focus her nerves on being excited, but the truth couldn’t be subdued quite that easily. Formerly a forensic pathologist for the RCMP in the mountainous splendours of British Columbia, Dana Scully had abandoned the position to follow a boyfriend to the non mountainous and humid confines of Southern Ontario, where she was promptly dumped for a blond named Émilie with a meh-quality French accent and much longer legs.

Scully’s decision to stay in Ontario had not been well received by her family, but her chaotically romantic sacrifice had left her feeling like she had something to prove to herself. Cool, calculated Dana Scully did not make mistakes. She would make the best of her choices, and so help her God, she would start her life anew.

It was all this that led her to becoming a detective for the Ontario Provincial Police. She had been a bit surprised at the early phone call this morning summoning her to the scene of a potential murder on her first day, but eager to impress, she sprang immediately into action.

Excitement had all but dominated her body as she was getting herself ready earlier, but was quickly frosting over into fear as she walked towards the bright yellow stretches of police tape blocking off the area.

She licked her lips and took a deep breath, swallowing everything — fear, excitement, whatever— and lifted the police tape over her head to enter the scene of the (possible) crime.

“Detective Dana Scully,” she said to one of the beat cops trying to flag away rubberneckers, flashing her new badge. “What do we know so far about what happened?”

The cop reflexively looked up at the large sign on the side of the road that read “Bienvenue à Québec” on one side and “Welcome to Ontario” on the other. The sign acted as a designated border, the line that separated the two provinces. As Scully’s eyes followed his, the answer to her question came into view.

“We have no idea how he got up there,” the cop said, referring to the dead man lying straddled over the top of the sign. “Looks like maybe he was dropped from the sky or something. He was discovered in the early hours of this morning. No one has gone up there to inspect yet.”

Scully couldn’t stop staring up at the dead man hanging limp over the sign. She was absolutely perplexed. But something else kept her staring as well. The man was dangling off each side of the sign — legally speaking, half of his body was in Ontario, and the other half was in Québec.

“Um,” she started slowly, squinting in hopes of getting a better view. “Do we know whose jurisdiction this is, exactly?”

“No idea,” the cop replied. “Not my department. I was just told to wait for the detectives to arrive.”

“Detectives?” As far as she knew, Scully had been the only one called to the scene.

“Yeah,” the cop said, taking a sip of his styrofoam coffee. “I think Montreal is sending one of their guys to take a look too.”

Scully nodded. “Well, I have experience in Forensic Pathology, so I’d like to get up there and take a closer look at the body as soon as possible. Have you got a ladder?”

The cop nodded and proceeded off, leaving Scully to contemplate the incredulous scene above her head. Unbeknownst to her, another incredulous scene was about to take place.

Coming in from the Québec side of the freeway, an old jalopy of a vehicle sped recklessly towards the crime scene, stopping abruptly at the edge of the police tape, engine revving unnecessarily. A tall, lean man in jeans and a grey t-shirt stepped out of the car and didn’t even hesitate before pulling the tape over his head and strutting around.

“Excuse me,” Scully called out to him. The man turned his gaze to her and smirked, cocking his head to one side. “This is a restricted crime scene area. We need all civilians to cooperate in standing back behind the designated tape.”

The man’s smirk twitched, like he was concealing a laugh. He made his way over to her — by God, he was much taller up close than she had thought — and fished a badge hanging from a lanyard from inside his shirt.

“Muldère,” he said. “Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal.” He slurred his French into a mocking English pronunciation, smiling down at her.

Smug. He was smug. And French. And cocky. Scully had been forewarned about the ongoing rivalry between the OPP and the SPVM, as well as, more majorly, the (mostly historical) rivalry between the Francophone and Anglophone populations of this region. Coming from out west, she had no personal qualms with any Frenchmen of any kind, and decidedly ignored the man’s jostling attempts to start a language war with her.

“Enchanté, Detective. I’m Detective Dana Scully with the OPP.” Her heart fluttered a little bit introducing herself as Detective to another Detective, but she set it aside. There was no way she was going to devote any excitement to anything having to do with this Détective Muldère of the Sad Police Vendettas in Archaism, a much more apt reading of SPVM, as far as his behaviour was concerned.

Muldère continued to smile crookedly at her, sizing her up and down. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a sunflower seed, holding her gaze as he rolled it into his mouth.

