Friday, December 24, 2010

joyful

the Northwest landscape
Joyful with imagination

. . . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is... 'putz.' PUTZ?!?!? On Christmas Eve? Really?? Putz??!!?

...Oh, I see. Putz, in the Pennsylvania German tradition, is an ornamental display representing the Nativity scene, traditionally placed under a Christmas tree. NOT to be confused with the noun/verb with the Yiddish etymology.

Or, as noted in the wiktionary entry, the Portuguese slang used to emphasize something that has gone wrong, as in "Putz, my battery is dead."

Gotta love the language. Happy holidays to all.

2 comments:

Sadami said...

Dear Susan,
Ohhh..., I always learn about language from your blog. One day, you'll get a PhD of pragmatics/semantics.
Wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Best wishes, Sadami

alkiart said...

ha ha!! wishing the same to you, Sadami!