(the Ram - 21 March 19 April)
* Outgoing.
* Lovable.
* Spontaneous.
* Not one to mess with.
* Funny.
* EXCELLENT kisser.
* EXTREMELY adorable.
* Loves relationships.
* Addictive.
* Loud.
16 years of bad luck if you do not reblog.
2. TAURUS - The Tramp
(the Bull - 20 April 20 May)
* Aggressive.
* Loves being in long relationships.
* Likes to give a good fight for what they want.
* Extremely outgoing.
* Loves to help people in times of need.
* GOOD kisser.
* GOOD personality.
* Stubborn but a caring person.
* One of a kind.
* Not one to mess with.
* Usually are the most attractive people.
15 years of bad luck if you do not reblog.
3. GEMINI - Irresistible
(the Twins - 21 May 21 June)
* Nice.
* Love is one of a kind.
* Great listener.
* Lover not a fighter, but will still knock you out.
* Trustworthy.
* Always happy.
* Loud.
* Talkative.
* Not one to mess with.
* Freak.
* Outgoing.
* VERY Forgiving.
* Loves to make friends.
* Has a beautiful smile.
* Generous.
* Strong.
* The Irresistible one.
9 years of bad luck if you do not reblog.
4. CANCER - The Cutie
(the Crab - 22 June 22 July)
* Most AMAZING kisser..Very high appeal.
* Love is one of a kind.
* Very romantic.
* Most caring person you will ever meet!
* Very creative.
* Extremely random and proud of it.
* Freak.
* Spontaneous.
* Great at telling stories.
* Not a fighter, but will knock your lights out if it comes down to it.
* Someone you should hold on to.
12 years of bad luck if you do not reblog.
5. LEO - The Lion
(the Lion - 23 July - 22 August)
* Great talker.
* Attractive and passionate.
* Laid back.
* Knows how to have fun.
* Is really good at almost anything.
* GREAT kisser.
* Unpredictable.
* Outgoing.
* Down to earth.
* Addictive.
* Attractive.
* Loud.
* Loves being in long relationships.
* Talkative.
* Not one to mess with.
* Freak.
* Rare to find.
* Good when found.
7 years of bad luck if you do not reblog.
6. VIRGO - The One that Waits
(the Virgin - 23 August 22 September)
* Dominant in relationships.
* Someone loves them right now.
* Always wants the last word.
* Caring.
* Smart.
* Loud.
* Loyal.
* Easy to talk to.
* Everything you ever wanted.
* Easy to please.
* The one and only.
7 years of bad luck if you do not reblog.
7. LIBRA - The AWESOME One
(the Balance - 23 September 23 October)
* Nice to everyone they meet.
* Their Love is one of a kind.
* Independent, yet likes company
* Great kisser.
* Always smiling, loves to laugh.
* Silly, fun and sweet.
* Have own unique sex appeal.
* Most caring person you will ever meet!
* However not the kind of person you want to mess with…you might end up crying.
9 years of bad luck if you do not reblog.
8. SCORPIO - The Addict
(the Scorpion - 24 October 21 November)
* EXTREMELY adorable.
*Good Lover
* Intelligent.
* Loves to joke.
* Very good sense of humor.
* Energetic.
* GOOD kisser.
* Always get what they want.
* Attractive.
* Easy going.
* Loves being in long relationships.
* Talkative.
* Romantic.
* Caring.
4 years of bad luck if you do not reblog.
9. SAGITTARIUS - The Promiscuous One
(the Archer - 22 November 21 December)
* Spontaneous.
* High appeal.
* Rare to find.
* Great when found.
* Loves being in long relationships.
* So much love to give.
* Not one to mess with.
* Very attractive.
* Very romantic.
* Nice to everyone they meet.
* Their Love is one of a kind.
* Silly, fun and sweet.
* Have their own unique appeal.
* Most caring person you will ever meet!
* Not the kind of person you wanna fuck with because you might end up crying.
4 years of bad luck if you do not reblog.
10. CAPRICORN - The Passionate Lover
(the Goat - 22 December 19 January)
* Love to bust.
* Nice.
* Sassy.
* Intelligent.
* Sexy.
