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SMIDGENS, SPECKS, AND SMITHEREENS
Ralph Protsik, author
The English language contains more than five hundred words that describe things that are tiny—that are small in size (dwarf, speck, drib) or quantity (dash, drop, splash), few in number (scant, scintilla, rare), brief in duration or impact (spark, flash, snap), descriptive in feature (freckle, smudge, dimple), or faint in perception (whiff, sniff, hint). Some such words qualify and diminish (hardly, barely, sparse). Their actions also can be sudden and violent (smack, slap, blast) or subtle and sublime (shadow, breath, whimper).
This "dictionary" looks at more than 450 of these “tiny words.” Each is accompanied by a drawing, a quatrain (four-line poem), three or more quotations that illustrate the term in action, and a derivation. It is both an invaluable reference and a fun read.
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