“Roundup 4” or “A Work Week of Saturdays”

Busy as my giveaway for the launch week of “The Swan Prince (Book One of The Wilderhark Tales” kept me, it’s not to blame for the absence of Save-a-Word Saturday vignettes around here lately. Nay, that honor goes to the lord and keeper of my summer weekends, the Bristol Renaissance Faire (which opens tomorrow! Drop on by, if you’re able!).

What’s that? It’s been so long that some of you have forgotten how Save-a-Word Saturday works? Allow me to recap:

1) Create a post linking back to the hosts, The Feather and the Rose.

2) Pick an old word you want to save from extinction to feature in the post. (If you find yourself in want of options, Feather ‘n’ Rose recommended a site that may have some word-lovers drooling. Luciferous Logolepsy. Even its name is old and delicious!)

3) Provide a definition of your word, and use it in a sentence/short paragraph/mini story vaguely related to the particular week’s chosen theme.

4) Sign up properly on the host post’s linky list so participants can easily find each other and share their logophilistic joy.

5) Be a hero by sharing these retro words with the world!

Since it’s quicker than blogging it, I’ve been participating in the weekly fun via my “Ballad of Allyn-a-Dale” Facebook page, giving myself the extra challenge/fun of relating every word I pick to my re-imagining of the Robin Hood legend (a.k.a. the magnum opus to be self-published after the completion of “The Wilderhark Tales”). For those who haven’t kept up to date on the “Ballad” page, here’s all the word-saving fun you’ve been missing since June!

* * *

June 1/13 – The theme: Tea – The word: “Autological”, an adjective meaning, “self-descriptive, or being a word that exemplifies what it means (e.g. “English” is English, “polysyllabic” is polysyllabic)”.

The Example:

“I say, Robin,” Will Scarlet said of a sudden, scarcely before he’d finished his swallow from a mug of Avalon ale. “You know what’s weird? Here we are, Englishmen so English we’re a part of its cultural heritage – people visiting our statues and supposed gravesites and all – and yet we never drink tea!”

Over the top of his own tankard, Robin’s brows quirked in question at his cousin. “And that’s weird because…?”

“Because we’re English!” Will repeated. “English people means tea – it’s practically autological!”

“Not actually, Will.”

“But practically. You and I are a disgrace to our country, do you know that?”

Robin rolled eyes sparkling with amusement. “Well, you’re welcome to pour yourself a cuppa if you want. Shall I protect what’s left of your honor by disposing of your ale?”

“Now, now,” said Will, drawing his mug protectively nearer to himself. “I never said I minded being a disgrace. All part of being an outlaw, eh wot?”

“That’s the English spirit,” said Robin, raising his tankard in laughing salute.

* * *

June 8/13 – The theme: Hourglasses – The word: “Cumber”, a noun meaning “a hindrance or burden”. (Fun bonus: This was a “word of the day” at the Bristol Renaissance Faire, last year!)

The Example:

If there was one thing Gant-o’-the-Lute missed from before his professional minstrel days, it was the freedom to ignore time completely. With no responsibilities worth caring about, he could live at his leisure, without the cumber of matching his rhythm to the trickle of sand in hourglasses or ticks of mechanical clocks. Even still, though mindful of time he must now by necessity be, he was no slave to it. His only mistress was music.

* * *

June 15/13 – The theme: Travel – The word: “Amain”, an adverb meaning “with full force; at full speed; hastily; at once”. (Likewise a BRF word of the day!)

The Example:

Will Scarlet looked with longing as the herd of patrons poured out the main gates, their day of Faire-going fun at an end. He’d be dashing out with them amain, if he thought he could get away with it, Avalon at his back and the whole Outside world before him to roam as he pleased.

“Do you miss it?” he asked Allyn, beside him. “Being a traveling minstrel, instead of a minstrel stuck in the same place all the time?”

Allyn shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t feel stuck.”

Will crooked a wistful smile. It was nice one of them didn’t.

* * *

June 22/13 – The theme: Porch Swings – The word: “Truck”, a noun meaning “dealings”. (Another BRF word of the day!)

The Example: “All right, think,” Will Scarlet mutters. “We managed to get around that ‘scorpions’ theme, even though we’ve no truck with those. Surely we can do the same with porch swings, never mind Avalon’s utter lack of porches and swings…”

“We could always rig a bench up to a tree limb with rope,” Allyn suggests. “That would be rather like a porch swing, would it not?”

“Well, of course we could, but what would be the point?”

Allyn blinks at him. “There isn’t one. But what with your generally nonexistent truck with forethought, I didn’t think you’d care.”

“Fair enough. I’ll grab a bench, you find a rope, and somebody make some lemonade, ‘cause we’re about to do these lazy summer evenings old school, yo!”

“Yo,” Allyn agrees.

* * *

June 29/13 – The theme: Scarf-a-Scone Saturday! – The word: “Convive”, a verb meaning “to feast together”. (Also a BRF word of the day!)

The Example: “Scarf-a-Scone Saturday?!” Will’s eyes fly wide open. “That’s a thing?!”

“So it would seem,” says Allyn.

Will punches the air. “Oo-de-lally! Scones for everybody! Merry Men, assemble, and let us convive!”

The band stares at him.

“‘Oo-de-lally’?” Little John repeats. “This is Avalon’s Sherwood, not Disney’s.”

“And yet am I a hot fox,” Robin Hood notes.

“And I a classy vixen,” says a grinning Marion.

“And I a narrating rooster, apparently,” Allyn grumbles, taking a bite of blueberry goodness with butter and jam.

“And I—” Will stops short, appalled. “Son of a scone, there’s no Will Scarlet in the movie at all! What in the world were they thinking of?! We should write a letter of complaint!”

“Or eat,” says Little John, stuffing a scone into Will’s mouth.

Will’s muffled reply agrees, “Or that.”