It was a light read clearly for humor but it reminded me how much I love words.
Now that is a bizarre thing to love-but its true. I have been obsessed with words for as long as I can remember. I believe that every thought, feeling, and image has the appropriate yet unique word combination to match. This is why I find myself frequently jotting down pieces of first draft poetry on my iphone then rehashing it later, usually at 3am. I was never a huge fan of prose- sometimes it feels too bulky but words…words I love.
When I was younger I used to read the dictionary. That's right the handheld Webster dictionary. In fact that copy was crazily annotated-I checked the words I did know and had various markings for words I either completely did not know or words that had multiple meanings. Dictionary reading was a 'unique' hobby my dad and I had-something that he now mentions at dinner parties while everyone looks at me like I'm a nut. I once tried to read the encyclopedia but the pages were flimsy and it just wasn't enjoyable to me. It felt possible to learn every single word in that dictionary but memorizing an encyclopedia? Was not happening. I did, however, read a book about a man's journey to read the entire encyclopedia. It drove him (and his wife) insane- lesson learned.
People have asked me if I have a favorite word and I don't. I typically go through word phases (currently I use 'clearly' and 'fabulous' incessantly even though I don't consider them to be remarkably special). I do remember the first two SAT vocab words I really loved (verbose and laconic-apparently I like word pairs). Words that mean their own antonym (such as censure and cleave) are especially fascinating to me. 'Smutty' is also a dear favorite of mine-which was discovered after trying to IM the word 'slutty' on my iphone-instead it autocorrected to 'smutty' (a much more entertaining word).
Sometimes I worry that my vocabulary is decreasing at a rapid pace-I use such a small variety of words on a daily basis. And text messages aren't exactly helping. So tonight I will curl up with my dictionary, read a couple of chapters, and quiz my father in the morning.…xoxo*
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