Do you have a favorite big word? Or maybe the word isn't that big, it is just not really used in common speech, but somehow has found its way into your common speech?
Let me explain what I mean: Since we have moved to Boone, I have probably read more books than I read the entire time we lived in Pennsylvania. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but not by much. While there are many reasons for the increase in reading, those reasons are not the subject of this post and we are not going to delve into them at this point. Because I have been reading more, I have discovered that almost every author has a favorite word. Now some of these words are large and some just small and unusual, but I can tell that the author loves the word because of the frequency with which it is used.
For example: I read a book that was about three hundred pages and the author used the word miasma three times. Once or twice I could handle, but three?
A book I read last week had the word impervious more than four times. Another had not so surreptitiously used a form of the word surreptitious so many times that I lost count.
I am being honest when I say that I don't really over use any big words. Quite frankly, I don't think I really use any big words in my common speech. But there are plenty of words which I do overuse; this I know this because my children have started to overuse them too. Sometimes they use them correctly, and sometimes not, but I know that in using them they will eventually get it.
And maybe this is the authorial intent behind frequent word usage. These words that I would never have imagined using in normal conversation, I now can because I have read them in many different contexts.
So come on, what is your favorite word?
What is the Word, Hummingbird?
Posted by Unknown at 9:48 PM
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3 comments:
Inconceivable! (actually, I stole it from a favorite movie. . .) I always find myself (and the rest of my family) saying "Actually" WAY too much. But that's about as big as it gets around here since I exited the world of formal intellectual stimulation.
Happy birthday to Mags, way to go guys with the basketball! It's always so much fun to read about your goings-on.
I just asked Brian, and he says I say "honestly" quite frequently. Then he smiles and says, "Also, 'seriously', hahaha!"
Then he goes into this rendition of Kip that he does every time he hears me say "seriously" --(with a lisp)"Seriously Napoleon, LaFonda is the best thing that has ever happened to me."
hee hee! I bust up every time he does it, too!
I have thought about this word-usage thing before too, and it applies to separate families as much as it does to authors. We've been pretty close with lots of different families, and discovering new words through them is interesting! One family will say some words that are never heard in others' homes (no, I'm not talking of the 4-letter kind here :), and vice-versa. It's neat!
Not really my favorite word, but I have a serious relationship with "OK" or "K" for short. Some habits are really hard to break.
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