Backyard

Small Wonders

The dictionary program on my iPhone alerts me daily to a”word of the day” The other day it came up with”opuscule,” a word I had never before encountered. It turns out to be a derivation of the Latin term, opus (a bit of literary or musical work, like in Mr. Holland’s Opus). And, just like in Spanish where you could add”ita” to any noun to imply the diminutive of the noun, an individual could add”cule” in Latin to achieve exactly the same result. So”opuscule” literally signifies”diminutive work” or, in this interpretation, a little, endearing literary or artistic composition. There’s a long tradition of architectural opuscule, particularly in general and residential design. By way of example, there are the garden follies of those 19th-century landscapes. In more recent times, there are observation towers, tea houses, garden sheds, detached garages and much more. What they all have in common is their size…