Tag: books

Live Novel Friday…

Wiwohka10 Comments

***So, here’s how this works. I want to try for a graphic novel style, but with a twist. Each week, I’ll release a new episode accompanied by several questions for you to answer. These answers will determine the next weeks episode. Some weeks I may give you two alternative outcomes, while at other times, there will be questions that will direct the path of each character involved in the story. Sounds easy, right? I’ll do all the heavy lifting. Each episode will be flagged, so if you come in to the story midway, all you need do is scroll back on the feed to catch up. Let’s do this!***

The Wharf…

Episode I –

Life here can be very tough, for any soul not already hardened by life’s cruel realities!

The taverns and store fronts along the wharf are owned by varying disreputable men and women, both of which would sell you to the sea for the right amount of coin.

If one wants to eat, they must live and work in the midst of pirates, slave traders, treasure seekers, and drunkards. There was no room for anyone with weakness, nor naivety, of any kind. Letting your guard slip, even for a moment, might very well bring about your doom…

Within the Wharf lay a tavern, filled with all manner of vile men, most living and working on the filthy trade ships, arriving here daily. Few of the locals in the nearby farming communities ever come to the Wharf, let alone frequent such a dangerous establishment.

If you were a woman, either you came into the tavern to work, or you were dangerous enough to hold your own in a fight.

The Wharf was no place for kind folk, nor was the tavern safe for anyone carrying a coin purse without a gun or a dagger for company.

Inside the tavern you see a young barmaid, busily sweeping the floor near the doorway. She belongs to the owner of the tavern, purchased off one of the slave ships some years prior, when she was rather young.  

She is quiet, very obedient to the one who feeds her, and always works busily, both in and around the tavern. No one bothers her, nor do they pay her any mind at all! Everyone here knows that she is not to be touched, as the owner of the tavern would kill you for even considering it!

Don’t let her meekness fool you, as she is not what she seems. If you did look into her eyes, you would see danger floating within those dark pools of green, staring right back at you! In her short life, she has seen too much, felt too much and lost too much!

This has molded her into a very hardened and wise soul, for one so young. She is also very smart, both in book knowledge and being street savvy. Her three rules for survival are,

Don’t make the tavern owner mad…

Stay out of folk’s business…

Do not bring attention to yourself…

These three rules were born of painful lessons learned over the years of service to the owner of the tavern… most assuredly, the only reason she was still breathing air, even if it did smell of stale rum and dirty pirates!

*****************************************************************************

Question #1 – Our heroin needs a name. I’ve already a name in mind, but this is for you to choose, not me… not this time. What shall we call our young lass?

Question #2 – What should we call the tavern?

Question #3 – Will the tavern owner be a burly old one-eyed ogre, or should he have a hidden softer side to him?

I went easy on you this week, since this is a whole new thing, and all. Each episode will have harder questions, but you’ll know more about the story as time goes on. My hope is that you’ll become invested in this tale, which will only gain strength with each weeks answers. This should allow the story to expand and gain traction, as time goes on. Who knows where this will lead.

til next Friday…

Hugs

Hang on! I’m on the homophone…

Wiwohka2 Comments

Guess what I get to do this morning?

While Wiwohka has to go to one of her appointments, she’s given me my first actual job to complete in her absence. I’m doin WordPress this morning… ALL by myself!

The Daily Prompt wasn’t so bad, since I was able to pull from the archives, but I discovered something in the process of digging up an old answer. Wiwohka wrote something odd in her answer that sent me searching for some wordsy explanations. This ant has questions!

Did you notice the part where she used whether and weather in the same sentence?

While Wiwohka made it seem funny when she wrote it down, I didn’t get the joke. What was so funny about how she wrote that sentence? I needed some answers, because I have begun seeing this strange phenomenon quite often, while reading. What gives?

There are a great many words in the English language that have gathered a nefarious shadow word, which follows the regular word around but isn’t the same, at all! I find this very unfair to us young readers, wouldn’t you agree?

Out of necessity, and a good deal of curiosity, I posed my question to Mr. McGoogle…

“What are words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings?”

