Sweat is one of those Old English words that has dwindled in meaning since Anglo-Saxon times. Back in those sword-swinging times, sweat mean “blood.”

By Middle English times sweat had acquired its modern meaning of “perspiration.”

In addition to its current literal meaning, sweat enjoys a rich figurative life:

sweat of one’s brow
This expression comes from Genesis 3:19:

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

The expression has been used with a legal meaning in discussions of copyright law: “the effort expended in labor, and the value created thereby.”

sweat equity
value added to a house by means of the unpaid labor of owner or tenant.

sweatshirt
“a collarless long-sleeved pullover made of cotton jersey with a smooth-finished face and a heavily napped back” –Merriam Webster

sweat pants
athletic pants made of the same fabric as a sweatshirt

sweatband/sweat-band: can be either the band of leather or other material that forms the lining of a cap, or a band of terry cloth or other absorbent material worn around the head to absorb perspiration.

sweat bee
a bee attracted to the salt in human perspiration

night sweats
Excessive sweating during sleep. Medical term: Sleep hyperhidrosis

sweat shop
a small factory that does not conform to local standards of safety, sanitation, length of workday, or payment.

sweat lodge
an enclosed area heated by steam from water poured on hot stones; used especially by American Indians for spiritual and/or health purposes.

sweater girl
a model or actress who wears tight-fitting sweaters for publicity photos. The first “sweater girl” was Lana Turner.

no sweat
This idiom means “no problem.”
“Can you fix this wretched computer for me?”
“No sweat,”

When I saw “ram-shackled” used to describe a boat. the image of a boat chained to a ram sprang immediately to mind.

Both ramshackle and ramshackled are used to describe a building or other fairly large object in a state of extreme disrepair.

The word started out as ransackled and is related to such words as ransom and sack (as in “to pillage.”)

I’ve also seen ramshackle/ramshackled written as two words:

Ram-shackled economies –headline at the New Statesman

Factories in China range from some of the most modern in the world to small ram shackled facilities. –story at the Huffington Post

Both ramshackle and ramshackled should be written as one word.

Unless, of course, you are making a pun, as the writer of this Washington Post headline was doing:

Ram-Shackled
The Redskins’ Defense Is Shredded For 579 Yards in an Overtime Loss

The opposing team was the St. Louis Rams.

This is a guest post by Debra Wheatman. If you want to write for Daily Writing Tips check the guidelines here.

W. Fowler coined the term “elegant variation” to denote the unnecessary use of synonyms to denote a single thing.  One of his examples was a newspaper excerpt in which the writer referred to the same person, the King of England, as Emperor, His Majesty, and the Monarch.  Fowler’s objection to this kind of “elegant variation” was that

“the effect is to set readers wondering what the significance of the change is, only to conclude that there is none.”

When it comes to drafting a strong resumé, elegant variation is not only acceptable, but desirable.

Your resumé is a marketing document. The product being marketed is you. The death knell of any marketing campaign is boredom. Boring products don’t sell. If your resumé comes across as uninteresting, so do you: you probably won’t get put in the short pile; you probably won’t get interviews, and someone with a more exciting resumé will get the job.

Many resumés use the same verbs and phrases over and over again. You can use “elegant variation” to engage the reader with the use of compelling, absorbing, engrossing, gripping, riveting, and fascinating action verbs and descriptive words.

Here are some examples of “elegant variation” in action –

Why say “led” when you can claim to have spearheaded, propelled, pioneered, orchestrated, officiated, optimized, instituted, inspired, headed, governed, enacted, directed, crafted, controlled, championed, built, or supervised.

Why say you “developed” something when you can use cultivated, advanced, evolved, fostered, amplified, promoted, expanded, actualized, refined, augmented, enriched, extended, magnified, or strengthened.

Why “handle” something when you can address, advance, alter, apply, centralize, compile, conduct, construct, coordinate, determine, execute, exhibit, formalize, govern, oversee, or establish it.

Obviously, these words cannot and should not be substituted without understanding context and nuance. It behooves you to spend the time to find alternates whenever possible.

There are numerous tools that can help your resume be more stimulating. I have a dog-eared and coffee-stained copy of Roget’s International Thesaurus. This book was a gift from my father when I was in college and is still without a doubt, the most useful resource for writing – period. When I am writing for clients, including business documents, resumés, and cover letters, I keep this book very close by to help me identify synonyms to avoid repeating the same words over and over.

The Internet is a wonderful source of new words to use in your career documents. Some examples that I use regularly are dictionary.com and visualthesaurus.com.

Job descriptions can provide a plethora of phrases and key words that you should review. Part of what draws the attention of a hiring manager is the use of key words that are related to the job vacancy. It is very easy to identify positions online; review the roles in connection with your résumé so you can create some compelling content as you draft your document.

Employ some creativity when creating your focused, succinct, cogent, inspirational, targeted, exceptionally results-focused résumé. (How’s that for a few adjectives?) Entice your reader with a taste – not the plate of what you have to offer!

Debra Wheatman is a human capital management strategist and the founder of Careers Done Write, a career services firm. Debra is also the Career Doctor, a career advice blog for business leaders and executives.

Time for another round of the DWT Poetry Competition. If you want to check the previous rounds just visit the Competitions category page.

Previous rounds got over 200 votes each, so thanks for all the readers who are taking the time to read the poems and vote on their favorites.

As usual we have some thoughtful poems today, so check them out.

Watching an episode of The Good Wife the other evening, I was puzzled by a lawyer character’s use of the word invert.

A witness had been murdered. The lawyer was trying to prove that the witness list had been leaked because the last two letters of the witness’s name were “inverted” on the official list and were also “inverted” on a note written by the killer.

I completely lost track of the story as I tried to figure out how the letters in what was presumably a typed word could have been turned upside down. Then the camera showed the list and I saw that the last two letters, e-r, had been reversed to r-e. Ah, I thought, reversed! I could turn my attention back to the story.

The experience got me thinking about the two words.

invert: 1533, from M.Fr. invertir, from L. invertere “turn upside down, turn about,” from in- “in, on” + vertere “to turn”

reverse: c.1300, from O.Fr. revers “reverse, cross,” from L. reversus, pp. of revertere “turn back”

In some contexts “inverted” does mean “reversed.”For example, an” inverted sentence” is one in which the verb changes its usual place and comes before the subject: Before me lay the ruined sword.

An “inverted syllogism” is one in which the statement “All A are B” invites the conclusion “All B are A.”

On the other hand, “inverted commas,” another term for “quotation marks,” is so termed because opening quotation marks (in some fonts anyway) are upside-down commas.

Depending on the typeface, opening and closing quotation marks may be identical in form (called “vertical”, “straight”, or “typewriter” quotation marks), or they may be distinctly left-handed and right-handed (”typographic” or, colloquially, “curly” quotation marks). The closing single quotation mark is identical or similar in form to the apostrophe, and similar to the prime symbol. –Wikipedia

The OED lists 13 definitions with numerous sub-definitions for reverse, including “invert.” It gives 10 for invert, including “reverse.”

I’m sure that not every viewer boggled at the lawyer’s use of the word inverted in the Good Wife episode, but I doubt that I was the only one who did. It’s probably a good idea to think about possible ambiguity when using these words.