Stammer

The Word of the Day for November 29 is "stammer."

stammer: (verb) To speak with involuntary pauses or repetitions.

Synonyms: bumble, falter, stutter

Usage: "You - you must think me crazy," stammered Anne, trying to recover her self-possession.

Relevance to my Life: My face red and cheeks hot, I managed to stammer out an apology before rushing away to hide on the third floor of the library among the bound journals where I sat and chewed on my feet for a while, ruing my ability to talk before thinking.

I was trying to think of an example from a movie which showed someone stammering from rage or shock, but drew a blank. I could think of several examples of stuttering. The clip I found show scenes from four different movies with a character who has a major stutter.

What's interesting is how different each character is, and the different responses to the stutter: amused mockery from Otto; Nurse Ratched's no mention of the stutter itself while she still manages to tear down the Billy calmly and coldly; Georgie's complete disregard of an idolized older brother's stutter; a defense attorney's somewhat amused condescension of a client he believes to be a bit feeble.




Stuttering in the Movies
A Fish Called Wanda, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, It, Primal Fear






Introducing Nurse Ratched
For someone who is so calm, collected and reasonable, Nurse Ratched might be the most quietly sadistic character ever written.





One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Therapy
Dog-piling as therapy. Interesting...





A Fish Called Wanda
And now for some humor...