I love words. Everyday words, rare and special words, technical words, poetic words, onomatopaeic words and nonsense words ... I'm pretty much with Sesame Street's Abby Cadabby on this: I've never met a word I didn't like.
Some words, though, give particular pleasure. Some of my everyday favourites are satisfyingly simple: egg, mug and ooze for example. Some are simply silly - ridiculous even - like cauliflower and collywobbles, ramshackle and rhinoceros. Others are scrunchy, tactile words like gravel, velveteen and - um - scrunchy.
You may have spotted a theme by now. Many of my favourites are words which sound somehow right for their meanings. Candelabra, for instance, sounds heavy, expensive and breakable. Thin sounds, well, thin. Curvaceous sounds wonderfully sensuous and generous.
It makes me especially happy when people create new words that feel apt, satisfying, or just plain perfect! Lewis Carroll, of course, was a master at this. The nonsense words in his poem Jabberwocky feel so right that people who hear them can often give you their own definitions. Try it yourself, with slithy, mimsy, frumious and uffish for instance. (Your definitions may or may not be the ones which Humpty Dumpty gave to Alice).
And of course, the very technology that brings you this blog has also introduced us to a fantastic, rich new vocabulary, with some words - like downloading, texting, streaming and re-booting, for example - now much more everyday than technical. If you fancy a laugh - or you need definitions of phrases like textrovert, foot in mouth disease or bullshit bingo - I'd really recommend The Urban Dictionary!
Yes, words are fun; words are there to be played with! I'm planning to invent at least one new word per week for the lifetime of this blog, starting with snorquel - which is the puzzling phenomenon of many Frenchmen snorkling together - and the title of today's photo. Go on, why don't you give it a go too?! Send me your invented words and I'll include them here!
Flow x
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