Me Like Words, Use them Good
Defenestration--the act of throwing a thing or especially a person out of a window
Vivisepulture--an act or instance of burying someone alive
Hagridden--worried or tormented, as by a witch.
Brobdingnagian--of huge size; gigantic; tremendous
These are 4 of my favorite words. I busted out defenestration in a conversation at work one day which left everyone agog waiting for an explanation. I used hagridden in a short story once as well as Brobdingnagian, which is derived from the book Gulliver’s Travels. I have never had the occasion to work vivisepulture into my everyday life. That’s going to be a tough one.
The thing is I don’t use non-ordinary words for any pre-planned purpose. They just come out, definitely when I’m writing and sometimes in conversation. I love words. I love learning new words and once I know them, they may emerge from my mouth when I speak or my fingers when I type.
According to my family this love affair started early. My sister was at one time keeping a list of the words I knew as a child because it grew on a daily basis. I still have somewhere, tucked away in a box or filing cabinet, three paragraph long stories I wrote on an old typewriter when I was around 6 or 7 years old.
The pattern was always the same. I would be watching TV and hear a word I didn’t know. I would ask someone what it meant and head directly for the typewriter. After banging around like a monkey for a while I would wind up with a story built solely around my ability to use that new word I had just learned.
I have been taken to task by a friend and a reviewer once for using too many $25 words in my stories. Oh well. Buy a dictionary, or several like me. Look the word up, learn it, love it, use it, be it, be the word, BE the word (sorry to Chevy Chase and all Caddyshack fans out there). I make no apologies for my use of language because I don’t use it for evil, only for good.
Vivisepulture--an act or instance of burying someone alive
Hagridden--worried or tormented, as by a witch.
Brobdingnagian--of huge size; gigantic; tremendous
These are 4 of my favorite words. I busted out defenestration in a conversation at work one day which left everyone agog waiting for an explanation. I used hagridden in a short story once as well as Brobdingnagian, which is derived from the book Gulliver’s Travels. I have never had the occasion to work vivisepulture into my everyday life. That’s going to be a tough one.
The thing is I don’t use non-ordinary words for any pre-planned purpose. They just come out, definitely when I’m writing and sometimes in conversation. I love words. I love learning new words and once I know them, they may emerge from my mouth when I speak or my fingers when I type.
According to my family this love affair started early. My sister was at one time keeping a list of the words I knew as a child because it grew on a daily basis. I still have somewhere, tucked away in a box or filing cabinet, three paragraph long stories I wrote on an old typewriter when I was around 6 or 7 years old.
The pattern was always the same. I would be watching TV and hear a word I didn’t know. I would ask someone what it meant and head directly for the typewriter. After banging around like a monkey for a while I would wind up with a story built solely around my ability to use that new word I had just learned.
I have been taken to task by a friend and a reviewer once for using too many $25 words in my stories. Oh well. Buy a dictionary, or several like me. Look the word up, learn it, love it, use it, be it, be the word, BE the word (sorry to Chevy Chase and all Caddyshack fans out there). I make no apologies for my use of language because I don’t use it for evil, only for good.
No comments have been added yet.
