Actually, two new list ideas, each of which I have generously started.
ADJECTIVES THAT ONLY EVER MODIFY ONE THING
tumescent
wine-dark (thanks and kudos, Jonathan Harnum)
sopping (thanks and kudos, Billy Frolick)
scudding
WORDS THAT ARE THEORETICALLY INDEPENDENT BUT ACTUALLY ONLY EVER USED WITH ONE SPECIFIC OTHER WORD
trove
throes
Please add–or subtract, if you can find exceptions. I’m actually too busy writing my new novel to come up with more than one apiece, but I think both lists have merit.
6 Comments
1. ADJ: wine-dark
Is “flaccid” so far off from “tumescent” in belonging to that first list? Hmmm…
No, because more then “one thing” can be flaccid. By the way, do you know that it’s pronounced “flak-sid” rather than “flassid”? Doesn’t that sound wrong?
What about “tow-colored”?
Good point, but don’t we typically say “towhead”?
Jincy – I love the name Jincy Willett – did you make it up? Fabulous. And I loved your book “The Writing Class”, which is the only one of yours I’ve read so far having just discovered it. If I lived in the US I would take one of your classes but I don’t, I’m an Aussie. I appreciate your use of words, it’s great. Of course, you Americans make up words and change the spelling -’pajamas’ – Ha! You mean ‘pyjamas’ – I could go on, but vive la difference and all that. I hate to have to admit that some Australians use the word “pant” to describe one pair of pants, so that blows that one. (They think it’s rather a posh thing to say.)
Anyway, you go girl; what a great mind! Best wishes Jane Grieve (tallish, short-real-life-story writer who will, apparently, never make big bucks WHAT A SHAME, DAMN DAMN DAMN. Oh well.)
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