“Enchanté yourself,” He replied. “Au moins la ‘tite rousse parle un mot de français.” He laughed to himself, inserting another seed into his mouth.

Scully blinked, watching Detective Muldère spit the two wet, empty shells to the ground at his feet.

Little red. That’s what he had just called her. She was shocked. She was outraged. This was so far beyond professionalism between supposed colleagues. And Detective Muldère was just standing there eyeballing her, daring her with his eyes to make a comeback.

Bite your tongue, Dana. It’s your first day, goddamn it. Don’t make trouble. Don’t let this tall fuckwad get to you.

A seething Detective Scully smiled. “Look, if this case is too much for you and you have somewhere else to be, I can take it from here.” She turned on her pumps and walked away from him. The beat cop from before had just finished setting up the ladder at the provincial sign. She had a job to do and no one was going to stop her from doing it.

Moments later she heard the scuffle of feet as Muldère moved to catch up with her.

“What exactly do you mean by that?” he said to the back of her head.

Scully stopped walking and turned around sharply. “Oh,” she said in mock surprise. She just couldn’t help it. He was under her skin and there was nothing she could do about it. “He speaks English.”

Detective Muldère rolled his eyes, his perma-smirk aggravating her more and more at every corner.

“It means exactly what you heard,” Scully said, sassing her way through a professional bite. “If you’re not going to take me or this investigation seriously, then I’m perfectly qualified to work on my own.”

“Serious? Me? I am the most serious.”

She gave him a reproaching look meant to pass straight through his lungs and choke him.

“The body was found early this morning. As you can see, his torso is draped over the Quebec side of the border—

—“Ouais, pis y’a l’Ontario dans l’cul.”

Scully frowned.

“Sorry,” Muldère amended, “I said ‘his ass belongs to you.’”

“Detective Muldère—

“Sorry, sorry. Okay, I’m being serious. Please continue.” He reached back into his pocket and pulled out a bag of Spitz, holding it out to her. “Seed?”

Scully sighed with a heaviness that moved her whole body up and down. “No, thanks. Anyway, as I was saying, half of his body is in Quebec and the other half is in Ontario. I guess this means we’ll be working the case together until we discover where and how he died.”

Muldère waggled his eyebrows at her. She pretended not to notice.

“I have a background in Forensic Pathology, so I’m going to go up there and take a look at the body.”

Scully started climbing the ladder.

“I’ll stand guard,” Muldère said, perma-smirk in perma-action. “In case any of these lowlifes here decide to try to look up your skirt.”

Scully huffed. “Or maybe you could go and put a call in to your superiors letting them know what’s going on.”

“Aye, aye Capitaine Rousse,” he said with a salute. “Any more orders?”

“Yes, my name is Scully. And secondly,” she added, locking eyes with him, “do not look up my skirt, or it will be the last thing you ever see.”

“I bet it would be worth it.” Muldère quipped, trailing lazily back to his car, glancing back a few times at the salacious little anglo redhead perched up on the ladder.

By the time Scully got up to the top of the ladder, she had reached a very problematic conclusion.

It only figures, she thought to herself, that I would once again be attracted to the wrong kind of man.

[jackson38toh]

Does water stand or sit?

Q: Is the correct phrase “standing water” or “sitting water”? Or can we can have it both ways?

A: “Standing water,” the usual expression, has referred to still or stagnant water since the late 14th century. It’s overwhelmingly more popular than “sitting water,” which as far as we can tell didn’t show up in print until about 20 years ago.

In searching the News on the Web corpus, a database of newspaper and magazine articles published since 2010, we found 2,985 examples of “standing water” and only 17 for “sitting water.”

A search with Google’s Ngram viewer of digitized books published from 2000 to 2008 had similar results.

Of the two phrases, only “standing water” is mentioned in the eight online standard dictionaries we’ve consulted. Collins has a separate entry for the expression, but several others mention it in their entries for the adjective “standing.”

Collins defines “standing water” as “any body of stagnant water, including puddles, ponds, rainwater, drain water, reservoirs, etc.” It has several examples, including this one: “Home to fish, birds and other wildlife, standing water is also enjoyed by recreational fishermen and walkers.”

Of the other standard dictionaries, Merriam-Webster, Oxford, and Webster’s New World define the adjective “standing” as still, not flowing, or stagnant, and give “standing water” as an example. American Heritage defines “standing” similarly, but doesn’t give an example.

