W is for Whisky

W is for Whisky, from the Gaelic 'uisce beatha' (you can hear the word if you say it aloud) which means 'water of life'. My dad drank whisky with water for years when I was a child, his means of winding down after the working day. I would make it for him when I was a teenager, a finger width of whisky and a finger width of water. I am not sure he does so much any more. It seems to be one of those acquired tastes that has been 'having a bit of a moment in the last few years, but I can't stand the stuff myself.

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

V is for Vigilante

V is for Vigilante, from the Spanish for 'watchman', but in english it means a person or group of people who take the law into their own hands, enacting justice, often violent, against a perceived crime, sometimes responding to a threat to the status quo. 

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

Image 'Vigilante Days' by Anton Refregier

U is for Ukulele

U is for Ukulele, and is wonderfully from Hawaiian, a small guitar-like instrument (although not much like since it only has 4 strings). We have had several in our house over the years; I think Tish gave Monkey's to her boyfriend Jun since he is a music maker. They are surprisingly popular being quick to learn and easy to get a nice sound from.

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

I was going to share Pinball Wizard, then I saw this one instead:

T is for Tattoo

T is for Tattoo, the practice of making indelible art on skin, coming from the Samoan word meaning 'to strike', and not to be confused with a military tattoo, which is something else entirely. It is an art form that is used across the world with a wide variety of cultural significance; in Japan for example it is connected to the Yakuza and thus still very disreputable compared to its widespread acceptance elsewhere. Tish got her first tattoo at 17 (I think, done by a friend in secret), and now has quite a lot. This is her favourite she says.

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

S is for Schadenfreude

S is for Schadenfreude, which, let's be honest, is the best borrow word that we use in English. The word is, of course, from German and literally means 'harm joy', and defines the state of pleasure at someone else's pain, discomfort or humiliation. It's so interesting because it describes something that human beings experience almost involuntarily. You hear something on the news, some despicable person has got their comeuppance (and that's another of my favourite words) and you get a lovely little burst of schadenfreude. 

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

Images in the challenge from Wikimedia Commons.

R is for Robot

R is for Robot, surprisingly from the Czech, a word meaning 'a machine resembling a human being'. It was popularised by the playwright Karel Capek from his play R.U.R. in 1920. Certainly one of the most interesting discoveries while I was researching words for my A to Z.

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

Q is for Quid Pro Quo

Q is for Quid Pro Quo, which is a bit of a cheat since much of English comes from Latin but it's Q, which is always the tough day in the A to Z. But it is again an expression used in the original; it literally means 'something for something', translated now as the expression 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours'. 

Linking back to the A to Z Challenge.

(image Eric Pevernagie 'If you scratch my back'.)