Reading the dictionary front to back! Something I’ve always wanted to try. Now we’re on the letter F. You might say… F this dictionary!
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The first proper word under F is fab, short for “fabulous,” followed by Fabian. This is not the novelty celebrity from the ‘50s, but “relating to, or being a society of socialists organized in England in 1884 to spread socialist principles gradually.” I scrolled though a lot of pages on Google, and only found people named Fabian, not this.
Back in my journalism days, I once had an editor tell me that factoid is not a real word. But here it is in the dictionary, “an invented fact believed to be true because of its appearance in print,” or “a brief, usually trivial fact.” It’s that second definition that I wanted to use.
There are multiple definitions for familiar, variations on “closely acquainted.” But then things get magical with “a spirit held to attend and serve or guard a person.” I guess this explains when a witch’s cat is just a pet or if it’s a familiar. That familiar is no cat.
Time to chew the fat. This science-y definition is, “any of various energy rich esters that occur naturally to animal fats and in plants that are soluble in organic solvents (as ether) but not in water.” If you say so. We also get an entry for Fat Tuesday, defined as just, “Mardi Gras.”
More magic or magic-seeming talk with fate, “what has been spoken,” and “the cause or will that is held to determine events.” Does that accurately describe it? Then the magic is explicit with “the three goddesses of classical mythology who determine the course of human life.”
A femme fatale is not just “a seductive woman” but also “a disastrous woman.” Is that disastrous to others or to herself? Or both?
The dictionary continues to love animals with fer-de-lance, “a large and venomous pit viper of Central and South America.” What did this snake do to warrant such a fancy-sounding name?
Fiction is “something (as a story) invented by the imagination.” Note that it’s not invented by a person, but by some other unknowable entity that is the imagination. Cool.
A filbert is “the sweet black-shelled nut of either of two European hazels.” No relation to Dilbert, then. This is followed by filch, which is “to steal furtively.” Can you furtively filch some filberts?
Again we ask how to define the undefinable. Fine art is “art (as painting, sculpture, or music) concerned especially with the creation of beautiful objects,” Does that cover it, or is this too simplified?
Fire is “the light and heat and especially the flame of something burning.” Using the word flame to describe fire feels like cheating to me.
Go fish, “any of cold-blooded water-breathing vertebrates with fins, gills, and usually scales, that include the bony fishes and usually the cartilaginous and jawless fishes.” Of course this also means to catch fish, and short for fish as food.
Here are some new ones. A flageolet is “a small woodwind instrument belonging to the flute class,” and flagitious is “grossly wicked, villainous.” Now imagine someone who is flagitious playing the flageolet.
A flapper is “a young woman of the 1920s who showed freedom from conventions (as in conduct).” No word about their specific fashion. The second definition is just, “one that flaps.”
Next: Go forth!
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