None of the entries for the adjective “sitting” in the standard dictionaries we’ve checked include the sense of still or stagnant water.

The Oxford English Dictionary, an etymological dictionary based on historical evidence, doesn’t have an entry for “standing water,” but within its entry for the adjective “standing” it includes this sense: “Of water, a piece of water: Still, not ebbing or flowing, stagnant.”

The earliest OED example, which we’ve expanded, is from John Trevisa’s 1398 Middle English translation of De Proprietatibus Rerum (“On the Order of Things”), an encyclopedic Latin reference work compiled in the 13th century by the medieval scholar Bartholomeus Anglicus (Bartholomew the Englishman):

“In dyches is water y-norisshede and y-keppe, bothe rennynge and stondynge water” (“In ditches is water nourished and kept, both running and standing water”).

The OED doesn’t have an entry for “sitting water,” and its entry for the adjective “sitting” doesn’t include still or stagnant water as a sense.

The earliest example we’ve found for “sitting water” used in this sense is from a Nov. 18, 1998, article in the Coronado (Calif.) Eagle and Journal about the discovery of abandoned oil tanks beneath homes:

“At one tank site, there is a slight sheen to sitting water, indicating some oil is on top of it.”

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from Blog – Grammarphobia https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2019/04/standing-water.html

[karenolivialian]

Are You Heart-Centered? (Part 1) You Should Think With Your Heart and Feel With Your Head (Day 3: Fear Challenge)

I believe we should think with our hearts and feel with our heads. In this way, we can balance between logic and emotion. This is the opposite of what most of us are taught. We have classes in critical thinking, math, and sciences — but where’s the class that teaches me how to listen to my heart? And how do I marry what my heart tells me to what my head tells me?

We’re taught to rely on logic, but as humans, we’re really ruled by our emotions. So how can we use both effectively? And which one is supposed to lead? You can’t have two suns in the sky.

Intuition is the territory of the heart. The problem with intuition is that it seems to yield inconsistent results. Sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong. Is there a way to hone our intuition so it can yield consistent results?

What took a long time for me to learn is that the heart or spirit should lead — with the mind stepping in to help sort out and organize everything. Spirit is faster than the mind on any given day, but you cannot throw away logic because they work together in concert. It sounds like a simple concept — but wait until you try it, it’s not so easy. You can understand a concept in your head, but you don’t actually know it until it sits firmly in your heart through experience or realization. This is why learning through experience is the most effective way to learn. An experience means you understand how it feels to do something — and we remember things better when we associate things with feelings.

It’s interesting to note that the Chinese language uses the word 心 “heart” (sounds like sheen) interchangeably to mean “mind.” Every character in the Chinese language for thinking has a “heart” in it. To the Chinese, the heart and mind are linked — they are not separate, and so the character for heart and mind are the same. It really makes you think about why one of the oldest civilizations on earth has their language constructed this way.

Chinese characters usually come in singles or pairs that represent an idea. The word 思 (si) is usually paired with another character — it means to reflect or think. Did you notice the two parts to this character? The top part is the word 田 which means “field” — though it looks like a rice paddy to me. The bottom part is 心 “heart.” Why would anyone put a rice paddy and a heart together for a word that means to think or reflect?

What do you do with a paddy or field? You have to cultivate it in order to yield crops. In order to cultivate your heart, you must reflect and think. This is the true meaning of the character 思 (si).

Isn’t that the coolest thing ever? I didn’t start learning Chinese until I was I was in high school. Decades later, I’m still chipping away at it. In all that time, I only had one teacher who knew enough Chinese history and etymology to teach Chinese in this format. I never forgot the words he taught. To me, there is a life lesson or story in every Chinese character.To close out the language lesson, the word “wish” in Chinese translates directly to your heart’s hope or your heart’s desire. This makes sense since it would be strange to say that your brain or head made a wish.

How does one even think with their heart?

There are obvious things we need to do. We need food to eat, we need to earn a paycheck to sustain ourselves, we need to take care of our families and our home — but we also have choices in what to eat, what kind of job we want, where we want to go for vacation… Your head can sort out how to organize and plan these things, but your head can’t tell you if you’re happy doing these things. Your heart needs to be your compass because it will tell you whether you are happy, whether something doesn’t feel right, and if you learn to listen carefully, it can also lead you the right way.

