Words to fall in love with — Part 1
In our profession, it’s fairly easy to fall in love with the words we work with. Words are our currency . . . carefully selected, thought about, and fussed over until we finally pick the right word (or words) for the job.
Below are 13 words — one for each letter of the alphabet, A through M — that are guaranteed to make you swoon. Even if you can’t use these in your professional work, you’ll wish you could.
(Part 2 of this post will include words for each letter of the alphabet, N through Z.)
Atavism — the reappearance of a characteristic belonging to an ancestor; reversion to a previous style or manner.
Red hair has long been considered an atavism in my mother’s family.
Bowdlerize — to edit or abridge a book (play, poem, etc.) by omitting or changing parts considered vulgar.
When I read Junie B Jones books to my kids, I often bowdlerize the bad grammar.
Carrel — a small cubicle in a library designed for individual study.
When I was in college, my favorite carrel was on the third floor of the Life Science Library.
Deus ex machina — (from classical Greek drama) a god who intervenes to solve the conflict in a drama.
Who will serve as the deus ex machina if the 2020 presidental election is contested?
Excursus — a detailed discussion of something in a book; an appendix or addendum.
I sometimes find the excursus more interesting than the book itself.
Fustian —a pretentious or pompous speech; a cloth made of cotton or linen.
The last thing we need is another fustian, tone deaf statement from executives.
Gaucherie — a lack of social grace; an awkward act.
Jack committed a gaucherie when he took all the hors d’oeuvres from the waiter’s tray.
Hemeralopia — an eye condition in which sight is poor or absent in daylight but normal at night or in dim light; day blindness.
Because of his hemeralopia, my father would only ever drive us anywhere at night.
Internecine — internal struggles or strife; conflict within a group; conflict that is mutually destructive.
The internecine struggle between the purists and the progressives will tear this Shakespeare company apart.
Jugulate — to cut the throat of; to suppress a disease using extreme measures.
Some efforts to jugulate COVID-19 were more successful than others.
Kerf — the cut or indentation made by a saw.
It’s good practice to make a kerf to indicate where you want to cut.
Lyssophobia — the fear of going mad or insane.
Is compulsively reading about anti-psychotic drugs on Google considered a symptom of lyssophobia?
Mountebank — a person who sells quack medicines from a public platform; a trickster, charlatan; someone with a talent for tricking people into buying things.
Spiritual healers pedaling prayer as a cure-all are the mountebanks of the 21st century.
Readers . . . what words are you in love with?
