My young seagull model takes to the water. I find myself wishing I could join him.Spondulics, an American slang word for money, from the Greek spondulikos, the adjectival form of spondulox, a type of shell used as early money, I discover. My friend Barrett Bonden uses "spondulics" in his novel, which I have just read with increasing enjoyment. Spondulics is one of the many things I have learnt from it.
Through the bedroom window this morning, I see, the first leaves of Autumn blow past. Among them the twirling wings of lime seeds. Fall, the American term, is more fitting than Autumn. But Autumn has, two melancholy vowel sounds between the the "t" and "mn" with its silent "m", like an expiring lament, which is not out of place on this grey, drizzly day, when summer should still be around.
2 comments:
Spondulics, a new word for me.
I like that you've found more 'feeling in the word 'autumn' versus 'fall'. The latter one is often confusing to new speakers of English.
I realise I risk a charge of literary incest by commenting on a comment you make about the novel. But the reference does concern someone who has just picked up the word and is horribly cast down when - on the first occasion he uses it - he discovers that the person he is speaking to knew it beforehand.
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