My gift for you is the word suffuse, i.e. Have you ever felt happiness suffuse all the cells in your body and a smile light up your face?
—Sarabjit Singh, “Queen of the Hills”, India Currents, November 30, 1996
or
Like an angel or an earthquake, it isn’t there and then it is; it doesn’t steal over us and suffuse us with a festive spirit like the gradual effects of alcohol or good deeds.
—Barbara Peters Smith, “Gladness descends on her home”, Sarasota Herald Tribune, December 27, 2003

Definition: To spread through or over in the manner of fluid or light; to flush.

and
She gave me a long slow look, as if she were deciding something, and then she allowed herself to blush, the color suffusing her throat in a delicious mottle of pink and white.
—T. Coraghessan Boyle, T. C. Boyle Stories

May your birthday be suffuse with happiness and golden sunlight, and mottled with hugs and birthday cake! 4 years ago

Even though Visage hasn’t been overly active on here, because she and I share a birthday I will always want to make sure she has a birthday goal. One of her goals is to expand her vocabulary, so I asked everyone I invited to give her a new word to learn. Here’s my word for her: Virulent · \ˈvir-ə-lənt, ˈvir-yə-\ · (adj.)

1 a : marked by a rapid, severe, and destructive course b : able to overcome bodily defensive mechanisms : markedly pathogenic
2 : extremely poisonous or venomous
3 : full of malice : MALIGNANT
4 : objectionably harsh or strong

EXAMPLE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES
from ” Brave New World of Digital Intimacy ” on September 7, 2008.

”... But as the days went by, something changed. Haley discovered that he was beginning to sense the rhythms of his friends’ lives in a way he never had before. When one friend got sick with a virulent fever, he could tell by her Twitter updates when she was getting worse and the instant she finally turned the corner. He could see when friends were heading into hellish days at work or when they’d scored a big success. Even the daily catalog of sandwiches became oddly mesmerizing, a sort of metronomic click that he grew accustomed to seeing pop up in the middle of each day. ...”

Here are my wishes for her for the coming year: May she get off Facebook and come back over here, or at least do her homework. May she continue to be herself regardless of what others may think. And may she stop picking her skin because it’ll make her fairy wings all bloody. 4 years ago

For your Birthday I’ll send you a whole bunch of Pop Rocks…to make out with someone while they’re in your mouth…I might have to convince my girlfriend to give this a try…mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

I hope you have a great day…

4 years ago