Within the fourteen lines which form this verse,
you just might find a sneaky trick or two;
the kind that make a person want to curse
and scream, "You fool! Just what is wrong with you?"
For ere this little quatorzain is done,
you'll come across a purclaim quite unreal;
a mountweazel, to make the reading fun,
one which I've tried my hardest to conceal.
But can you do it without checking notes?
I fear the task might be a tad too much.
What if the verse itself's an undervote,
or is that word not ridgy-didge, as such?
Please leave me a review before you go—
so, could you find it? Tell me yes or no.
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Author Notes
Today's word:
mountweazel (n.) a fictitious entry added to a book to prevent plagiarism.
The mountweazel (also known as nihilartikel, or 'nothing article'), is named after an Ohio-born fountain designer and photographer named Lillian Virginia Mountweazel. She is famous for her renowned photographs of rural American letterboxes, and tragically died in an explosion while on assignment for Combustibles magazine. But why is the word named after her, in particular? Because she never existed! She was completely made up by the New Columbia Encyclopedia, and listed in their 1975 edition. In spite of that, she even has her own web site.
So the idea is I've planted a few odd words in the poem, but only one of them is not a real word. Can you pick it?
My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.
Thanks for reading.
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