'Curious Words' enter St. Olaf lexicon

By Becca Heistad '09
December 1, 2008

A series of colorful buttons got some curious looks from passersby around the St. Olaf campus this fall. Abstruse words such as "pukka," "oology" and "frigorific" infiltrated the campus lexicon as part of the first Curious-Word-of-the-Week Contest put on by Rolvaag Memorial Library.

CuriousWord08
Curious-Word-of-the-Week Contest winners are (left to right) Christina Koch '09, Katherine Parent '09 and Katie Rogotzke '09.
The library staff challenged St. Olaf word worms to test their literary skills by incorporating 20 "curious" words, which were released on buttons weekly starting in September, into a short story under 200 words.

Three Ole women were named the winners in November: seniors Katherine Parent, Christina Koch and Katie Rogotzke. To an intimate gathering of faculty, librarians and students, each finalist recited her winning entry standing atop a bench in the library atrium.

All three women say they enjoyed incorporating the peculiar new words into their literary vocabularies.

"My favorite word from the list was 'clipsome,'" Koch says, "mostly because the definition is itself a mix of fun words: 'eminently embraceable.'"

Rogotzke, on the other hand, was partial to the word "halcyon," which means peaceful, undisturbed or happy.

Although the finalists all completed the tricky task using the same set of curious words, each winning submission was entirely distinct.

Rogotzke's Halloween-inspired short story featuring a library-dwelling poltergeist took third place. "I enjoy writing, so if class gets boring I start scribbling; the contest was an appealing diversion," she says.

First runner-up Koch described the misfortunes of a man named Barney at a local bar in "A Short Piece of Satirical Writing." Koch says she liked the challenge of working the curious words into a single coherent story, but also that she quickly learned how difficult it can be to write a story in 200 words or less.

The first-place entry was a whimsical poem written by Parent titled "A Rolvaag Squib." In rhyming couplets, Parent playfully captured her intimate relationship with the St. Olaf library.

Although she has written "serious poetry" in the past, Parent says she relished the opportunity to use fun words that would not be fitting in other contexts. Her favorite of these was "ululate," meaning to make a long, wavering, high-pitched sound, resembling the howl of a dog or wolf.

"I was inspired by the way the curious words sounded," she says. "There was a sort of theme among them -- night, spooky things, study -- so as I worked on the poem, a story suggested itself." Her winning work can be read below.

A Rolvaag Squib
By Katherine Parent

The library is my midnight haunt
I sit in Rolvaag, oscitant
A pale noceur, whose yawning drumble
Belies a pukka need for slumber.

Pug-nozzling, I squint to see
My treatise on oology.
There, like a horrid revenant
Its bleak estate before me vaunts.
With furtive groan I swiftly see
My thesis' nullibicity.
Figures blur and, mocking, jollop.
That cappuccino packed no wallop.

For hours, in silent Reference Room
I steep in frigorific gloom,
Attempt to write, but tensely listen
As every creak gives me a frission.

In Writing Place, on trackless path
I seek the pavid polymath.
At times, amid the torturous stacks
I doze on turgid piles of facts.

But do not think that I traduce
The library's charms or power to soothe.
Or that this squib, by venting spleen
Purports its annals to demean.

For oh, when Friday waxes late
I gambol, sing, I ululate
Embrace with joy the clipsome tomes
My day is done, I'm going home.
Irenic night -- yes, happy fate:
Rolvaag isn't open late.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.