Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Words

I love words. There are so many of them; one for almost any application. I used to work for a plumber and an electrician. They ran about 20 guys between them and shared the building and me as office manager. The guys always accused me of never using a nickel word if a 25¢ word would do.

It's true. I will not hang my head in shame but will proudly proclaim, it's true.

Some of my favorite web sites are Dictionary.com, Urban Dictionary, Visual Thesaurus, World Wide Words. A great blog is WordImperfect. My favorite NPR program is Says You. No secret there, I have links to all of them in the right-hand column. I e-subscribe to Mirriam-Webster's Word of the Day.

I have favorite words, which I must admit change from day to day. There are so many good ones, it's hard to stick with a few.

  • onomatopoeia
  • lugubrious
  • velleity
  • tintinnabulation
  • moxie
  • peripatetic
  • rococo
  • troglodyte
Wonderful words all, but how does one casually work them into a conversation?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another reason I think you are so great to have as a friend. I will have to get out my dictionary to find the meaning of most of your list but will do my best to work one of them into our next conversation. KC

Wunx~ said...

Hey KC -- We'll never have the following conversation, but it uses all them there fancy words:

"An onomatopoeia," my roommate said, "is a word that sounds like what it means, like bark or tintinnabulation."

Overcome with velleity, I replied, "I am not quite inspired to look that up in the dictionary, so why don't you just tell me what it means."

"Tintinnabulation? It is a rather rococo word to describe the ringing of bells. Poe used it to great effect in his poem, 'The Bells'."

I'm afraid my tone of voice became rather lugubrious as I said, "Oh aren't you just the effete, intellectual vocabulary snob. You do so love to make me feel like a troglodyte. If only I had the moxie, I would leave this sorry shack we live in and take up the life of a peripatetic, never stopping any one place long enough to become annoyed with anyone or anything."

My roommate snorted. He knew just as well as I that I was ensconced here until the term ended.

Anonymous said...

Wow,now I am impressed. Thanks for taking the time to put that together. I think the life of a peripatetic sounds grand. A life without ever being annoyed....I wonder if it is possible. KC

bioephemera said...

I actually used onomatopoeia, rococo AND moxie last week, no kidding (This is why I moved here: I can use ALL my vocabulary in conversation!)

Tintinnabulation is one of the best words ever. Also good: phlegmatic.

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

Moxie has always been a favorite of mine...