The response was a rather wordy one… Literally!

AI Overview

Words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings are called

homophones (or heterographs). Common examples include to/too/two, there/their/they’re, pair/pear, see/sea, and hour/our. These words sound identical in speech but have distinct meanings, which can create confusion in writing. 

Here are common homophones categorized for clarity:

Commonly Confused Homophones

  • There (place), Their (possession), They’re (contraction of “they are”).
  • To (preposition), Too (also/excessively), Two (number).
  • Your (possession), You’re (contraction of “you are”).
  • Its (possession), It’s (contraction of “it is”).
  • Whose (possession), Who’s (contraction of “who is”). 

Everyday Object/Action Homophones

Action/Concept Homophones

I don’t really have any problem understanding the difference in the words that are similar in sound but not in spelling. These, I can easily understand to be different from each other by their unique spellings. But what about the words that remain almost identical in spelling, but only one or two letters change? Why did they have to make things so difficult?

It’s a good thing that our brains are capable of detecting even the most minute differences in how a word is pronounced, or spelled, for that matter!

Before you start thinking that I was done… I’m not, just so you know.

They didn’t stop at Homophones, no no. They went a step further into the art of confusion by adding another additional type/category for these words. Yes indeed, they did!

Mr. McGoogle calls them Homographs and Homonyms. Oh yay! Really?!

Check out these little rabbit holes in the English language…

Homographs: Spelled the same, but different meanings/sounds (e.g., bark of a tree vs. bark of a dog).

Homonyms: Words that are both homophones and homographs (e.g., *bat

These are dark days in the kingdom of words, my friends. Dark days, indeed…

Live Novel Friday returns…

Wiwohka3 Comments

I know it’s been three years since you last saw an episode of Live Novel Friday, but I think it’s time to bring it back… but with a but of a fun twist!

We tried The Tuesday Tattler, but it didn’t really go anywhere. That’s not to say that I won’t return to it (or maybe it’s already in the works), but I’ve other irons in the fire at the moment.

Namely, the publishing of my book. I’m going for it! As soon as I find the resources for its release, it’s boxed up, sealed and ready to go. With volume I being released, that means I’ve no excuse but to move on with staging volume II. The story move forward.

With that project, and several others I’m trying to get finished, AND the added responsibility of my grandbaby, here in another month… my time is limited. Because of this, I’ve opted for a really fun adventure that I think you’ll enjoy. I actually started it back in 2024, I think, but it didn’t really go anywhere. That’s not to say that it wasn’t good, nor was it your lack of reading. It just didn’t feel ready, if that makes any sense.

It feels ready now!

Here’s how it works. I release a fresh chapter, and then you guess the answers at the end. Those answers will determine the direction of the following chapter. See how that works? You are going to be able to choose how the story progresses.

I don’t know if you recall when I wrote this first episode, but it was called The Wharf. It’s going to be written as if you are right in the midst of the story. That’s why you’ll notice how it stays narrated but you feel as if you are walking alongside the character into the scene. If we can do this, I intend to dedicate the book to all of you.

So, next Friday, you should have your preferred breakfast drink in hand, a soft comfortable blanket, and your thinking caps on. Meet me here next Friday at 9 a.m., Pacific Standard Time, for some all new live Novel Friday…

The Wharf!

See you next Friday… hugs

Monday Messages…

Wiwohka12 Comments

I’m going to attempt writing today’s word adventures, amidst the chaos of construction! Maintenance has finally arrived to repair all that water damage from our apartment building fire. Others experienced far worse than our place, so we didn’t mind waiting our turn. Anyhow, it might get a bit noisy and distracting, but I aim to stick to schedule with my Monday Messages… these are like my wee journalist resume’s!

One day somebody will spy my little column, and then I’ll have to get a WordPress site for myself. I wouldn’t want to confuse them with Wiwohka’s stuff… and, it might hurt her feelings if I become a star before she sells her books.

Just in case I get a call up, I best get back to studying. I’ve been on the case of the nefarious literary criminal mastermind, better known as “Rules of the English language”!

