word of the day:

DUPPY noun

plural duppies

- (Caribbean) a ghost or spirit

NEW job, new word. Has your printer ever been possessed by a duppy? The one at my new place of work has. Or at least so suggested the IT guy, which is how I learnt of the word. I think my mum would swear that her computer is frequented by duppies on a regular basis.

How strange that a word which at first may sound benevolent - comical even - in reality holds much more sinister connotations. Originating from West Africa, it is a Jamaican Patois word, and features heavily in Caribbean folklore. Far from a Casper-like manifestation of an other worldly being, a duppy is in fact a malevolent spirit or soul, said to come out haunting at night in a variety of forms, often as a howling or barking dog.

word of the day:

SESQUIPEDALIAN adjective 

- (of a word) polysyllabic; long:

  sesquipedalian surnames

- characterised by long words; long-winded:

  the sesquipedalian prose of scientific journals

IT is always good to discover new words in the English language, especially on a day when it's announced that abbreviations such as TTYL (talk to you later), and words such as 'unfriend', have entered the New Oxford American Dictionary. But what made this  in particular my 'word of the day' was how perfectly it encompasses it's own meaning, the many syllables simply rolling off the tongue. And once you master remembering the word itself, by its very nature you will never forget it's definition.