Generally, I like my day-job. I’m an Accessibility Proofreader, which means I spend my days playing spot-the-difference between documents for sighted people and the large print or braille versions for the visually impaired.
There are two main reasons I like my job. One: it satisfies my need to point out mistakes. Finding mistakes in the original document is even better. Two: I work with a team of other proofreaders, so my fascination with language and meanings, with details, isn’t unusual.
Recently, we’ve moved to a new office. One with whiteboards. We now have Words of the Week. It was supposed to be Word of the Day, but we ended up with quite a few on our first day, so we changed it.
Here are a few of my favourite new words and phrases:
A box of fluffies – this comes from my Kiwi manager, and it means something along the lines of being happy and cheerful, like a box of fluffy ducklings. Also, being glad you’re not a chicken.
Scurryfunge – this is that tidy you do when you spot a friend coming up the garden path.
Lunting – going for a walk to smoke a pipe.
Rumble-rump – this is the scientific term for the mating dance of the Peacock spider.
Clabbydoo – a Scots word for a large, dark mussel, usually the northern horse mussel.
No doubt I shall bring more fun words and phrases in the future.
For now, how many of these can you get into a conversation? OK, you might have trouble with the rumble-rump and the clabbydoo, but good luck!
Life Ever Crafting 