Today’s episode deals with dastardly duplicitous duplication… a.k.a., polysemous words. You might have thought that what I wrote made no sense at all, or is it sensus? Like how I did that? I’m leading you toward our target literary conundrum… how do we know which meaning goes with the word we’re trying to use? There’s even a name for this lovely little wordage merry-go-round.

What is this name, you should hopefully be asking yourselves?

According to Mr. McGoogle,

Multiple meaning words, are also known as polysemous words, homonyms, or heteronyms, and they’re words that have more than one definition or meaning.

I hate it when they do that!

Polysemous refers to a word, phrase, or term possessing multiple related meanings, derived from the Greek polysemos (“of many senses”). Common examples include “bank” (financial institution vs. river side) and “run” (flow vs. operate). Polysemy differs from homonymy, as polysemous meanings are conceptually connected, whereas homonyms are unrelated.

I chose not to pull up all the different words that have multiple uses, as I think you could probably do that yourselves. Instead, I thought to simply ask the question we all want answered… Why? Why did they opt for this pattern in our language structure? There must have been a reason, right?!

AI Overview

Polysemy—the phenomenon where a single word has multiple, related meanings (e.g., “bank” as a financial institution vs. a river edge)—is not a “rule” that was made up, but rather a natural, organic development in human language.

It exists for reasons of communicative efficiency, cognitive economy, and historical evolution rather than by deliberate design. 

Here is why polysemy exists:

  • Linguistic Economy and Efficiency: It is more efficient for a language to reuse a familiar word for a new concept than to create a completely new word from scratch. This allows for a compact, flexible vocabulary.
  • Cognitive Association (Metaphor and Metonymy): New meanings are often developed through mental connections. For example, “paper” meant a physical material, and was extended to mean “a newspaper” or “a scientific paper” based on its substance. This allows speakers to express complex ideas using existing, understood terms.
  • Semantic Drift Over Time: Words change and add meanings over centuries. A word might begin with one meaning and, through use in different contexts, diverge into new meanings while still retaining its original one.
  • Contextual Clarity: Polysemy is not usually a hindrance because the correct meaning is typically clear from the surrounding context (“I’m going to the bank to sit on the riverbank”).
  • “Run” Example: As a case study, the word “run” has developed hundreds of meanings over time (e.g., to run a race, to run a company, a run in a stocking) by shifting from a literal action to metaphorical applications of “moving,” “managing,” or “functioning”. 

In summary, polysemy developed to make language more adaptable and efficient, enabling humans to manage a large number of concepts with a limited set of sounds or symbols.

Well, the answer was so thorough, I decided that I simply can’t argue with it. Isn’t that a hoot! Me… Lilly the literary navigator has learned some really important stuff today. How bout you?

Snacks for tough questions shall be arriving, henceforth…

Photo by Jhoondias on Pexels.com

This is for you. If I ate that, it’d murder me, lol. I must therefore, live vicariously through those I love. Bon Appetit!

Tuesday Tinkering…

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Well, I think last weeks tinkering session was a total success!

Not that I’ll be winning any academy awards, or anything. I just mean that I challenged myself to do a thing (creating a new character on Tuesday, and then writing a story about it by Friday), and it worked out.

So, it got me to thinking (I know, dangerous pastime)… what if I sought to write a whole series of children’s character books, only employing my tinkering sessions and a two day rest before kicking out a little story, song, or poem to accompany the images. I don’t see why I couldn’t, what with todays insta book mentality flooding across the web.

While I get my jabs in at all the ai created mumbo jumbo being printed out there, currently, I’m not being snarky when I say that I believe it’s possible to actually write imaginative content without my computer telling me how… or worse, doing the writing for me. Not on my watch!

Anyway, getting back to the tinkering plans I’ve set for us, I plan on making a habit of mixing up writing styles, as well as, continuing to expand my illustration skills. My hands on learning is all that can be afforded, at this present moment, so if I wish to become a better writer, more brain stretching work is involved.

I know your probably saying, “Great, now she’s gonna start wearing even bigger hats on her noggin.” Maybe I will, maybe I won’t, but if I do then that means my cookies will need to be bigger, as well.

