Let’s begin with the root scrib, which means “write.” A scribe used to be the primary “writer” of copies before the printing press was invented. It results in this creature coming to you willingly, trusting you, knowing you will treat it like a friend.The Latin root word scrib and its variant script both mean “write.” Today we have “written” a unique podcast script to permanently “write” these roots into your memory! Both suggest a kind of mastering of another creature. Apprivoiser (French): There is no exact equivalent in English. A place that makes a pretty picture – and where I wouldn’t last five minutes.ġ3. A front room with a bay window, low ceilings, a fireplace, furniture close together, carpets and cushions cluttering the sofa. When in a traditional English tearoom, or an English cottage, or anywhere that’s small, cosy. A touch as light as the caress of a soft petals.ġ2. Neither have the word fleur or fiore in them. The best I can find is “touch lighty” or “brush”, but the texture of touch is too solid, and brushing evokes strokes. Effleurer (French) and Sfiorare (Italian): I always feel a sense of frustration when I have to translate these two words into English. Splendour, like abundance, like plenty, like the domed ceiling of the Galleries Lafayette in Paris.ġ1. Splendour, like a table brimming with food, the Grand Place in Brussels, a harvest moon mirrored in the Canal Grande, or the opening bars of Monteverdi’s Vespers. Splendour (English): I love everything this word stands for, as well as its sound. That’s me, after thirty-seven years in England.ġ0. Someone or something that yearns for sunlight. Bramasole: I read this word in Frances Mayes’ book Under the Tuscan Sun. A true friend in a friendship that is a wholehearted commitment.ĩ. Друг is your family of choice, the person you know will always watch your back, and never shy away from getting involved in your business if it means trying to help you. Not the “friend” you introduce after meeting them five minutes earlier, or the one you invite to make up the numbers, or the one you don’t work to keep. Друг (Russian, pronounced “Droog”): Friend. They asked me about my life, where I came from, what I had done up till then. I said it would only be fair for me to be given a Chinese name. Huáng (Mandarin pinyin): When I first went to teach in Taiwan, I noticed that all the Taiwanese teachers called themselves with English first names: Brenda, Tim, Clara, John. Dolce, like a gentle caress, a kind word, after a difficult day.ħ. Dolce: the very word sounds sweet, like a person whose smile melts your heart, like the sound of a tenor recorder in Italian, a recorder is flauto dolce. Or it can be Proustian, with madeleines dipped in a china cup of Orange Pekoe.Ħ. It can be a sandwich with mayonnaise, Edam cheese, thinly-sliced onion and tomato, with a cup of lemon verbena tea. A goûter can be white toast dripping with a generous layer of butter, accompanied by a large mug of hot chocolate made by melting chunks of Spanish chocolate in hot, full-fat milk. Cake stands with miniature cakes, plates of cucumber sandwiches, a silver teapot, a string quartet in the background. Goûter (French): There’s something about a French goûter that English afternoon tea doesn’t quite convey. The extra k adds a wealth of possibilities: colourful kaleidoscopes, brave knights and know-how.ĥ. Magick (English): Magic is pedestrian, insipid, insignificant.

Words with scribe in them