* Irresistible.
* Loves being in long relationships.
* Great talker.
* Always gets what he or she wants.
* Cool.
* Loves to own Gemini’s in sports.
* Extremely fun.
* Loves to joke.
* Smart.
24 years of bad luck if you do not reblog.
11. AQUARIUS - Does It In The Water
(the Water Bearer - 20 January 18 February)
* Trustworthy.
* Attractive.
* GREAT kisser.
* One of a kind.
* Loves being in long-term relationships.
* Extremely energetic.
* Unpredictable.
* Will exceed your expectations.
* Not a Fighter, but will knock your lights out if it comes down to it.
2 years of bad luck if you do not reblog.
12. PISCES - The Partner for Life
(the Fishes - 19 February 20 March)
* Caring and kind.
* Smart.
* Center of attention.
* High appeal.
* Has the last word.
* Good to find, hard to keep.
* Fun to be around.
* Extremely weird but in a good way.
* Good Sense of Humor!!!
* Thoughtful.
* Always gets what he or she wants.
* Loves to joke.
* Very popular.
* Silly, fun and sweet.
* Loves being in long relationships.
2 years of bad luck if you do not reblog.
This is for my science fiction WIP, so some things may need to be added/modified depending on your genre. I will also include a screenshot of an example at the bottom so y’all can see how I set it up in my Doc.
1. The Quick Ref
I use this as the first page of my “Character FIles” Doc.
I put all my important characters in a list, then add their height, age, and the page their complete file can be found on. This is helpful when I need to know if a character would have to crane their neck upward to look another character in the eyes. Comes up more than I’d have guessed.
2. The Individual Profile: 6 Box Method
I add and subtract stuff based on how important the character is. Without further ado…
Box One: Reference Photo
This is where I add in any actor, model, drawing, etc that I base the look on. When I don’t need one, sometimes I’ll put in a picture that represents the character’s style.
“Let’s face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn’t a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.”
But, no, because there are reasons for all of those seemingly weird English bits.
Like “eggplant” is called “eggplant” because the white-skinned variety (to which the name originally applied) looks very egg-like.
The “hamburger” is named after the city of Hamburg.
The name “pineapple” originally (in Middle English) applied to pine cones (ie. the fruit of pines - the word “apple” at the time often being used more generically than it is now), and because the tropical pineapple bears a strong resemblance to pine cones, the name transferred.
The “English” muffin was not invented in England, no, but it was invented by an Englishman, Samuel Bath Thomas, in New York in 1894. The name differentiates the “English-style” savoury muffin from “American” muffins which are commonly sweet.
“French fries” are not named for their country of origin (also the United States), but for their preparation. They are French-cut fried potatoes - ie. French fries.
“Sweetmeats” originally referred to candied fruits or nuts, and given that we still use the term “nutmeat” to describe the edible part of a nut and “flesh” to describe the edible part of a fruit, that makes sense.
“Sweetbread” has nothing whatsoever to do with bread, but comes from the Middle English “brede”, meaning “roasted meat”. “Sweet” refers not to being sugary, but to being rich in flavour.
Similarly, “quicksand” means not “fast sand”, but “living sand” (from the Old English “cwicu” - “alive”).
The term boxing “ring” is a holdover from the time when the “ring” would have been just that - a circle marked on the ground. The first square boxing ring did not appear until 1838. In the rules of the sport itself, there is also a ring - real or imagined - drawn within the now square arena in which the boxers meet at the beginning of each round.
The etymology of “guinea pig” is disputed, but one suggestion has been that the sounds the animals makes are similar to the grunting of a pig. Also, as with the “apple” that caused confusion in “pineapple”, “Guinea” used to be the catch-all name for any unspecified far away place. Another suggestion is that the animal was named after the sailors - the “Guinea-men” - who first brought it to England from its native South America.
As for the discrepancies between verb and noun forms, between plurals, and conjugations, these are always the result of differing word derivation.
