Bellicose
(adj.) having or showing a ready disposition to fight
Bellicose. Like most of the upcoming words-of-the-day, I picked bellicose because 1) I have never heard of it before and 2) it made me think.
I personally know very few bellicose people in my life. I am, most days, an easy-going person and a recovering doormat; so I tend to shy away from people that are looking for a fight. In fact, I really can’t stand real confrontation at all and it makes me break down into really embarrassing girly tears nearly every time, so a bellicose nature would send me running for the hills.
Since this nature is nearly opposite to my own, the very idea of it lends new meaning to the way I think about the characters that I write. I can honestly say that none of them has even the slightest hint of that trait; they are all variations and mix-ups of me and the people I know. Not that this is bad thing per se, but now I can’t help but wonder what other personality quirks my characters might be missing out on just because I’m an introverted recluse.
I guess what I’m getting at is that it’s Saturday morning, and I’d like to be sitting on my couch playing video games and instead I’m thinking about how a random word I found online is changing the cast of characters that I write about on a day-to-day basis. What would a person who is ready to fight all the time be like? How would they live their everyday life? Is it easy for them to make friends? What kind of people would want to be around them? Dang it, I’m missing out on major Saturday Morning Cartoon time thinking about this!
Which I suppose is the point…*sigh* I suppose I can always watch Saturday AFTERNOON Cartoons instead, since they’re all on Netflix anyway.
Do you have any bellicose characters in your writings? Or better yet, do you know people like this in real life? Or are you one yourself? Have I deeply offended you by my ignorance and now you want to punch me? (Please don’t.) Let me know in the comments!
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(A note for long-time readers: Please excuse the mess! I accidentally messed up my blog’s theme and formatting, so I’m trying out some new stuff to see if I like it. I realized last night that I didn’t really fix anything, so yeah…it’s kinda broken right now. But I will fix it as soon as I eat my s’mores cereal and watch old reruns of Pokemon!)
The Blog of Christine B. 
I do know someone like that! I do. She’s a quadriplegic lady and she’s had to defend herself a lot, so she assumes the worst about most situations. Don’t cross her, helpless but formidable. But she could run someone over with her electric wheelchair I guess. Anyway, nice word, bellicose.
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Thanks for sharing! I especially like knowing the reasoning behind it; makes a lot of sense if you have to defend yourself on a daily basis. Having a fighting nature seems like such a negative thing, but I’m beginning to understand that it doesn’t always have to be.
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Nice word! While I don’t have bellicose people at home, I see a lot of them when I step out – everyone is so ready to fight at the slightest provocation! Looking forward to your other words for the AtoZ, Christine. Your blog is looking good! And that gif in the footer had me laughing! It
Vidya Sury
– having fun with cohost Damyanti’s D’s Company and four blogs in the #AtoZChallenge
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Happy A-Zing!
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Thank you for dropping by! I just never leave the house so I never see any people – my solution to avoiding confrontation, lol.
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Good word, there ☺ I first came across it when I was studying WW1 in history class at school. The book I was reading described the European empires as all having “a bellicose nature”, which is partly to blame for the war. I always think of that whenever I hear it now.
Pokemon, eh? Nice! I suppose it could be said that Gary is often bellicose! 😄
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Ooh, historical reference, you get +5 internet points! That makes a lot of sense for that time period, since WW1 was pretty ridiculous.
And hell yeah, Gary’s a bellicose asshole! But definitely a better trainer than Ash…and now I’m going to go ponder what other characters I can think of that are bellicose, lol.
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Woohoo! Five points! 😄
That’s true, as much as we might hate to admit it…Cool, have fun with that!
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Oooh, I like “bellicose.” Not the definition I was expecting for such a pretty word, I guess because the “belli” sounds like “bella,” meaning beautiful. But the surprise of it makes it all the more interesting. Going on my list of cool words! (A list I do actually have, which is quite long.)
I don’t like bellicose people either. But as characters, mmm yes that could be fun. I definitely have unfriendly sorts in my stories, but not anyone who’s ready to start up some fisticuffs on a moment’s notice. I should incorporate more of that in my work too. Very interesting questions you brought up about what that kind of person would be like!
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I have a list of cool words too! I’m holding on to it for the rest of this month, although it’s waaay older than that.
Bellicose does sound like it would mean something so much nicer than it is. Makes me curious as to it’s origins. Dang it, gonna have to look that up now, lol.
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Let me know what you find!
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late Middle English: from Latin bellicosus, from bellicus ‘warlike,’ from bellum ‘war.’ – can’t argue with that!
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Interesting! I wonder if bellum has anything to do with cerebellum…
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No, no more rabbit holes! They distract me so! *spends more minutes looking up word origins anyway* Huh, apparently it doesn’t…medical words are weird that way.
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Aw, bummer. I liked the metaphor of the brain being associated with war, all that gunfire across the synapses. 🙂
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