I emphasize that I’m not suggesting to throw away logic because the mind and heart are linked. It is much easier to teach logic than how to manage the state of your heart and how to listen to it. It took me a long time to learn how to let my heart lead without my mind freaking out. There is also a difference between letting your heart lead and letting your emotions rule. The two are closely related, but they are not the same thing.

You cannot blindly follow your heart if you’re heart is not giving you clear answers. You must learn to prep your heart so it gives you clear answers.

Being Heart-Centered requires the following:

1.) A calm and neutral state of the heart. Just as you shouldn’t go to the grocery store when you’re hungry, you shouldn’t listen to your heart if you’re upset, ecstatic, or in any state other than calm and neutral. This is the most important point out of the entire list. A baseline must be established and there are many ways to do this. Meditation is one, but meditation without working on other areas is not enough. See below.

2.) Understanding your emotions and how to manage them. We have feelings and emotions for a reason, but in order to calm yourself and not confuse ourselves — we need to have a modicum of understanding and control over our emotions. This is where you use your head to analyze your feelings and emotions. Most people don’t do this well because most of us aren’t taught how to do this. They teach us so many things in school, but they don’t teach us how to manage ourselves. I’d say this should be a requirement — foundational work. I’ll cover this in more depth in part two of this series.

3.) Understanding how logic plays in and mastering your mind. Our minds are not exactly the model of health and balance. Because our mind is linked to our hearts (emotional center), it’s not actually always logical. We make up a lot of sh*t, and we have a lot of noise in our heads. I read somewhere we have about 60,000 thoughts a day and most of them are repetitive. If you want to talk about efficiency, our minds are not exactly efficient. Especially when it decides to do something stupid like cut ourselves down for no good reason. There are times when we do need to be corrected, but most of the time, I’d say it does it’s job too well in this area. If you can’t tell, I struggled a lot with this. I’m not giving it overtime pay any more! As for those whose minds are not developed enough in this area… Let’s just say they show up on my radar with a red flag and a foul card.

4.) How to get the two to play nicely. Sooooo, if you can get number one down (calm state of heart), the order should be as follows. Something comes in where you need to make a decision, the first thing is not to check what your head is thinking — believe me it has plenty of opinions. You check your heart to see how it reacts. You gauge the reaction, then let your head pipe in. If your heart jumps ups and down, that’s a resounding yes — then check in with your head to see if it’s practical and how to make it happen. If your heart isn’t sure, you ask and be patient, it will tell you. My rule is I don’t take action until I’m clear. Usually the answer comes fairly quickly.

5.) Practice. Practice. Practice. No one is good at anything in the beginning. It simply takes practice. Learning the above may not be a cake walk, but we spend so much of our time on things that frankly don’t matter that much. The above doesn’t actually take a lot of time, rather it takes intention, awareness and persistence. How long it takes you to get there depends on where you are and how much resistance there is. It took me four years to get to where I am, and I feel like I’m just getting the hang of it. I chipped away at it over time. I’m not saying this to discourage anyone — rather it was because I had that much more sh*t to clear out and balance. My mother says I can be stubborn ^_^

In conclusion, becoming heart-centered and learning to listen to my heart was one of the best things I did. It was worth the effort, and because it wasn’t easy for me, it’s one thing I’m very proud of. I guarantee it’s easier for most people — it’s just that I had to wrestle my mind and emotions into submission before I could get there and they weren’t very cooperative ^_^ Stay tuned for more posts in this series on these topics. Are you heart-centered? Do you want to be?

P.S. Thank you so much for reading! My sincere wish is for you to get something of value — whether it be inspiration, encouragement, or to think more deeply about a topic that’s close to your heart. If there is a topic you’d like me to cover, please leave me a comment. I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback. If you enjoyed it, please like it and share!

Come visit us at PassionDig! Facebook @passiondig Instagram @passiondig Twitter @passiondiggerYou can also find me on Instagram & Twitter @ KarenOliviaLian and on Medium.

[jackson38toh]

It takes two to quango

Q: We occasionally indulge in a late-night drink and an episode of Yes, Minister, the BBC sitcom from the 1980s. In the last episode of Season 1, Sir Humphrey says, “It takes two to quango, Minister!” We know you’ll enjoy the pun, but we’re also curious about the usage.

