These Are a Few of My Favorite… Words

A monumental event has occurred in my household. I purchased my Word of the Day calendar today. No, you don’t understand. This is big for me. I am fascinated by words.  This is a helpful passion when a writer. I don’t really even need them arranged in sentences.  I save my favorite Word of the Day calendar pages. I sometimes browse dictionary.com the way normal people click through Wikipedia. Synonyms, antonyms, syllables; all of these fascinate me. I’m what you call a logophile.

I often find myself wondering about the etymology of a word, not just its meaning or uses. I mean who really looked at a bowl on the end of a stick and thought “Spoon.  Spoon describes that well. I’ll call that spoon.” I enjoy words that sound or feel funny when you say them. Old words, new words, common words, obscure words.  Doesn’t matter.  If there were a word rehab I would be prime candidate.

In celebration of my new calendar, I present the nerdiest of all geek lists in the following list of my favorite words, their definitions courtesy dictionary.com, and even better, movie lines with each of my favorite words featured.  **Bonus geek appreciation points if you can name the movies, because I’m not telling!!!

• spoon: n – utensil for use in eating, stirring, measuring, ladling, etc.,consisting of a small, shallow bowl with a handle.

“Why a spoon, cousin?”  “Because it hurts more, you twit!”

• squishy: adj – soft and wet; softly gurgling or splashing; emotional or sentimental

“I shall call him Squishy.  And he shall be mine. And he shall be my Squishy.”

• smite: v – to strike or hit hard, with or as with the hand, a stick, or other weapon; to affect mentally or morally with a sudden pang

“Smite me, oh mighty smiter!”

• idiom: n – an expression whose meaning is not predictable from theusual meanings of its constituent elements

“He’s not pushing up daisies, he’s dead!” “It’s an idiom.” “You sir, are the idiom.”

• flesh: n – the soft substance of a human or other animal body,consisting of muscle and fat.

“It’s just a flesh wound! Chicken!”

• irony: n- the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning

“Define ‘irony’. A bunch of idiots dancing on a plane to a song made famous by a band that died in a plane crash.”

• unleash: v – to release from or as if from a leash; set loose to pursue or run at will

“At my signal, unleash h*ll.”

• fiend: n – a diabolically cruel or wicked person

“Wanna know how I got these scars? My father was a drinker and a fiend…Why so serious?”

• carpet: n – a heavy fabric, commonly of wool or nylon, for covering floors.

“Will someone get this walking carpet out of my way?”

Ok, I can’t do any post having anything to do with movie quotes without the following. They don’t have any of my favorite words in them, but they do have words.  Good enough for me.

“Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

“You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

And the final shout out to all lover of words and words in movies is my final quote.

“Wait a minute, wait a minute! You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!”

Every now and then the nerd to my geek must make an appearance. All things must stay in balance. For more on words and love thereof, check out my fellow GeekMom, Ellen Henderson, and her list of extinct words.