A Favourite Word
It's Monday again, the beginning of the week for those of us in the Western World.
Wishing you a wonderful week.
Words are wonderful things. In any language, they convey a gamut of emotions and, strung together, express so much.
Do you have a favourite word or two? I have several. I am fascinated by words. How one word can mean at several different and unrelated things - like how "Rake" can mean a dissolute person or a libertine or a garden implement, or ransack or scrape, or glance over rapidly or an inclination from the horizontal (a slope) or the overhang of a ship's bow or stern! One word, several meanings.
I am also taken by how words sound and how they are spelled - encyclopaedia or encyclopedia, according to the Americans.
I think my Dad is to blame for my fascination with words. As an 8 year old, he engaged me in his version of spelling bees. I learned that words ending with "-gue" had the "ue" silent and that the Americans discarded silent letters in such words, hence "Neighbor", "Parlor" and the likes. I learned that knowing the origin of words helped make me a better "speller" so to speak. Words that ended in "ology" were Greek and so were the words that had "psy" in them. I learned the power of using words to either muddy and confuse by distraction or to clarify by focus.
My answer to "what do you want to be when you grow up" was always dependent on what new word I had learned. So, over time, I have wanted to be an astronaut, astrologist, psychologist, psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, archeologist, architect, gynaecologist, paediatrician. I applied to University, first to read Architecture (never mind that my drawing was sketchy - I was 14, so, it didn't matter to me) and then the following year to read Pharmacy because there were courses like Pharmacology and Pharmacognosy (what? I was 15 years old!)
Now, as much as I like words, I hate to be verbose or like or venerable and honorable Patrick Obahiagbon, who would make the most learned linguist hold their head in horror at the "unnecessaryness" of his speech!
What is my favorite word? Vapid. It means dull, boring or not lively or interesting, lacking liveliness, tang, briskness or force (a definition by merriam-webster online dictionary)
So, instead of saying "The movie was not interesting, the pace was slow; so dull, it bored me to sleep/tears" you simply say, "The movie was vapid!" See?
For Nigerians, we have words that we use regularly. "Integrity" is one of them; "Nascent" was a word that was used to death by the Press in the early years of return to democratic rule (Nascent Democracy. I don't know how many times hearing the word made me cringe I guess no-one bothered to check the meaning of the word, nor did they know when to stop using it.
There are many other Nigerian favourites but the one that depicts the highest praise of a human in Nigeria is the word "Humble." If a Nigerian describes you as being "Humble" that is very high praise indeed. Though I am not very sure what they mean by it, Lol!!!
So, do you have a favourite word?
Wishing you a wonderful week.
Words are wonderful things. In any language, they convey a gamut of emotions and, strung together, express so much.
Do you have a favourite word or two? I have several. I am fascinated by words. How one word can mean at several different and unrelated things - like how "Rake" can mean a dissolute person or a libertine or a garden implement, or ransack or scrape, or glance over rapidly or an inclination from the horizontal (a slope) or the overhang of a ship's bow or stern! One word, several meanings.
I am also taken by how words sound and how they are spelled - encyclopaedia or encyclopedia, according to the Americans.
I think my Dad is to blame for my fascination with words. As an 8 year old, he engaged me in his version of spelling bees. I learned that words ending with "-gue" had the "ue" silent and that the Americans discarded silent letters in such words, hence "Neighbor", "Parlor" and the likes. I learned that knowing the origin of words helped make me a better "speller" so to speak. Words that ended in "ology" were Greek and so were the words that had "psy" in them. I learned the power of using words to either muddy and confuse by distraction or to clarify by focus.
My answer to "what do you want to be when you grow up" was always dependent on what new word I had learned. So, over time, I have wanted to be an astronaut, astrologist, psychologist, psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, archeologist, architect, gynaecologist, paediatrician. I applied to University, first to read Architecture (never mind that my drawing was sketchy - I was 14, so, it didn't matter to me) and then the following year to read Pharmacy because there were courses like Pharmacology and Pharmacognosy (what? I was 15 years old!)
Now, as much as I like words, I hate to be verbose or like or venerable and honorable Patrick Obahiagbon, who would make the most learned linguist hold their head in horror at the "unnecessaryness" of his speech!
What is my favorite word? Vapid. It means dull, boring or not lively or interesting, lacking liveliness, tang, briskness or force (a definition by merriam-webster online dictionary)
So, instead of saying "The movie was not interesting, the pace was slow; so dull, it bored me to sleep/tears" you simply say, "The movie was vapid!" See?
For Nigerians, we have words that we use regularly. "Integrity" is one of them; "Nascent" was a word that was used to death by the Press in the early years of return to democratic rule (Nascent Democracy. I don't know how many times hearing the word made me cringe I guess no-one bothered to check the meaning of the word, nor did they know when to stop using it.
There are many other Nigerian favourites but the one that depicts the highest praise of a human in Nigeria is the word "Humble." If a Nigerian describes you as being "Humble" that is very high praise indeed. Though I am not very sure what they mean by it, Lol!!!
So, do you have a favourite word?
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