Go big or go home, right?!

For today’s next challenge, I went with another water baby, but on an entirely different patch of sand…

This isn’t the finished character, by the way, but it was the first image offered by the ai. All I typed in was “a photorealistic image of an adorable baby walrus”.

While the little guy seems awful cute and chubby, we’re nowhere near satisfied. He’s got no nostrils, for one thing. So, I used the auto-enhance on the prompt…

“a photorealistic image of an adorable baby walrus, trying to learn to swim along the shore of a beautiful sandy beach”

Getting a better shot of his nose, but now his eyebrows look like they were individually stuck into his little forehead. It made him look too much like a plushie toy.

Again, I returned to the auto-enhance feature, asking it to expand the prompt even more…

“Imagine a photorealistic scene at a picturesque sandy beach where gentle waves lap against the shore. The sun casts a warm, golden glow across the landscape, illuminating the fine grains of sand and sparkling blue waters. In the foreground, an adorable baby walrus, with soft, wrinkled gray skin and big, curious eyes, awkwardly paddles in the shallow surf. Its flippers splash playfully, sending droplets gleaming in the sunlight, while a few sea gulls circle overhead, drawn by the joyous scene. The sandy beach is dotted with tufts of sea grass swaying in the light breeze, enhancing the serene atmosphere of this tender moment.”

At least he has more expression with his eyes, even if he lost his eyebrows. His facial expression seems far more realistic, though his fat rolls look rather like sweatshirt material than skin. I kept at it for nearly a half hour before, coming up with numerous images that were similar to this one, but with differing poses and expressions.

Now that we’ve come this far, let’s give the ai our best 10 images. From there, we’ll generate some possibilities for a solid Avatar.

I’ll be right back! Give me about 10 minutes, or so….

Everyone, meet our newest character…

I’ve decided to name him Booker, though I’ve ne earthly idea why! The ai decided to give him tusks, even with him only being a baby, but I think it makes him super cute.

Norbert gave me several differing shots, but I think he looks most realistic in this one…

… minus the grown up tusks, mind you.

I don’t think Booker took nearly as long to create, as it took me last week, during pumpkin’s creation.

Now that he’s here, I’ve only til Friday to create his story, so I best get moving!

See you Friday… hugs

Tuesday Tinkering…

Wiwohka6 Comments

Perhaps you’ve asked yourselves how I get from an idea, all the way to producing an actual story, here on WordPress. Well, I doubt you were actually wondering that exact thought, but for all intents and purposes, I’m going to act as if you asked. Humor me, if you would.

We will just call today’s tinkering, a tutorial on how to create a brand new story character from scratch. Did you know that I usually develop the character, or Avatar, if you will, before I even create the story that goes with them? While there are some stories that are born in my imagination first, most of the children’s stories are born upon the visual produced for the main character… that first few, rough around the edge images that are produced by Norbert, the OpenArt ai assistant.

So, today I want to create a brand new character, build up a supply of appropriate images, and then on Friday, I’ll hopefully have a cute little story to post. I’m by no means expecting you to anticipate an academy award winning performance, or anything.

I suppose that one could say, it’s an exercise in story development. Hopefully, I will learn a good many things about my own writing style, how accommodating Norbert can be, and how flexible I’m willing to be, when it comes to my own content. While I might need Norbert for producing the right images, I don’t need any assistance in the imagination process, nor in my ability to write a decent story.

For this particular act of literary science and exploration, I randomly selected a baby hippo, as our story subject.

My first query was simply asking for a photorealistic image of an adorable baby hippo, but before finishing the prompt, I selected the auto enhance option for a more complete description. This was my first full query…

A photorealistic image of a baby hippopotamus joyfully playing in a sun-drenched meadow, surrounded by vibrant wildflowers swaying gently in the breeze. The lush green grass glistens with dew drops, catching the soft, warm sunlight that filters through a few wispy clouds in the azure sky. The baby hippo, with its round, cherubic face and big, glistening eyes, frolics playfully, splashing water as it leaps into a small, shimmering puddle. Its skin glistens with a hint of mud, adding a touch of earthy charm to its playful antics. In the background, a gentle stream sparkles, reflecting the peaceful atmosphere of this idyllic setting. This photorealistic scene captures the essence of childhood joy in nature, filled with colors and a warmth that embodies happiness.