Writers write because the meaning of the word “writer” is “one who writes”, but fingers never fing because “finger” is not a noun derived from a verb. Hammers don’t ham because the noun “hammer”, derived from the Old Norse “hamarr”, meaning “stone” and/or “tool with a stone head”, is how we derive the verb “to hammer” - ie. to use such a tool. But grocers, in a certain sense, DO “groce”, given that the word “grocer” means “one who buys and sells in gross” (from the Latin “grossarius”, meaning “wholesaler”).
“Tooth” and “teeth” is the legacy of the Old English “toð” and “teð”, whereas “booth” comes from the Old Danish “boþ”. “Goose” and “geese”, from the Old English “gōs” and “gēs”, follow the same pattern, but “moose” is an Algonquian word (Abenaki: “moz”, Ojibwe: “mooz”, Delaware: “mo:s”). “Index” is a Latin loanword, and forms its plural quite predictably by the Latin model (ex: matrix -> matrices, vertex -> vertices, helix -> helices).
One can “make amends” - which is to say, to amend what needs amending - and, case by case, can “amend” or “make an amendment”. No conflict there.
“Odds and ends” is not word, but a phrase. It is, necessarily, by its very meaning, plural, given that it refers to a collection of miscellany. A single object can’t be described in the same terms as a group.
“Teach” and “taught” go back to Old English “tæcan” and “tæhte”, but “preach” comes from Latin “predician” (“præ” + “dicare” - “to proclaim”).
“Vegetarian” comes of “vegetable” and “agrarian” - put into common use in 1847 by the Vegetarian Society in Britain.
“Humanitarian”, on the other hand, is a portmanteau of “humanity” and “Unitarian”, coined in 1794 to described a Christian philosophical position - “One who affirms the humanity of Christ but denies his pre-existence and divinity”. It didn’t take on its current meaning of “ethical benevolence” until 1838. The meaning of “philanthropist” or “one who advocates or practices human action to solve social problems” didn’t come into use until 1842.
We recite a play because the word comes from the Latin “recitare” - “to read aloud, to repeat from memory”. “Recital” is “the act of reciting”. Even this usage makes sense if you consider that the Latin “cite” comes from the Greek “cieo” - “to move, to stir, to rouse , to excite, to call upon, to summon”. Music “rouses” an emotional response. One plays at a recital for an audience one has “called upon” to listen.
The verb “to ship” is obviously a holdover from when the primary means of moving goods was by ship, but “cargo” comes from the Spanish “cargar”, meaning “to load, to burden, to impose taxes”, via the Latin “carricare” - “to load on a cart”.
“Run” (moving fast) and “run” (flowing) are homonyms with different roots in Old English: “ærnan” - “to ride, to reach, to run to, to gain by running”, and “rinnan” - “to flow, to run together”. Noses flow in the second sense, while feet run in the first. Simillarly, “to smell” has both the meaning “to emit” or “to perceive” odor. Feet, naturally, may do the former, but not the latter.
“Fat chance” is an intentionally sarcastic expression of the sentiment “slim chance” in the same way that “Yeah, right” expresses doubt - by saying the opposite.
“Wise guy” vs. “wise man” is a result of two different uses of the word “wise”. Originally, from Old English “wis”, it meant “to know, to see”. It is closely related to Old English “wit” - “knowledge, understanding, intelligence, mind”. From German, we get “Witz”, meaning “joke, witticism”. So, a wise man knows, sees, and understands. A wise guy cracks jokes.
The seemingly contradictory “burn up” and “burn down” aren’t really contradictory at all, but relative. A thing which burns up is consumed by fire. A house burns down because, as it burns, it collapses.
“Fill in” and “fill out” are phrasal verbs with a difference of meaning so slight as to be largely interchangeable, but there is a difference of meaning. To use the example in the post, you fill OUT a form by filling it IN, not the other way around. That is because “fill in” means “to supply what is missing” - in the example, that would be information, but by the same token, one can “fill in” an outline to make a solid shape, and one can “fill in” for a missing person by taking his/her place. “Fill out”, on the other hand, means “to complete by supplying what is missing”, so that form we mentioned will not be filled OUT into we fill IN all the missing information.
An alarm may “go off” and it may be turned on (ie. armed), but it does not “go on”. That is because the verb “to go off” means “to become active suddenly, to trigger” (which is why bombs and guns also go off, but do not go on).
