A SUGGESTION MADE TO ME by one of the few early readers of this blog (a friend, natch) that I explain exactly what a “rant” is. That was brought on by my having two categories on this website with that word in their title: “Neal’s Rants (Really Political” and “Neal’s Rants (Not-So-Political).” In neither do I rant in the manner to which we Americans have become due to the ubiquity to rightwingnut talkshow radio. But that’s another story!
Rant is usually used as an intransitive verb. According to Wikipedia, “an intransitive verb is a verb that has no direct object. . . . Examples of intransitive verbs include to age, to die, and to sleep.”
Merriam-Webster defines rant as “to talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner,” and, secondarily, “to scold vehemently.”
Rant may also be used as a transitive verb (a verb that has an object), in which case it would mean “to utter in a bombastic declamatory fashion.”
Example: “Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh ranted at the feminazis for more than an hour on his show.”
One who rants is a ranter.
Example: “Rush Limbaugh is both loved and reviled as a ranter who knows no equal in the rightwingnut radio talkshow circuit.
Ranters often speaks rantingly.
Example: “Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh verbally—some might say rantingly—assaulted the feminazis for more than an hour on his show.”
There: Neal defines rant. You will notice that I rarely rant here in “Neal’s Rants.” I dinna care; I just like the title!
There, now I have a “Neal defines rant” post . . .
Mystically liberal Virgo enjoys long walks alone in the city at night in the rain with an umbrella and a flask of 10-year-old Laphroaig who strives to live by the maxim, “It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you know that just ain’t so.
I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a college dropout (twice!). Occupationally, I have been a bartender, jewelry engraver, bouncer, landscape artist, and FEMA crew chief following the Great Flood of ’72 (and that was a job that I should never, ever have left).
I am also the final author of the original O’Sullivan Woodside price guides for record collectors and the original author of the Goldmine price guides for record collectors. As such, I was often referred to as the Price Guide Guru, and—as everyone should know—it behooves one to heed the words of a guru. (Unless, of course, you’re the Beatles.)