{"id":1979,"date":"2023-05-29T12:44:53","date_gmt":"2023-05-29T16:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/?p=1979"},"modified":"2023-05-29T12:59:44","modified_gmt":"2023-05-29T16:59:44","slug":"word-of-the-week-swelter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/2023\/05\/29\/word-of-the-week-swelter\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Week! Swelter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/105\/2023\/05\/swelter.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1980\" src=\"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/105\/2023\/05\/swelter-300x257.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"503\" height=\"431\" srcset=\"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/105\/2023\/05\/swelter-300x257.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/105\/2023\/05\/swelter-768x658.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/105\/2023\/05\/swelter.jpeg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 503px) 100vw, 503px\" \/><\/a>I am really sorry if your Memorial Day plans got rained out. Okay, not really. I adore cool weather, even cool, wet weather. Despite growing up here, I have never loved our summers. I despise humidity and heat.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll get your miserable summer soon enough. It will be sweltering, in fact. What does it mean to &#8220;swelter&#8221;? I like the word as much as I dislike its meaning, &#8220;to be oppressed by heat.&#8221; We tend to use the term as an adjective now, &#8220;sweltering,&#8221; rather than as a noun or verb. The last is the oldest form, a 15th Century usage noted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oed.com\/view\/Entry\/195736?\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in the OED entry<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Our word goes back to before the Little Ice Age and even the Medieval Warm Period to the Middle English <em>sweltre,\u00a0<\/em>long before electric fans or air-conditioning made places like Virginia and points south habitable for (too many) millions of us.<\/p>\n<p>In the sweltering decades to come I suspect this word will &#8220;enjoy&#8221; renewed usage. I&#8217;m around for 2 more decades, and sometimes I&#8217;m thankful it won&#8217;t be longer. As for the word, use it wisely; &#8220;hot&#8221; and &#8220;scorching&#8221; convey degrees of heat-induced suffering, while &#8220;sweltering&#8221; just sounds wicked. &#8220;Sizzling&#8221; has many meanings, but I think of hot dogs on my Weber grill or sun-bathers frying at the beach.<\/p>\n<p>May you find cool shade this summer. I&#8217;ll be in Canada for part of it, my sort of climate, thank you.\u00a0 As you heat-lovers burn yourselves up with UV rays, pause a moment to send in useful words or metaphors, by e-mailing me (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leaving a comment below.<\/p>\n<p>See all of our Metaphors of the Month\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/tag\/metaphor-of-the-month\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>\u00a0and Words of the Week\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/tag\/word-of-the-week\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Creative-Commons image courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/chrisgold\/7472526960\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ChrisGoldNY<\/a> at Flickr.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am really sorry if your Memorial Day plans got rained out. Okay, not really. I adore cool weather, even cool, wet weather. Despite growing up here, I have never loved our summers. I despise humidity and heat. You&#8217;ll get your miserable summer soon enough. It will be sweltering, in fact. What does it mean &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/2023\/05\/29\/word-of-the-week-swelter\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Word of the Week! Swelter<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6904,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2516,87405,2520,40197],"tags":[2522],"class_list":["post-1979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-writing","category-etymology","category-usage","category-vocabulary","tag-word-of-the-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6904"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1979"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1983,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979\/revisions\/1983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}