Lost in Translation: January

Because I finished with all the days of the week, now I’m going to start months and I wanted to do at least one during the same month it was in. Does that sentence make sense? I think my mind’s all drifty.

January showed up in English in the late thirteenth century as Ieneuer (I went over the whole I-J thing in my post on the letter J, but long story short: J used to sound like I or Y and only changed because an Italian started using it for the juh sound). Ieneurer comes from the Old North French Genever and Old French Jenvier sometime around the early twelfth century.

January’s birth was, unsurprisingly, from classical Latin, where it was Ianuarius mensis, the month of Janus. Janus is the Roman god of gates and doors (door is literally what ianua means) as well as beginnings and endings. That might seem appropriate for the new year, but since the original Roman calendar started in March and only had ten months, not including January, I think it’s just a coincidence. The month January was added by the Roman king Numa Pompilius, who ruled sometime around 700 BCE. It’s interesting to note that he also established a temple dedicated to Janus, so he seems to have had some affinity for the god.

Believe it or not, English had another name for the first month: geola se aefterra. That aefterra looks like after for a reason. The literal translation of the phrase is later (or after) Yule and it seems to have been interchangeable with January. As always when it comes to different versions of words, one is preferred and the other lost to history.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Dictionary.com

Google Translate

Orbis Latinus

Oxford Dictionaries

Encyclopedia Mythica

YashaNet Library

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Historiae Romanorum by Doug Hutchison at The University of Dallas, Dallas Area Network for Teaching and Education

InDepthInfo

English-Gothic Dictionary

…Done?

Could it be? COLLAPSE has been outlined, edited for repetition/unnecessary words, read aloud and read by beta readers. I have got two different versions of a query, a synopsis, and I’ve edited them all twice. This is as good as it’s going to get. I think.

I always get nervous when I finish a book, because I know there is nothing left to do but query, and that makes me want to curl into a ball and rock back and forth murmuring nonsense. I believe in my book. I think it’s good. But as to whether it’s good enough…

Let’s just say self-confidence isn’t my strong suit.

I’ve submitted other books and, sadly, all have been rejected. But I felt equally as proud of them and believed in each one just as much as the last. I’d like to say this one is better because I worked a lot harder on editing, but…well, it’s that self-confidence thing again. What do I do if no one likes it? Do I write something else or keep editing? Is it my writing style or my story or my characters or the query or my everything?

Yes, I work myself up into a nice little panic. It never stops me from trying, though.

I better go edit my query again.

Do any of you have any good query stories and/or advice for querying? Want to beta read a query for me? What about you self-pub people? Any thoughts on going the Indie route?

Twitter Spam

You all know I’m a connoisseur of spam (and a little off topic, why is connoisseur so freaking hard to spell??). It’s insane, badly translated, nonsensical garbage and I can’t resist it. But did you know that Twitter has its own special brand of spam-sanity that’s as rich and tasty as what you delete from your blog comments on a weekly basis? Just look at some of the gems that have followed me:

Bio: “Successful Internet Marketer.”

Reality: Has fewer followers than me. Hasn’t tweeted in a month.

Bio: “Hello I am a network marketing coach who trains others on how to build there own blogging site and market themselves as an expert in there niche.”

Reality: Their. The word is their.

Bio: “Health education,weight loss,detox,detoxing,colonhealth,acai berry colon cleanse,detoxcolon,detox weight loss,detoxify colon”.

Reality: Stay away from my colon.

Bio: “I only one week join with twitter, but we have thousands twitter followers now , need know my secret?, visit :”

Reality: At best, you’re paying thirty bucks for hundreds of spambots. At worst, you’ll end up evicted from your house and unable to get a credit card because your identity has been stolen.

Bio: “Hot tramp you love so”.

Reality: Wrong on so many levels.

Bio: “You dreamed I was a very clean tramp.”

Reality: Eep.

Bio: “Today i join to twitter, but we have thousands twitter followers now , need know my secret?,”

Reality: Clearly it isn’t proper grammar.

As with all spam, it makes me wonder how people can actually fall for it. Which they do, otherwise there wouldn’t be so much of it.

Language of Confusion: Spect-tator

First etymology post of the year! Whoo! And it’s going to be a long one!

This time, I decided to look spectacle and all related words (there are a lot!). It showed up in the mid fourteenth century meaning a specially prepared display. It comes from the Old French spectacle and classical Latin spectaculum, both with roughly the same meaning we know it as. Words with -spect in them generally have something to do with watching because the suffix, like spectaculum, comes from the Latin spectare/specere, to look or watch. It can be traced even further back to the Proto Indo European spek, to observe.

Now for the suffixed words…

Inspect

Showed up in the early seventeenth century (making it one of the later ones) from the classical Latin inspectus/inspicere, to look into. The prefix in- means into, and with specere meaning look, it’s kind of easy to see how the word works.

Aspect

Showed up in the late fourteenth century as an astrological term, believe it or not, referring to the positions of the other planets as they look from Earth. It comes from the classical Latin aspectus/aspicere, to look at. The a- prefix is the at part, of course.

