your etymology lesson: forte

Confession: I'm a complete nerd. Word nerd, to be specific. Well, I'm a nerd about other things as well, but that's beside the point right now. I subscribe to the Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day email. I still use my dictionary and thesaurus (you know, the kind you hold in your hands) regularly. I do other wordy things that I am not willing to admit to right now. WORD NERD.

So you can imagine how nerdily excited I was when my new The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology arrived in the mail this weekend. In celebration, I will illustrate one word from said treasure every day this week. First word: Forte (page 295).

forte n. something one does very well. 1648, strong part of a sword blade; later fort strong point of a person's abilities (1682); borrowed from French fort strong point, fort, from Middle French fort FORT. The final -e was added in the 1700's, on analogy with Italian forte strong.

one and two

This month's Photo Club subject: Numbers.

brrr.

It. Is. Cold.

The day after New Year's, we went ice fishing (not me) and ice skating (yes me, et al) on the pond. One fish caught from under the ice. One campfire next to the ice. One belly flop on the ice (not me). One butt flop on the ice (yes me). Good times.

henna hand

gifted cards

Cards for holiday presents finished. Check!

because they're cute (also I need gifts)

1" mini buttons. Rawr.

nothing but the kitchen sink