Sunday, January 3, 2010

Word of the Day: Tortuous

Word of the Day from Dictionary.com: Tortuous

1.Marked by repeated turns and bends; as, "a tortuous road up the mountain."
2.Not straightforward; devious; as, "his tortuous reasoning."
3.Highly involved or intricate; as, "tortuous legal procedures."

I find it interesting how close "tortuous" is to torturous.

"Some speakers and writers use torturous for tortuous, especially in the senses “twisting, winding” and “convoluted”: a torturous road; torturous descriptions. Others, however, keep the two adjectives (and their corresponding adverbs) separate in all senses: a tortuous (twisting) road; tortuous (convoluted) descriptions; torturous (painful) treatments." - from Dictionary.com

So if I take the two words and use them in one sentence, I get something like: the walk up the tortuous road became torturous as it climbed steeply into the mountains.

I'm not usually a word of the day kind of person, but for some reason this struck me,in my lazy hour this Sunday afternoon.

I've been reading RayGunRevival.com stories, and just resting.

I "should" be getting some writing in, and I "should" be housecleaning but John is taking a nap, and I "should" be planning for a week of homeschooling, but I just haven't been feeling motivated.

I finally feel like writing, but I feel this need to move . . . or at least check in with my daughters, one of whom is reading, and the other who is . . . playing a video game???

So time to move . . . maybe clean quietly, plan a little, write a little, bake a few cupcakes and prep for my hubby's birthday dinner party?

Hmm. A slow start to the new year, in which my goals are: to clean out my closets and dust in the corners, to finish my book, to successfully home-school my daughters, to lose a bit of weight and regain muscle, and . . . to remember that I am free in Christ.

No comments: