Betsey Ellis

My Word! January 15

Knickknackatory or knick-knackatory Nick-nack-ato-ry Noun A repository or collection of knick-knacks. As Zelda started trying to dust her shelves, she realized her living room had become a knick-knackatory. Merriam Webster gives the word history as being a combination of knickknack and atory – which is pretty darned obvious.

My Word!

JoinderJoin-derNounThe joining of parties such as plaintiffs or defendants in a lawsuitDefense attorneys for the Lotto brothers filed for joinder of the separate cases asking the Court to try them together.Staring the New Year with something that does NOT come from Latin. This one comes from the French joinder, meaning to join and was first…

Welcome to Montana!

I know you are expecting me to say something about “Big Sky Country”, but that is just sort of what they settled on. It could have just as easily been “Big Bird Country”. For example, did you know that just north of Missoula there exists the largest nesting community of the common loon in the…

SHOW ME

Yes, our march through the M’s continues and its time to hit the Show Me state, Missouri. The State got the nickname in 1899 when US Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver (now there’s a name for you) said on the House floor, “For thy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You are…

MISSISSIPPI ON MY MIND

I don’t know about you, but when I think of exotic and interesting places in this wonderful country to visit, Mississippi is not on the top of the list.   But in doing my research for this article, I found that I probably suffer from a chronic problem that those that grew up in the general…