These were the first images offered…

So far, so good, though I notice that Norbert wasn’t willing to actually put the hippo in the water, for some odd reason.

Without overthinking it, which I have a tendency to do sometimes, I took the very first three images offered, and then I went straight to character creation.

After only a few moments, Norbert gave us our newest character, and I’ve named her Pumpkin…

She even has a little tuft of hair on her head, like little bangs. I think it will be so fun to put a bow in her hair, and I can even change the color of the ribbon, depending on the day. Don’t ask me why I opted to name her Pumpkin. It just sounded like a sweet term of endearment, I guess.

Anyway, throughout this whole creation process, Norbert did fairly well, and only had to remove an object from one of the images. For some reason, the ai thought a hippo should wear a crown on their head. I’ve no earthly idea where a crown was mentioned in my query…

I told Norbert to get rid of the crown, and he actually did it without changing too much else in the image…

Unfortunately, her bangs disappeared, which I really wanted to keep.

For that reason, I asked for a different image, all together. But, still not enough hair on her head…

I spent nearly fifteen minutes arguing with Norbert over the stack of ridiculous selections I was given…

I even tried putting bows in her hair, to see if that would improve things.

Nope!

Sometimes, you just have to go back to the drawing board, as they say. You simply have to query a new background, and/or positioning of the character, in order to produce a workable image…

See what I mean? Change the background and her hair returns, just as I hoped it would.

Now that we’ve a loveable image to work with, the task at hand is to gather a decent supply of differing images that will aid in the building of her story.

By Friday, I should hopefully have a wonderful tale to share with you about our newest guest, here in the Barnyard.

Yikes! Friday’s only a few days away, so I should probably get started.

Hugs

Fridazed and confused…

Wiwohka8 Comments

It’s been an unusual week, to say the least. Things seemed normal, at first. We had our annual inspection of the apartment which went fine, and didn’t last longer than about 5 minutes. I think they’re actually wanting to just make sure we weren’t trashing their property. After living here for the last year, I can fully understand why.

Not fifteen minutes after the inspection ended, someone on the fourth floor decided to light the garbage room on fire, setting off the entire floor’s fire suppression ceiling faucets, thereby drenching every apartment below, and nearby. We had responders crawling all over the building, and water flowing freely from light fixtures, as well as power outlets. Needless to say, we pulled all our computers free of any plugins… and then waited for the water to stop.

Eventually we stopped leaking everywhere, but it took a full two days of de-humidifiers humming nonstop in all the hallways, to help the drying process. We are still waiting for maintenance to get to us, in order to replace the bad light fixtures and outlets that were affected by the water. Thankfully, we really didn’t have any damage to our personal belongings, but it did scare me enough to do an updated triple back-up of all my literary and illustration work. There’s far too much material to just do over again, before I’m ever even able to submit them to someone for publishing.

That last word, publishing, has me headed to the next issue I’ve been mulling over… trying to produce a manuscript that might rival all those new fangled ai editing and content creating applications. We now have to compete with computer generated books. I woke this morning to a commercial offering a program that will write all your ebooks for you from start to finish… it’s kind of sickening to me, if I’m to be honest.

If everyone is filling their carts with no-brainer e-books, what are us real authors left to work with? How on earth am I to get these books into readers hands, if they don’t care to look beyond their little electronic brain suckers?

I feel truly sad for all those amazing and fantastic authors out there, who slaved away to create such beautiful works of art, in literary form. They were the real trailblazers for most of us wordsmiths, and they didn’t need a smart phone to do it! Will anyone ever put proper guidelines, rules, and stipulations to how much we should use a computer to do our thinking, talking, acting, singing, writing, and surviving this world. Guess what folks? A computer is only meant for housing usable information for us to access when necessary, but the computer doesn’t think, feel, or have any awareness of itself, beyond what someone programmed it to believe.

