What is your favorite uncommon word beginning with “P”?
Post your answer in the LEAVE A COMMENT section below. I’m not the boss of you, though. Don’t write anything for all I care! I promise not to get pissed off, partner.
. . .here are my thoughts.
What is your favorite uncommon word beginning with “P”?
palimpsest: (noun) a writing material that’s reused after earlier writing has been erased
A palimpsest is not something we come across today. With the advent of cheap, omnipresent paper and computerized word possessors we’ll never need to erase the original markings from a parchment or scroll using a piece of bread. Nor will we ever have to smooth over a wax tablet to engrave our next message. The closest present-day example might be a chalkboard at school (I’m taking liberties with the term “present-day”) or the whiteboard in your company’s conference room. Technological advances—the science of which I can’t begin to understand—allow us to delve below the top layer of priceless works of art to “view” an earlier work below. Palimpsest without the erasure. But doesn’t the eraser at the butt end of your pencil turn any corrected mistake into an example of a palimpsest? And what about the BACKSPACE button on your keyboard? I hit that very button while typing its name, otherwise you’d have read BACKSOACE. I’ve used the same Word program to compose every one of these posts. That’s a series of palimpsests deserving of erasure.