Respect

This one might seem a little weird since respect doesn’t really require looking. At least, not these days, as originally it meant regard or a relationship. It showed up as a noun in the late fourteenth century and a verb in the mid sixteenth century. The noun is from the Old French respect and classical Latin respectus/respicere, which means to look back at (makes sense since the re- prefix means back or again), but unlike the noun, the verb respect comes from Middle French. The word there is respecter, to look back, and it comes from the Latin respectere, another word that comes from respicere. The only difference is that respectere is what’s known as a frequentative, which is a special verb that indicates an action is ongoing or repetitive. Why they needed a different form of the verb to make a word that was basically the same, I have no idea.

Expect

It may not have an s, but it is a -spect word. Expect showed up in the mid sixteenth century meaning, get this, to wait to act. It came from the classical Latin expectare/exspectare (the s does seem redundant after the x), which meant to wait or look out for. The ex- prefix normally means out or from, but in this case it means completely, which is a legitimate meaning, I swear. I guess the idea of completely looking for something can mean that you’re waiting for it to show up. Maybe.

Suspect

First showed up as an adjective in the early fourteenth century, a verb in the mid fifteenth century, and a noun in the late sixteenth century. It comes from the Old French suspect (shocker) and classical Latin suspectus/suspicere. Suspectus has a similar meaning to what we know it as, but the word it comes from, suspicere, means to look up, both in the literal and figurative (“to look up to” someone) meanings of the word. Now, that definition makes sense since the su- comes from sub-, which means beneath, and if you’re looking up at someone, you’re beneath them. But as for the mistrust/suspicion definition, apparently the only reason for that is because it somehow implies to secretly look at because you don’t trust them. Seriously, that’s the reasoning.

Retrospect

First showed up in the early seventeenth century as a regard or reference to something. It came from the classical Latin retrospectum/retrospicere, to look back. It’s a combination of -spect (look) and retro- (back), which itself is a combination of re- and intro-. And that’s your cool bit of knowledge for the day.

Introspect

Showed up in the late seventeenth century (introspection actually came a century earlier) from the classical Latin introspectus/introspicere, to look into. Spect- is look, as you should know by now, and intro is inside. Not a big stretch here.

Prospect

Showed up in the early fifteenth century meaning looking off into the distance, I’m not even kidding. It comes from the classical Latin prosepectus/prospicere, where it means to look far away or to look forward. Pro- brings the forward and the spect- brings the look, making a word that was once literal and now is just figurative.

TL;DR: -Spect words were once literal. Not so much these days.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Dictionary.com

Google Translate

Orbis Latinus

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

January Goals

Man…my vacation is over. Now I have to get back to doing stuff. This sucks. All right, let’s check in on my goals.

1. Finish the rough draft of my previously mentioned paranormal apocalyptic story.

            Not completely, but it’s very close, with a few scenes still needing to be written in various places. Since there’s maybe six thousand words left, I’d call this a win.

2. Think about ways to make my blog more fun for my readers. I’m not good when it comes to things like this, so it will take some work.

            Nope, total fail. I’m terrible at thinking up fun things for my blog! Or, if I’m being honest, in general. Do not come to me for party ideas, is what I’m saying.

3. Screw it, it’s December, I’m taking the last week off. Yes, this is totally a goal. Even though I just took a week off in November. Ah, screw it.

            Heh, well, this was definitely completed.

Not bad. I did the major writing I wanted to and now my YA Paranormal/Apocalyptic has a beginning, middle and end. REMEMBER is going to take a rest this month while I go back to COLLAPSE.

January Goals

1. Write a query, one sentence pitch, plot summary, and synopsis for COLLAPSE. (Just thinking about it sets my anxiety levels spiking!)

2. Work on some of my ongoing projects (pretty much everything except REMEMBER).

3. Find a way to post my goals and progress on my blog.

So that’s what I’m up to this month. What about you guys? What do you do to make sure you’re on track?

Happy New Year! Hugs!

Resolutions 2014

I think this year, when I forget to write 2014 instead of 2013, it’s going to be because I’m still in denial about it.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Anyway, what should I accomplish this year?

1. Get my newest book, REMEMBER, to the point where it can be beta read.

            It’s still pretty rough right now (the first draft still isn’t done), so it will take a lot of work to get it there.

2. Start working on a (gulp) query for COLLAPSE.

            I have a few rough copies, but I doubt any would entice readers. Ooh, this is the most terrifying goal.

3. Try to find some way to post my progress on my goals, both yearly and monthly.

            I’d like to see how I’m doing and whether I need to work harder.

4. Read more dystopian/apocalyptic/paranormal YA.

            For, you know, research. This is probably going to be an easy goal.

5. Think of ways to make my blog posts more interesting.

            And implement them. That last “Informal Poll” thing was a huge bust. I have some other ideas in mind, but who knows if they’ll be successful.

6. Try to start a movement to simplify the English language.

            Seriously, is the letter C really necessary? And don’t say we need it for the “ch” sound. We can use Q for that and not for “kw”, which is weird anyway. Every other use of C can be replaced with K or S. I’m also not a fan of using G for the “juh” sound, but one thing at a time.

7. Get over my doubts about selling an apocalyptic story in a glutted YA market and just DO IT.

            I feel like this one is self-explanatory.

Well, it’s 2014. What are your goals?

2014

It's 2014. I think my feelings can be summed up by the following stick figure comic:

Back to real posts on Saturday.

Happy New Year and good luck in 2014.