And Now...Something Completely Different!

Gonna take a quick break from talking about books, to talk about something that without which would make books impossible:

Words.

I love words.  I'm a logophile!  I'm not concerned with whether or not words are sesquipedalian, or requires a lexicographer's intuit to understand (sorry, I had to use some big words in a post about words!).  I just love the way some words sound, and how choosing a synonym of a word can help you be more precise in what you say.

And while I was talking with my mother one day, I began listing off some of my favorite words (does that make me a nerd?), and realized as I did so that I apparently have a favorite letter of the alphabet: P.  There's just something about the way that letter pops when you say it, especially at the beginning of a word.

Plethora.  Palindrome.  Perpendicular.  Precipitate.  Preposterous.  Persistent.  Penultimate.  Pyrrhic.   Prestidigitation.  Pulchritude.  Pusillanimous.  Penchant.  And possibly my favorite: percolate.  There's just something about the "puh" and the "kuh" so close together, and it's a bit longer than perk and perky, which just makes the word sound bubbly, even though it basically means filtering something.  Oh, and "pulchritude" up there?  It sounds so putrid, but really it's quite beautiful.

And of course, there are other words I love that don't start with P, like lickspittle (it's a word!), syzygy, interdigitation, or magnanimous.

...okay, yeah, most of these are sesquipedalian words, but come on.  Say them out loud!  Aren't they awesome?

I even have preferred words for body parts (although a blog post about that may push this into NC-17 territory...).  A SFW example:  I was reading a love scene, when all of a sudden there was a line: "He kissed her tummy."

Wait, what?  Tummy?  Really?  In this love scene (between adults, obviously), you decided to use a word that invokes an image of children?  Because really, to me, "tummy" is what you say to children as you tease them with tickles.  Not adults who are in the process of skoodilypooping.  Even "belly" would've been better, although I think "ab/domen" or even a generic "stomach" would've been the best alternatives.

At any rate: words.  Spread the love.