Sorry, but that commercial really rubbed me the wrong way. I don’t disagree with the helpful usability that modern technology affords us, including some areas of ai technology. The problem I have is the lemming mentality that much of society has begun to propagate. That means when one person jumps in a particular direction, and everyone in their proximity chooses to jump along with them, just so as not to be left behind.

Seriously, are we in that much of a hurry to dumb ourselves down, and allow government, news media, and most of TikTok to regulate how we think, act, and behave? No Thanks!

Anyway, now that I got that off my chest, how about we all celebrate the end of the work week, yaaaayyyyyyyyyyy! Gooooo Frrrriiiidddaaaayyyyy!!!!!

I shall now head into an Icarus adventure, donning my high powered Sniper Rifle, and collecting my pack of wolves, in order to do some hunting for our prospecting crew. Have no fear… my puppies will keep me safe. Plus, I ride an arctic Moa named Kevin. If he doesn’t like you, he’ll swing his neck and smack you with his head. It’s rather unpleasant for whatever predator thought he’d be an easy meal.

Monday Messages…

Wiwohka4 Comments

It’s amazing what kind of stuff you can find in a dictionary, but what if it’s not amazing stuff… what if it’s inamazing? Apparently, that’s not a real word, and I even checked!

So, what’s with Famous and Infamous? Why didn’t they just say famous or average… famous or unknown… or even, famous or boring? I think these are valid questions.

Before I go judging those who created the English language rules, I’ll make an effort towards some good old google research… that’s what everybody else does.

According to Google,

Famous and infamous both describe someone or something that is widely recognized, but they differ significantly in reputation: famous means well-known for positive, admirable, or neutral reasons, while infamous means famous for bad, evil, or scandalous actions. While a celebrity is famous, a criminal is infamous. 

Sorry, but that’s sort of a silly reason to do that with the word famous. You’re either famous or creepy, so why muck up the language waters?

What stops us from switching up all words and giving them nefarious opposites by adding two letters?

I thought to find out how many words they’ve actually done this to… oh, and they call these words Antonyms, if you were at all wondering.

Google says,

Many English words form opposites (antonyms) by adding the prefix in- (or its variations im-, il-, ir-) to indicate “not” or “opposite of.” Common examples include accurate/inaccurate, complete/incomplete, visible/invisible, formal/informal, and sensitive/insensitive. 

Ok, in some instances, I guess it actually does make sense, and also saves a good amount of time in explaining a thing… but all of them? I’m still not sold!

In most of these words, adding the in seems more like holding a mirror up to a word, and seeing it’s perfect opposite. But I believe that some words are too broad of a word to simply flip-flop it’s meaning with two simple letters.

Here’s where things get really irritating for me, personally…

Valuable and Invaluable,

Valuable and invaluable are often confused, but they are not antonyms; rather, invaluable is an extreme form of valuable. Valuable means having high worth, importance, or monetary value. Invaluable means something is so extremely precious, useful, or essential that its worth cannot be calculated—it is truly priceless. 

Now, they’ve added a new in word, but with an entirely different definition to remember.

How on earth did any of us learn to read as children, honestly? Grown ups need to make up their minds, I think.

Tuesday Tinkering…

Wiwohka7 Comments

Norbert is in a timeout!

I’m already having to do his job, so it’s best he be in timeout, rather than scrapping the whole project out of frustration. At this point in the game, the ai simply cannot comprehend how to create an image with more than one subject character.

Without paying to upgrade both characters, or paying to rebuild two entirely different characters with the new upgraded features, I’m still left with an editing board to copy, cut, paste, and/or delete any given image.

If nothing else, I’m stubborn, so there’s that!

I refuse to allow Tilly, nor any of my other characters, to be swapped out for differing other ai generated pictures… I’ll not stand for it!

Let me show you what the (now in timeout) ai sought to produce for my requests, and that way you cans see why I refuse to compromise with Norbert.

This is what Henry should look like,

… see what I mean? Now, this is our Henry!

