Editor's Corner

Check it out, my friends! I found something pretty cool on Merriam-Webster when I was looking up the word boon, which was used numerous times in a show I was watching. I thought I knew what a boon was, but I had to look it up after it was used to describe the favor of killing someone who wanted to die. (To make it worse, the person asking for the boon was the son of the god Dream/Morpheus. He wanted his dad to do the job. Did I mention his son was just a head?) Anyway, on we go.

boon

1: a timely benefit : blessing

The rain was a boon for parched crops.

2: benefit, favor

especially : one that is given in answer to a request

But that’s not the thing that excited me! What I found was a “Words That Rhyme with…” feature. Have you ever been trying to think of a rhyme for a word, and it just isn’t happening? I was not a lover of good poetry in school; in fact when I switched colleges, they made me retake Romantic Literature, which was mostly poetry, and I hated it.

But I am a lover of bad poetry. I have always enjoyed making up poems since I was a little kid. Most of them were pretty foul, but I sure loved it. If any of you have kids or grandkids, I think this site could be amazing for teaching purposes. Whether you teach your little ones how to write a poem or a saucy limerick is up to you.

So the first word I thought of was, of course, gross (booger). I thought for my example I’d move on to something a little more acceptable and I landed on stinker. Let’s just say my dog helped me come up with that.

Here are the results:

This won me over when I saw that they didn’t stop at two-syllable words—they came up with all kinds of matches! Stinker, binge drinker, eye winker; hook, line, and sinker; wishful thinker…think of the magic that could come from this lineup!

Let’s try another word: computer.

I won’t paste anything in, I’ll just type up my favorites:

• Two syllables: pewter, scooter, suitor, cuter
• Three syllables: commuter, polluter, bean-shooter, zuit suiter
• Four syllables or more: prosecutor, biscuit shooter, electric scooter, telecommuter

You never know when this site could come in handy! Maybe when you’re eating cotton candy and drinking cherry brandy with your new friend Andy? Or reading Jack Handy with your big, sandy arm candy, Sandy?

I guess you can see what an annoying big sister I could be. Lucky for my brother Fritz, we didn’t have computers back then. 😊

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

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