Word Perfect

Oh, I am so pleased to be sharing this with you!  Word Perfect– Etymological Entertainment Every Day, by Susie Dent has been my Sunday reading ever since daughter Joy gave it to me for Christmas in 2023.  It is a daily lexicon (do I mean “lexicon”?) of words each day for the whole year.  They are sourced from old and new dictionaries in the English-speaking world.  The author gives a clear explanation of the word, whose history is interesting, and sometimes startling.  Shall we incorporate some of these into our everyday speech?    

Aside from the 3000+ words for being drunk, and a pile more of political insults hurled at each other throughout the ages, here are my favourites:

Respair:  a relief from sadness

Scurryfunge: frantic tidying up the house before guests arrive

Firgun: joy in someone else’s success

Apricity: the warmth of the sun on a chilly day

Absquatulate: to leave in a hurry.

Mumpsimus: a 500-year-old word.  Someone who insists that they are right, despite clear and incontrovertible evidence that they are not. 

Zugzwang: a no-win situation

Clatterfart: a terrible gossip.

Vernalagnia: romantic feelings in the spring.

Firkytoodling:  Energetic flirting (Victorian).

Coulrophobia: fear of clowns

Snaccident: the inadvertent eating of a whole packet of biscuits when you meant to have just one.

Quafftide: time for a refreshing drink!

Hurkle Durkle: to lounge in bed long after it’s time to get up.

Pognophobe: Beard-fearer

Apanthropy: The desire to be away from people.

Petrichor: the smell of rain.

Cuddlemebuff: a word that describes a pint of the best in front of your own hearth, or at a friendly kiddlywink (a local alehouse, in 19^th century parlance.)

Huffle-Buffs: are the “old, shabby, but wonderfully homely clothes we tend to put on at the end of a very long week, and – with luck—not take off again until Monday morning.”  (p 54)  I love this word and am doing my best to introduce it to others.

Yule-hole: the belt hole you have to stretch to after Christmas indulgence.

Merryneum:  The lost days stretching between Christmas and New Year.

Joblijocks: A morning disturbance like an excited child jumping on your bed at 3 a.m. on Christmas morning. 

Confelicity: Dent feels that this word should never be lost from our vocabulary.  She says, “[on Christmas Day] before the crapulence sets in (‘the feeling of sickness resulting from excess in drinking or eating’) may there be confelicity a-plenty: the pleasure you take from the happiness of others.”

What are YOUR favourite words?  May the year be rich with confelicity, helping us to make this world a better place in 2025. 

Choux Pastry

Choux pastry!  I first came across this when the aforementioned daughter came home with a chicken gourgere she had made in Middle School.  If she could learn this as a ten-year-old, it couldn’t be that difficult to do, could it?  No. The description is long, but the action is zippy.  This, dear friends, is how easy it is to make light feathery-fluffed puffs of nothingness desperate to be filled with sweet or savoury alike.  The only trick is to make sure that you have all ingredients ready at your elbow.

Following the directions from Delia Smith’s Cookery course, preheat oven to 200 degrees C (400F, gas mark 6).

Put 5fl ozs ( ½ cup plus 1 tbs, 150ml) water in a pan with 2 ozs (2 tablespoons, 50g) butter.  Set aside.

Take a sheet of baking paper, fold it in the middle, open it up again and spoon or sift onto it 2 ½ ozs strong plain flour (½ cup, 60 grams), ready to shoot all at once into the water at the right time.  If you are making a sweet dessert, add a teaspoon of sugar.  If savoury, season well with salt and pepper.

In a separate bowl, beat 2 eggs well.

Prepare the baking sheet or roasting tin.  Hold it under cold running water, get rid of surplus, and lay a sheet of baking paper over the wet surface, saturating the paper.  (If you don’t have paper, grease your tin liberally, and bang off excess water).  This is to provide extra steam during the baking.

OK?  Ready to go?  Bring the water-butter mixture to a boil.  Then turn off the heat, shoot the flour into it with one hand as you beat vigorously with a wooden spoon in the other hand.  Beat until you have a smooth ball that has left the sides of the saucepan cleanly (takes about a minute). 

Now beat in the beaten eggs a bit at a time, until you have a smooth glossy mixture.  (Steps 5 and 6 usually take about 3 – 5 minutes.)

Spoon blobs of the mixture onto the roasting tin.  (If making a gougere, ensure that the blobs touch each other in a circle.)

Place in the oven.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Then increase the temperature to 220 degrees C (425F, Mark 7).  Bake a further 10 minutes or longer until lightly brown.  Turn off the oven.  Pierce each choux bun with a cocktail stick (toothpick) to release the steam.  At this point I place them back in the dying oven for a few minutes to dry out.  Then cool on a rack.

I keep the choux buns in a big plastic box in the fridge, removing several at a time, warming them in an oven (not microwave) and using them as if I just baked them. 

Uses:

Any fillings you wish.  Please share your ideas with us – I will put them in the COMMENTS section for others to think about. Suggestions:  

Hard boiled eggs: I’m going to try a white sauce with eggs, onions, celery, pimiento, green peas, an olive or two, and cheese.

Some kind of fish?????  Enjoy your own creativity!