A: The term “quango” began life in the 1970s as an acronym for “quasi nongovernmental organization,” but the usage (like the quango itself) has evolved since then, especially in the UK, where the acronym is chiefly seen.

The full expression was apparently coined a half-century ago by Alan Pifer, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The earliest example in the Oxford English Dictionary is from the 1967 annual report of the charitable corporation:

“In recent years there has appeared on the American scene a new genus of organization which represents a noteworthy experiment in the art of government,” Pifer says in his president’s report, later adding, “We may call it the quasi nongovernmental organization.”

In an Aug. 24, 1987, letter to the New York Times, Pifer credited Anthony Barker, a British political scientist, with coining the acronym. He said Barker, a participant at Anglo-American conferences in 1969 and 1971 about such enterprises, “took my term ‘quasi nongovernmental organization,’ which all of us found cumbersome, and turned it into the acronym ‘quango.’ ”

In Quangos in Britain, a 1982 book that Barker edited, he writes, “This was around 1970, when I invented this near-acronym from an American term ‘quasi-non-governmental organisation.’ ” (From the appendix, “Quango: a word and a campaign.” Baker also mentions this in the preface.)

The OED says the “coinage of the acronym is frequently attributed to A. Barker of the University of Essex,” though its earliest written example for the usage is by another British political scientist, Christopher Hood.

In “The Rise and Rise of the British Quango,” a paper published in the Aug. 16, 1973, issue of the British weekly magazine New Society, Hood writes: “It was the Americans who first drew attention to the importance of what they have labelled the ‘grants economy,’ the ‘contract state’ and the ‘quasi-non-government organisation’ (Quango).”

The OED, an etymological dictionary based on historical evidence, describes “quango” as a chiefly British “acronym, originally [from] the initial letters of quasi non-governmental organization … but in later use also frequently reinterpreted as [from] the initial letters of either quasi-autonomous non-government(al) organization or quasi-autonomous national government(al) organization.” (We’ve underlined the OED’s italics to make them more readable.)

Oxford Dictionaries Online, a standard dictionary that focuses on contemporary usage, says “quango” is now a derogatory British noun for a “semipublic administrative body outside the civil service but receiving financial support from the government, which makes senior appointments to it.” Here’s one of its examples: “Their frustrations and ire were directed at a dithering Government and bungling quangos, not those who promote the sport in this country.”

Because of this negative view in the UK, some well-known organizations are defensive about the term. The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is often called a quango, has this to say in an FAQ about such semi-public bodies:

“There is nothing controversial about the concept of quangos—they have been around for a long time. Some of Britain’s best-known organisations are classified as quangos, including national galleries and museums, bodies such as the Forestry Commission and the British Council and, according to some groups, the BBC. The problem, according to politicians of all persuasions who are always threatening to axe them, is the sheer number and how much they cost to run.”

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[jackson38toh]

Launderers and laundresses

Q: Enjoyed your post about “stewardess” and other feminized words ending in “-ess.” But you didn’t discuss “laundress.” Is there a nongendered version?

A: Yes, there is a nongendered version of “laundress.” In fact, there are two of them, though they’re now obsolete or rare in the sense you’re asking about.

Before “laundress” came along in the 16th century, someone who washes clothes, male or female, was called a “launder” or a “launderer.”

The noun “launder,” first recorded in the 13th or 14th century but now obsolete, meant “a person (of either sex) who washes linen,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

The dictionary’s earliest example is from the story of St. Brice in The Early South-English Legendary, a chronicle of the lives of church figures:

“A woman þat his lander was” (“A woman that was his launder”). The Legendary was compiled sometime between the late 1200s and 1350.

A century or so later, the unisex noun appeared in Promptorium Parvulorum (circa 1440), an English-to-Latin dictionary: “Lawndere, lotor, lotrix.” (The Latin lotor and lotrix are masculine and feminine nouns for “washer.”)

A little later in the 15th century, “launderer” appeared, meaning “one who launders (linen),” according to the OED. The dictionary’s earliest citation is from Catholicon Anglicum, an English-Latin wordbook written around 1475: “Lawnderer, candidaria, lotrix.”

The term is rarely used in that sense today. Commercial laundries sometimes refer to themselves as “launderers,” but the word is usually used now for a person who launders money, not clothes.

As for someone who works in a laundry, he or she would likely be called a “laundry worker,” rather than a “launderer” or a “laundress.”

