Thursday, August 02, 2007

Words.....

I like to write. And I like to read.

Overall, I love words! There are times when a word hits me just the right way and it feels good coming off my tongue and the meaning strikes me as significant.

I'm fickle. I use words in stages. A word that felt just right at one point gives way to another.

Right now, my favorites are:

1) Mellifluous

2) Love

3) Serendipity

4) Phoenix

5) Bouncebackability (made up word. I do that, too)

6) Resilience

7) Ameliorate

8) Diddums

9) Lavender

10) Gobsmacked

There are also certain expressions that resonate with me for a time, often giving way to something new as I learn it

1) Cri de couer

2) Mai bpen rai (Thai for "never mind. It's okay.")

3) "Wa" (Japanese for 'harmony')

4) Jai yen yen (Thai for "cool heart")

5) Cassandra's cry (I seem to be melodramatic lately)

6) Synchronicity of indeterminacy (Now is that double-speak or what?)

7) Triumph of random chance

8) Cogito ergo sum (Have to stick at least one Latin phrase in here)

9) Sui generis (I've never given this one up. Been using it since I was a kid.)

10) Chong mang (This is not nice! I only use it when I'm completely exasperated!)

Do you have any favorite words or expressions?

I know this is a silly post but I'm a bit tired today. I'll come up with my usual turgid prose tomorrow.

~*

24 comments:

Anvilcloud said...

Condign is a good word ... if you use it appropriately. :)

KC said...

I'm sure I've used 'bouncebackability' before. Patients that we discharge from the hospital only to come back within a short time frame are called 'bouncebacks' since they return to the same team that cared for them for continuity.

S said...

Ahh. I love words, too.

gobsmacked is good
benign
soporific
pestilence
sycophant
assiduous
evanescent

I could go on, but I won't bore you.

Christine said...

my favorite all time word is "milk" not that i love drinking it or anything but i love to say it and feel it on my tongue.

milk.

Pam said...

Ah, words... I love them too. A few well-chosen words can carry a lot of power.

As for favorites, let's see...
Harmonious
Incredulous
Serendipity works for me too

My brain isn't clicking today, that's the best I can.

Liv said...

I like frisson, allegedly, abject, and most anything in Sanskrit.

Anonymous said...

I like "groovy."

People smile when they hear it. Maybe they're trying not laugh at me, maybe they just like the word too, but either way they're smiling. :o)

Unknown said...

I love words, too. It's not completely unheard of for me to get lost in the dictionary while intending to look up just one word!

flutter said...

Cri de couer is beautiful and strikes me stupid every time I hear it.

I am a fan of Persnickety, and ennui.

QT said...

There are so many sayings in Spanish that I love but that don't really translate -

"Te conozco, mosco" is my fave. Literally, it means "I know you, fly", but really, it means "I know what you are up to...."

thailandchani said...

Anvil.. that is a good one.. mainly because I had to look it up! Thanks for a new word :)

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KC, it's really possible. It's still kind of a made-up word though. Well, until the next issue of the dictionary. :)

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SM, I especially like evanescent... not just because of the musical group but because it's just a pretty word.

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Christine, what about words that rhyme with it? Silk.

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Pam, I got up at 4.00 a.m. again and I am as braindead as is humanly possible while continuing to breathe and have a heartbeat.

I know what you mean. :)

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Liv, anything Sanskrit. Absolutely!

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Thomas, it does bring back memories. LOL We used to say that when I was in my early teens. Far out, man... cowabunga, dude! (I'm from Southern California) :)

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Mary, I used to read it like a book when I was a kid. Even then I had a bad memory though... so not much stuck.

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Flutter... ennui is an awesome word.. and entropy :)

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QT, I like the foreign ones. My current favorite is "mai chaop khoon, dag ling!" I can say it under my breath and no one understands it. Well, I wouldn't say it in Thailand because.. um.. someone would probably knock me on my behind!

It means "I don't like you, you monkey ass!"

~*

Peace,


~Chani

Girlplustwo said...

posturing.
jasmine.
morocco.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

What synchronicity! I was out walking today and it occurred to me that I love the sound of some words.

I can't remember the one that triggered this thought, though.

Mellifluous is almost onomatopoeic, and I would like to know exactly what "chong mang" means as I am always looking for new curse words.

thailandchani said...

Jen, I think Jasmine is a beautiful word, too. Maybe that's why so many people are naming their children that these days.

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Susan.. that it is. :)

Chong mang would translate as.. well... "I don't give a f***."

LOL

~*

Peace,


~C

Aliki2006 said...

I've always loved the word ameliorate too!

My favs:

thalassa (the sea in Greek)
onomatopeia
riveted
consumed
juxtaposition
solstice
solitude

Julie Pippert said...

Oh ask someone who calls herself a word maven if she likes words!

LOL

No space to list them all but I love many; your #1 is on my list.

frenetic
meander
oxymoron

That's just what popped up, first three (my limit).

I also ove making up wrods (note my regular parenthetical instruction to "call Webster's).

Tonight just added a comment to a blog using brand new "reclused myself" to mean "cut myself off from society who won't SHUT UP with the Harry Potter spoilers."

mitzh said...

I love words...

* lilac
* vérité
* momo no hana (peach blossom)
* shuushoku (autumn color)

River said...

I think you're cheating a little there since resilience and bouncebackability mean the same thing. My favourite words are:-
mellow
serenity
whimsy

Snoskred said...

I have such a great link about words which I found via stumbleupon. It'll be in my Sunday Wrap Up. Basically it's a page you can print out with some excellent infrequently used words on it - I'm going to learn one a day. ;)

Snoskred
http://www.snoskred.org/

Christine said...

silk is good, but there is something about milk that is just so wonderful to me!

meno said...

Humu-humu-nuku-nuku-apua'a
Quintessential
Vicissitudes
Malarky
Licentious
Lugubrious
Obsequious

and on and on.

Oh yeah, and pusillanimous

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Oh, goodie! Chong mang, chong mang, chong mang!!!

crazymumma said...

usually I just swear under my breath.

or say freakin alot.

but I am prone to literary references, of course none spring to mind at the moment because it is three in the morning and I must lay me down to sleep....

but cri du couer. nice.

Anonymous said...

Today I like "poleaxed."