Tuesday 1 March 2011

sticktoitiveness

Yesterday I received an email about a word that I love - sitzfleisch. The email came from "A Word A Day", and defines this word as
noun:
1. The ability to sit through or tolerate something boring.
2. The ability to endure or persist in a task.
If I were talking about that second concept I would have thought of the old-fashioned sticktoitiveness - which probably isn't too old, actually.

And Word A Day also mentions the other synonym, chair glue, which I had never heard before:
Sitzfleisch is a fancy term for what's commonly known as chair glue: the ability to sit still and get through the task at hand. It's often the difference between, for example, an aspiring writer and a writer. Sometimes the word is used in the sense of the ability to sit out a problem -- ignore it long enough in the hope it will go away.
I love the latter meaning - it's great when procrastinating long enough means some problem has just solved itself.

But it's the first of the two definitions that is important to us bloggers. Keep on writing. Maybe someone will read it, lol.

8 comments:

Papillon Bleu said...

Isn't this a German word?

parlance said...

Papillon bleu, you are so right! Last week, A Word A Day was focusing on German words in English. They have a theme each week. I've never heard this word in English, though.

Papillon Bleu said...

I studied German for 8 long years where I proved to be good at sticktoitiveness during the lessons.

Papillon Bleu said...

Almost forgot...if you've enjoyed the swimming elephant ( I absolutely adore this scene) it comes from a very colourful film called The Fall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_(2006_film)

parlance said...

Papillonbleu, I think you are good at sticktoitiveness with your art, also. The definition included the ability to be a writer by working at the craft. I think the same would be said of your field of art. I love what you produce!

parlance said...

Papillon Bleu, I'll have a look at the entry about The Fall. Thanks for the reference.

Papillon Bleu said...

Merci beaucoup pour le tres gentil commentaire.

You help me enrich my English, I can help you practise your French.

parlance said...

Merci beaucoup, Papillon Bleu!

See, I'm practising!