I Need to Stop Fudgeling

Words are vital in the ongoing communication between others of our species.  Many words we use every day and most of the item, people actually know how to use them.  Other times, they don't.  To quote a line from the movie The Princess Bride "You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means."  It's important to know how to use those nice, big, long words that you find randomly in a book so that you don't sound like a complete idiot.

Now, when I was still in college, I was in a class designed to help me teach kids how to write and the professor had this great project for us.  We had to have a writing journal but it wasn't for just writing essays down in.  We could write anything we wanted, as long as it had to do with writing.  One of the pages that I created in my journal was a list of interesting words.  It didn't matter if the words were short or long, just as long as they looked weird when you spelled them out or sounded weird when you said them, then that word made the list.  Here is just a sampling of the words that I had on my list:

Triskaidekaphobia - fear of the number thirteen
This word, not only is it fun to say due to the fact that it is a phobia word, which is always a tongue twister, is a word that I actually do use (mainly on any Friday the 13th) and is a part of my mental lexicon (my mental dictionary, see you just learned a new phrase)

Schmuck - an obnoxious person
This is one that I seem to use a lot, especially if I am in a situation where I can't cuss and I need to express just how much I don't like a person.  It is just very satisfying to say.

Periwinkle - a shade of blue-violet, also another name for the myrtle plant and it is also the name of any variety of sea snails
This is one of Lee's favorite words, although he will just say it on random occasions when I ask him a question and not actually use it in a real context. Ha!

(brief side note:  I actually didn't know about that periwinkle refers to sea snails as well, so I learned something new today too)

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - as Mary Poppins said "its a word to say when you're not sure what to say", it's commonly defined as extraordinarily good
I bet when you read this word that the song from Mary Poppins started playing in your head.  And if it didn't, watch this clip of the song and then it will :-)
https://g.co/kgs/RGD3cS


So, what is the purpose of talking about all this?  Well, after working with kids, it is clear to me that a lot of the beauty of our language is being lost when people forget how to use all the great words that are available to express ourselves.  It is important that we remember to use the big words, the odd words and the silly words to express ourselves, not just the common and easy to remember words.  So in the spirit of expanding one's vocabulary, I share with you this page, which can also be found on Facebook.  Have fun and expand your mind!

Grandiloquent Word of the Day - http://grandiloquent-word.tumblr.com/