contemporary romance

A collection of 39 posts

food words

Literal and figurative toasts

a toast to romance novels and one of my favorite spies

animal words

Butterfly ties

Butterflies and romance novels

contemporary romance

Chicanery

trickery, urban planning, and romance novels

French history

the devil's hot-bed

spies, romance, and hot beds

English literature

It would not be wonderful

Dickens, reading comprehension, and romance novels

expressions

Ratatam

nursery rhymes, a romance novel, some fantasy novels, and Graham Greene again

sci fi or fantasy

Answerable

on The Left Hand of Darkness, Ravishing the Heiress, and Make Room for Love

French literature

Crush and pash

the overpowering violence of infatuations, Renoir and Maupassant, and of course, romance novels

historical romance

Absolute skulduggery

sneaking around and romance novels

fashion

Kamarband

a little fashion history and some romance novels

US history

Corcas

etymological mysteries and romance novels

expressions

Behind closed doors

shacks, cabins, toilets, cahoots, and a real “one of these things is not like the others” set of book reviews

writing process

Calques and loanwords

calques, loanwords, and romance novels

fashion

On cravats

Croatia, must-have historical romance accessories, and romance novels

contemporary romance

Fish, cheese, war

various mongers, and, of course, romance novels

expressions

I do cock a snook, but not at thee

rude gestures, death, and romance novels

French history

And yet they were surprisingly moderate

The Black Jacobins, revolution, romance, and horror

animal words

Big-eared rabbit-eared

a small Australian marsupial, language names, and romance novels

contemporary romance

Shedding some light

TORCH, n., FLASHLIGHT, n. I recently had to look up, for novel research, when handheld battery-powered lights were invented (1899). Wikipedia revealed why US and Canadian English speakers call these things “flashlights” while the rest of the English-speaking world calls them “(electric) torches”: Early flashlights ran on zinc–carbon batteries,

contemporary romance

Ground down

CONTRITION, n. Did you know that this word used to mean “[t]he action of rubbing things together, or against each other; grinding, pounding or bruising (so as to comminute or pulverize)” (OED)? I did not. I was only familiar with the figurative meaning: “being bruised in heart; sorrow or

contemporary romance

Fending for yourself

on the word "fend" and two excellent romance novels

contemporary romance

Downfalls and inheritances

DEMISE, n. This word showed up in one of the romance novels below (A Caribbean Heiress in Paris) in the sentence “If the duke only knew that his sons had been plotting his demise for weeks […]” In context, the duke’s sons are not plotting his death, but his downfall;

Shakespeare

Comely truth

come (yes, like that) and, of course, romance novels

fantasy romance

Shall we sing a song?

SHALL, v. This word has been on my mind because my kid adopted it. A couple days ago, he asked for more strawberries and when I told him the box was empty, he said, “Shall we go to the store?” like the world’s most prescriptively correct almost-two-year-old. He says

English literature

Every beating heart a secret

SONDER, n. This is a new word (we could say “neologism,” sure), coined by the writer John Koenig in 2012 for his project The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. He invented it based on French “sonder” (to probe, to measure the depths of), and German “sonder-,” a prefix that indicates something