And, this is our Tilly,

In my opinion, she is unmistakable, with her soft doe-like eyes, those adorable ears, and the gentleness that always shows on her face, as well as the way she carries herself. Tilly is just Tilly, ya know? I can’t think of any other way to explain it.

Now, watch what happened when I prompted Norbert to put them in the same image:

As adorable as this young couple may be, while exchanging their vows… they aren’t anything like Henry or Tilly. The ai recognizes the two characters as themselves in any given individual query I ask of it. But the moment that I ask it to combine the two, Norbert goes on some random field trip to two entirely different characters, of which I do not recognize in any fashion!

The new upgraded video creation, is still far off from being any good, unless I simply allow the ai to take over… and that AIN’T gonna happen!

Until further notice, all my tinkering will be strictly my tweaks and adjustments… NOT Norbert’s!

It may take me more effort, along with extra time at the editing board, but I’ll do whatever I must to honor each individual character’s true self, that is their visual integrity…

It’s still far from perfect, but it’s workable. We’ll get there…

Copy that, or do I pass…

Wiwohka8 Comments

A word caught my eye this morning, as I was reading. When I first saw the word duplicity, my word rolodex spun up, and then shuddered to a stop.

Whenever I read a word that makes me pause, I find it’s a good idea to look it up, just in case I’ve misunderstood a thing. It happens to everyone, I’m sure, what with the English language having so many words, meanings, innuendos, and side rules for certain words and letters. Why they had to make things so darn hard, I’ll never understand.

But, I didn’t make the rules, so there’s no point in griping about them, right?!

Well, when I thought on what was bothering me about the word, it’s meaning fit in the context of the sentence I was reading, but I kept wanting to read it as duplicate, even though that word isn’t necessarily a negative one.

So, yes, I googled it!

First things first, I looked up the actual definition for duplicity…

Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more

du·plic·i·ty /do͞oˈplisədē/ noun: duplicity

  1. 1. deceitfulness; double-dealing.”he was accused of duplicity and branded a traitor”. Opposite: honesty

archaic doubleness.

So, in the light of what I was reading, duplicity certainly fit, but why did my mind go to duplicate? Look just above this sentence, at the bottom of the definition. I guess my mind was triggered by the old form, which apparently was called doubleness. What does doubleness mean? Well, I checked…

doubleness /ˈdəb(ə)lnəs/ noun: doubleness

  1. the quality or state of having two parts; duality.”the focus is on puns that reveal the doubleness of the poet’s meaning”

I get what doubleness means, and in a negative light such as duplicity reflects, I agree with the words usage.

Why then, did I get stuck on that silly word, duplicate, when I knew it was not the right word? Most likely, it was simply the similar spelling of both words. I deduced that part in the first five minutes, but went down a tiny rabbit hole, provided by none other than Google.

If I’m to share the definitions for duplicity, as well as, doubleness, we have to look at duplicate… just to be fair.

du·pli·cate adjective: duplicate /ˈdo͞opləkət/

  1. 1. exactly like something else, especially through having been copied.”a duplicate license is issued to replace a valid license which has been lost” Opposite: different

noun: duplicate; plural noun: duplicates /ˈdo͞opləkət/

  1. 1. one of two or more identical things.”books may be disposed of if they are duplicates”
    • a copy of an original. “locksmiths can make duplicates of most keys” Opposite: original

verb: duplicate; 3rd person present: duplicates; past tense: duplicated; past participle: duplicated; gerund or present participle: duplicating

Did you know that duplicate is considered an adjective, a noun, AND a verb, depending on it’s usage? Call me crazy, but I didn’t realize this, til I looked it up this morning. I also discovered that I’m not the only one who has come upon this little conundrum. It’s true! There’s already an explanation out there for the difference between duplicity and duplicate… go figure!

Check this out, and then I’ll leave you alone.

The word duplicate is derived from the Latin word duplicare, which means to double. Duplicity means deceitfulness, treacherousness, underhandedness, fraud or dishonesty. Duplicity is a noun, a related word is duplicitous.

This made more sense than all three of the other definitions. I wish I had have read this at the beginning of my research… sheesh!