Words! Wonderful words!

As much as I've always wanted to be a science and math person, I'm just not. I'm a word person. I want to swim in wonderful words and use the unexpected one or the perfect one whenever possible. Mark Twain is probably my favorite wordsmith with his elegant and efficient prose, but Jeffrey Eugenides is the latest writer to inspire and shame me with his use of the English language.

When I was a kid, I read constantly and absorbed all kinds of wonderful words, often using words like "vex" or "serendipitous" in everyday conversation. This, predictably, resulted in a lot of affectionate teasing by my siblings and parents. As a result, when I considered using a great word, I would try to find its pedestrian equivalent to avoid mockery. Now, I wave my nerd flag high and embrace my love of words.

I recently reread a great book called "On Writing Well" and found this awesome passage that summarizes the importance of words perfectly:

You'll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of meaning that is almost obsessive. The English language is rich in strong and supple words. Take the time to root around and find the ones you want... What's the difference between "cajole," "wheedle," "blandish," and "coax"? Get yourself a dictionary of synonyms... Look up "villain," for instance, and you'll be awash with such rascality as only a lexicographer could conjure back from centuries of iniquity, obliquity, depravity, knavery, profligacy, frailty, flagrancy, infamy, immorality, corruption, wickedness, wrongdoing, backsliding, and sin. You'll find ruffians and riffraff, miscreants and malefactors, reprobates and rapscallions, hooligans and hoodlums, scamps and scapegraces, scoundrels and scalawags, jezebels and jades. You'll find adjectives to fit them all (foul and fiendish, devilish and diabolical), and adverbs and verbs to describe how the wrongdoers do their wrong, and cross-references leading to other thickets of venality and vice.

This is the kind of passage that makes me swoon. Why fight a "bad guy" when you could battle a "reprobate" or a "scapegrace"?

In response to reading this great book once again, I started keeping a list of all the great words I heard this week, usually in the course of my work but also just in regular conversation or reading to Aidan. Luckily, Aidan and I are reading Roald Dahl this week who is a master of style and phraseology (and whose 15 book set is on sale at Costco for $24.99. You're welcome.). These are mostly words I know, but never think to use. Some I had the pleasure of looking up and learning their exact shades of meaning or the correct spelling (who knew kow tow was spelled with a k?).

Here we go then.

Balkanize - To divide into smaller, mutually hostile groups. I heard this word in a strategic plan report this week and it was so aptly used, I vowed to use it in my own professional writing. Only when appropriate, of course.

Insouciant - Showing a casual lack of concern; indifferent. This word was in an old article talking about Serena Van der Woodsen, Blake Lively's character on Gossip Girl, but I aspire to be described this way someday as well.

Liaise - Establish a working relationship, typically in order to cooperate on a matter of mutual concern. My friend Adriana used this word in her editor bio for Creative Libraries Utah and pointed out that she could even spell it without looking it up, no easy task with all those vowels. Boom.

Nadir - The lowest point in the fortunes of a person or organization. This word became a favorite when I was studying for the GRE a few years back. Whenever someone says "low-point" or "rock-bottom" I always think to myself, I know a better word for that.

Puerile - Childishly silly or trivial. I was listening to a podcast with the Alabama Story playwright and he used this word to describe a censored book from the 1950's South. I didn't know what it meant so I looked it up and thought, "that's exactly what that book is! Puerile!"

Piebald - A horse or other animal having irregular patches of two colors. This word stuck in my mind (after hearing and looking it up) because of my dog Stan. Stan is part-Australian Shepherd and has that traditional Aussie black and white coat.  Is Stan piebald? I don't know. Seems so, and I will describe him thusly.

My piebald dog.

Kaffeeklatsches - An informal social gathering at which coffee is served. I've said this word a few times but never saw it spelled out until I saw it in a New York Times article this week. Who knew it was spelled with two Ks? In my head it had two Cs.

Kow tow - Act in an excessively subservient manner. My husband used this word, and I thought, "there's another one I use and have no idea how it's spelled." Lo and behold, this one has a K too!

Sophomoric - Pretentious or juvenile. Heard it. Loved it. Used it in my own writing this week.

Trenchant - Vigorous or incisive in expression or style. Can't remember where I heard this word, but I added to my list nonetheless so I must have liked it. I also like the words "vigorous" and "incisive".

Auspicious - Conducive to success; favorable. Lenore used this word yesterday when talking about the sunrise on the day of her sealing (see why we're friends?). I immediately looked it up and added it to the list because it was the just right word for what she was saying. Well done.

The auspicious sunrise

Keeping track of great words this week made me think I should do this more often. When I was a kid, I would read the dictionary for fun and put stars next to the words I liked best. Is this really any different? Although I know you all like pictures of Aidan and Stan best, would the occasional vocabulary list on My Sugar House Life be an okay substitute from time to time?

I'll take your silence as acquiescence.