Frolicking

Snow is not a whole lot different from water on the fun factor scale. You just need to dress up for it. I was thinking about that when I did this painting. I had every intention of writing a simple essay about frolicking in the snow, but got sidetracked.

I typed in the title "Frolicking," which went along nicely. Then I used the word "frolick" and got the spellcheck nazi - correct spelling is f-r-o-l-i-c. Why is that? If I was learning English, this is one of those things that would drive me crazy. Oh wait - I did learn English.

So I went on a search and find for an answer and got sidetracked again. I don't know how I've lived without this all of my life, but this dictionary - the Urban Dictionary - is way more entertaining than Websters:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Frolic

After a half hour of messing around in Urban Dictionary, I got back to work and found this "Spelling Rule." It reminded me of Junior High School when I would pose what I thought was a legitimate question in class only to be scolded by my English teacher from Boston who pronounced my name "Claudier," and glowered back, "it's the rule idiot." The name is Claudiaaaaaa idiot!

Here's the rule: "If a verb ends in -ic (as in picnic), add a k after the c when adding -ed, -ing, and -er: (frolics, frolicking, frolicked)."

I did not find out "why" this rule was imposed, but then realized - whoa - if you learned to read phonetically as I did, and if you leave the "k" off the "c" it would be pronounced "frolising." But why was that pronunciation not valid?

Another search and find revealed that the frolicing spelling was used before 1805 in English literature. What happened? More research reveals this and the end of the search, finally:

"At the turn of the 19th century, there was a development of phonetics as a science.^[4] In 1806, Noah Webster published his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. It included an essay on the oddities of modern orthography and his proposals for reform. Many of the spellings he used, such as color and center, would become hallmarks of American English. In 1807 Webster began compiling an expanded dictionary. It was published in 1828 as An American Dictionary of the English Language. Although it drew some protest, the reformed spellings were gradually adopted throughout the United States.^[7


Frolicking • 8" x 8" framed to 12" x 12" • $200