Interestingly, the gender-free noun “launder” originated as a contraction of “lavender,” which the OED defines as “a washerwoman, laundress.” Only rarely, the dictionary says, did “lavender” mean “a man who washes clothes, a washerman.”

As the dictionary says, this sense of “lavender,” which first appeared in writing about 1325, came from the Old French nouns for people who do washing—lavandier (masculine) and lavandiere (feminine)—though the ultimate source is the Latin verb lavāre (to wash).

We know what you’re thinking. But no, the obsolete “lavender” that means a washerwoman is probably not related to the other “lavender,” the plant that produces the fragrant pale-purple flowers.

The botanical word “lavender” (later also used for the scent and the color) came into English before 1300 from Anglo-Norman and Old French (lavandre), the OED says.

The original source was a medieval Latin word for the plant, first spelled livendula (or perhaps lividula), and later lavendula. As the OED explains, some etymologists think the ultimate source may be the classical Latin adjective lividus (bluish, livid).

If so, the two “lavenders” aren’t etymologically connected, though they later became associated because of the use of lavender perfumes, oils, and dried flowers in caring for linens.

Meanwhile, the “lavender” that meant a washerwoman existed alongside the neutral “launder” and “launderer” (anyone who does washing) until well into the 16th century, when “laundress”  arrived on the scene.

The OED defines “laundress” as “a woman whose occupation it is to wash and ‘get up’ linen,” and says it was derived from the neuter noun “launder” plus the “-ess” suffix.

The two earliest written uses of “laundress” were recorded in the same year, 1555. It was a time, as we wrote in our post about those other “-ess” words, when English writers were “very freely” inventing words ending in the feminine suffix.

Here are the two 1555 uses, cited in the OED:

“As the dier, blecher or the landres washeth … the foule, vnclenly and defyled clothes.” (From A Spyrytuall and Moost Precyouse Pearle, Miles Coverdale’s translation of a work by Otto Werdmueller.)

“He sent to lande certeyne of his men with the landresses of the shyppes.” (From The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India, Richard Eden’s translation of a work by Peter Martyr of Angleria.)

Shakespeare used the term in a comic scene in The Merry Wives of Windsor, believed to have been written in 1597 or earlier: “Carry them to the Landresse in Datchet mead.” (The reference is to a load of dirty clothes, beneath which Falstaff is concealed in a very large wash basket.)

After “laundress” became established, the similar use of “lavender” disappeared, perhaps because of the popularity of the botanical term. And the gender-neutral “launder” also vanished, probably because washing was almost always done by women or girls. Both words died out in the late 1500s.

It’s notable that the verb “launder” didn’t appear until after the nouns for the workers were established.

The OED defines the verb as “to wash and ‘get up’ (linen),” and says it was derived from the earlier noun “launder,” for a person who does washing.

The OED’s first citation is a figurative usage in Shakespeare’s narrative poem A Louers Complaint (published in 1609 and probably not written earlier than 1590): “Laundring the silken figures in the brine, / That seasoned woe had pelleted in teares.”

This was not long after the noun “laundry” appeared, for the place where the washing is done. Here’s the OED’s earliest example:

“Hyther [hither] also runnes the water from the Laundry to moist it the better.” (From Foure Bookes of Husbandry, Barnaby Googe’s 1577 translation of a Latin treatise on farming by Conrad Heresbach.)

But it wasn’t until the late 19th century that “laundry” was used as a collective term for the washables themselves. The OED’s first citation is from 1916, but we’ve found earlier examples in 1890s newspaper ads. We’ll cite a few:

“Who Does Your Laundry? We Should Like To,” from the Cambridge (Mass.) Chronicle, Jan. 7, 1893 … “Try the work and you will never again send laundry out of the city,” from the Daily Greencastle (Ind.) Banner and Times, Jan. 1, 1894 … “Bring Us Your Laundry,” from the Quill (La Harpe, Ill.), Jan. 4, 1895.

In the early 20th century, this sense of “laundry” became more common. And new words followed—“laundromat” (we’ve found examples from 1941), and “launderette” (1945).

As the OED explains, laundromat” originated as a proprietary name for a Westinghouse washing machine and later came to mean a coin-operated laundry.

We could go on, but we’re feeling a bit washed out.

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from Blog – Grammarphobia https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2018/12/laundress.html