A skeuomorph is a design feature that’s no longer needed but included because previous versions of the item (often made using different materials or in a different way) had whatever it is.

For example the decks of cruise ships are no longer made from planks of wood (as it’s a fire risk) but they’re likely to be finished in a brown material laid in strips to resemble planks. Modern compact cameras no longer have shutters, but they often make that distinctive cur-lick when a picture is taken, as they have a device added to reproduce it. Chocolates sometimes still come individually wrapped because back in the old days people didn’t always eat a whole tinful in one sitting …

Can you think of any more examples?

Synecdoche is a word I’d never come across until I opened the dictionary at random just now. Despite never having heard of this device previously, I have used it. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have too.  A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which part of something represents the whole.

For example you might refer to a traditional Sunday lunch as ‘a roast’ even though the vegetables and gravy were cooked in another way. It’s generally understood that ‘a blonde’ will have more body parts than just her hair. When we refer to writing a book we generally also mean planning, rewriting, editing, proofreading and trying to find a market, not just bashing out a first draft.

Here’s a picture of a couple of birds – which, I think, is a synecdoche for a picture of a couple of birds and their shadows and a dead leaf, on some grass which has been marked to form a football pitch.

Thanks for pitching up to read my latest word of the week post.

Pitch can mean to slope downward, put up a tent, or the space said tent occupies. It can be to throw something, fall headlong or submit a suggestion to an editor. It’s the movement of a ship in a longitudinal direction, angle of a roof or where cricket is played. Pitch is a quality of sound, the gloop you get from distilled turpentine or where a market trader displays his wares.

It can also be to express something at a particular level – I do hope I’ve pitched this post correctly. I also hope I’ve got everything right and we won’t need to have a pitched battle over my definitions.

The pitch of these steps was so steep that if the ship had pitched or rolled I’d have pitched down them.

Keep is a good word (not least because it gives me another chance to post a photo of a castle – do you know which one?) It means to continue to have something, to save something for future use, store in a regular place (we keep The Sphere in the garage), continue in a particular position or activity (she kept her head down) or to remain in good condition (fresh bread doesn’t keep very long). It can also mean to do something you promised to do (I keep my promises) to provide accommodation and food – or the money for those things (he earns his keep) If you have a friend with enough money you could be a kept woman. You might want to keep up to date, or with the Jones’. Or perhaps you’ll attend keep fit classes (which generally means get slightly less unfit rather to maintain an existing state of fitness in my experience) and of course it’s the strongest part of a castle. Not bad for just four letters, eh?

A secret is something that’s kept, or intended to be kept, from most people. You might think the meaning of the word isn’t a secret, but switching on the television or picking up a newspaper or magazine will soon show how wrong you are. Almost every day someone will be offering to share their secrets of success, beauty secrets, reveal whose secret love child they are etc etc.

Here’s a top tip, if you want to keep something secret, don’t give the details to the papers, or TV reporters. If you want lots of people to know, then what you’re offering isn’t a secret – it’s a tip, piece of advice, comment, item of gossip or most frequently a blatant publicity stunt. (Maybe I should have picked cynical as this week’s word?)

I do have a brother, but this post isn’t about him. It’s about this short story of mine which you can read, or listen to, for free.

I have lots more stories, and some articles, available from the same site. You can read / listen to up to three per month for free – or join for $5 and have unlimited access.

Nice word cusp. Can’t think why it isn’t used more. It’s not as though it doesn’t have many uses.

A cusp is a pointed end where two points meet. This could be part of a tooth (pre molars are bicuspid as they have two pointy bits) or an architectural or biological feature. Eg the top of a gothic arch, a leap point or part of the valves in our hearts.

If a mathematical curve reverses abruptly that change is marked by a cusp and cusp is also the name given to the pointed ends of a new moon.

Cusp can also denote a transition of some kind. Those who’s birth sign is on or near the end of a period are said to be on the cusp. Eg if your birthday is on 20th March you’re on the cusp of Pisces and Aries (what that means I haven’t a clue!) Teenagers are sometimes considered on the cusp of adulthood (as are middle-aged writers!)

I quite often cogitate (being a gardener and a writer makes it compulsory) but have only just realised that excogitation is also a thing. That means to think out or contrive, whereas cogitate is to ponder or even meditate.

By my calculations that means I can now spend twice as long looking at the pretty flowers and claiming I’m working by plotting on my plot.

Corporiety comes from corporeal and is the quality of being or having a material body – just like Brilly here.

Oh, not that sort of material… Gosh, English can be confusing, can’t it?

Zymurgy is the branch of applied science with relates to fermentation in brewing, winemaking and the creation of other alcoholic drinks.

Cheers!