More Word Geekery


Wherein Our Heroine Continues the Word Rampage.
John sent me this this morning. Ah. Now that I am on an word-rampage, it is nice to be able to continue it. (I'm a bit of an organization freak, he works in a library: we're a match made in the card catalogue).

What a great collection of syllables and meanings are there! Clandestine, lugubrious, obstreperous, curmudgeon, ethereal, chiaroscuro, lagniappe, twee...

Who could possibly limit themselves to secret, dismal, unruly, crusty old man, heavenly, light and shade, small gift, or cute? (No, a twee is not something whose bwanches you cwimb, even if my spell-checker doesn't recognize it.) All of these are perfectly useful, lovely words, if a bit basic. Basic is fine: Whistler painted masterpieces in shades of gray. But what if all art were only painted in shades of gray? We would long for red, purple, green and yellow. And after that, we would reach deeper for scarlet, aubergine, peridot and jonquil.

There is a statistic out there that people like to throw around regarding how many words an average American has in their vocabulary. While that is probably nonsense (I can feel my eyebrows start to lift almost automatically when the terms "average person" or "average American" are invoked), I would say it is generally true that there are a great many under-utilized words in common speech and writing. As such, we paint our word-pictures either in shades of gray or bright, harsh primary colors, losing the opportunity for subtle shading.

I like seeing the world in magenta, amber, mocha, and silver, and I'm looking for new colors every day.
Posted: Wednesday - May 19, 2004 at 09:16 AM         | |

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