Make Your Point > Archived Issues > CAVIL

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connect today's word to others: When is a complaint a cavil? When it's dumb, trivial, fussy, irrelevant, and irritating. If a Starbucks barista writes "Leisel" on my cup instead of "Liesl," I'd better not cavil about it. Or carp, or yawp, or yammer, or quibble. Could you explain how each of those means something slightly different? Or would you say they're so similar that we really shouldn't cavil about it? make your point with... "CAVIL" ("Cavil" comes from a Latin word meaning "to mock or jeer," but we don't use that meaning anymore.) A cavil is an annoying little complaint about things that don't matter. And, to cavil is to complain in an annoying way about little things that don't matter. Pronunciation: CAV ull (rhymes with "travel") Part of speech: Both a noun (the countable kind: "a cavil," "two cavils," "many cavils") and a verb (usually the intransitive kind: "to cavil," "to cavil about something"). Other forms: cavils, caviled, caviling (or "cavilling") How to use it: Talk about someone's cavils: my cavils, her cavils, their cavils. "I enjoyed the show, despite my cavils." You can cavil about something, cavil against something, or cavil at someone or something: "They'll cavil about the contract." "They'll cavil against every minor adjustment." "The meal is great, but she'll find something to cavil at." Or, you can just cavil: "They can cavil all they want; we're doing it our way." You can also cavil that something isn't good enough, or cavil that something bad will happen: "She caviled that the bread was too soft." "He caviled that the helmet would ruin his aerodynamics." When you talk about caviling, you can use it like an action ("I'm tired of their political caviling") or a description ("He's such a caviling employee"). examples: I should set aside my cavils about the shiplap and the pergolas and just enjoy watching "Fixer Upper." A customer once caviled that we delivered his pizza too quickly. (Really?) study it now: Look away from the screen to explain the definition in your own words. You’ll know you understand what "cavil" means when you can explain it without saying "whine" or "make frivolous complaints." try it out: Fill in the blanks: "(Someone's) only cavil against (something) is that _____." Example: "My only cavil against this brand of yogurt is that the packaging is generic--so generic that it reminds me of those creepy DHARMA Initiative products from the show Lost." before you review: Spend at least 20 seconds occupying your mind with the game below. Then try the review questions. Don’t go straight to the review now—let your working memory empty out first. Our game this month is "A Vocabulary of Movie Quotes." Jean Picker Firstenberg at the American Film Institute (AFI) says, "Great movie quotes become part of our cultural vocabulary." I believe it! I bet you can recall, verbatim, any of the AFI's "100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time" if all I give you is a single word from the quote. For example, if I give you the word KANSAS, I bet you can recite this: "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore," from The Wizard of Oz (1939). I'll share each answer in the following issue. And we’ll work our way forward in time, starting with the oldest movies. Let’s play! From the previous issue: From a 1980 film, what's the famous quote that includes the word SHIRLEY? Answer: From Airplane!:    Striker: "Surely you can't be serious."    Rumack: "I am serious...and don't call me Shirley." Try this today: From a 1982 film, what's the famous quote that includes the word PHONE? review today's word: 1. A close opposite of CAVIL is A. LAUD B. LILT C. MARSHAL 2. When the _____ filled up with cavils instead of _____, we dispensed with it. A. comments box .. meaningful feedback B. donation bin .. housewares C. recycle bin .. papers Answers are below. a final word: Make Your Point is crafted with love and brought to you each weekday morning by Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From Liesl's blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes. Answers to review questions: 1. A 2. A