sci fi or fantasy - Felicia Davin

Felicia Davin

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sci fi or fantasy

A collection of 12 posts

Book covers for Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, Sherry Thomas's Ravishing the Heiress, and Darcy Liao's Make Room for Love

sci fi or fantasy

Answerable

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

a sloped cobblestone alley with red brick buildings

Corcas

etymological mysteries and romance novels

an oil painting of a man wearing a cravat

On cravats

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

I do cock a snook, but not at thee

rude gestures, death, and romance novels

Big-eared rabbit-eared

Big-eared rabbit-eared

a small Australian marsupial, language names, and romance novels

contemporary romance

Fending for yourself

on the word "fend" and two excellent romance novels

fantasy romance

Apparitions

ANDROID, n. There are androids in one of this week’s small-r romances. This newsletter has covered “robot” and “construct” before, so I figured it was time to look up “android,” even though it’s pretty etymologically straightforward. Andro- as in “man,” -oid as in “having the form or nature

contemporary romance

Myschyvys

MISCHIEVOUS, adj. Now that I’ve put this word in the title of a novel that will be published on Tuesday, I have to come clean: I can’t ever type it right on the first try and I was pronouncing it wrong (sorry, as good descriptivists, we say “in

Snits

Hello, Word Suitcase readers! This newsletter normally arrives in your inbox on Sunday, which today is not. In theory it also comes every two weeks. I meant to send this last weekend, but our household was struck by back-to-back illnesses, the second of which was covid. We’re recovering, but

body or sex words

Legally obscene

This week’s Word Suitcase is sexually explicit. Or perhaps I should say “more sexually explicit than usual.” CUNT, n. It was inevitable that I’d write about this word eventually, I think. This time last year, I was writing about “pudendum” and “the obscenest picture the world possesses,” so

"the obscenest picture the world possesses"

"the obscenest picture the world possesses"

PUDENDUM, n. I recently finished reading Ross King’s The Judgment of Paris, a nonfiction book about Impressionism and French history, in particular the artists Édouard Manet and Henri Meissonier. I loved it, not just because there were several etymologies mentioned, most memorably the one in this long excerpt (page

Let's have a bouba

body or sex words

Let's have a bouba

BOOBS, n. This term for breasts shows up in print in US English for the first time in 1929, which means people were saying it before that. “Boobies” is older than just plain “boobs,” and it’s a variation on “bubbies,” which goes all the way back to the 1600s