Words
Sharing words that sparkle, appeal, intrigue or otherwise grab me, including those in other languages. The letter quoted below sums up the exuberant love of words perfectly, as well as being a world class job application.
And adoring alliteration, new words will be added on Wednesdays… Wednesday, word day. See you back here then.
Hefted
The sheep are ‘hefted’, taught a sense of belonging to a place by their mothers when they are lambs. They never lose the memory of that place, such as a specific hill-side.
A scrawny, buttermilk-faced young besom
A besom is a broom made of twigs tied around a stick, though in Scottish & Northern English it's also a derogatory term for a woman or girl. 'A scrawny, buttermilk-faced young besom, allus askin' questions an' pokin' tha' nose where it wasna' wanted.' ...
Graidely or gradely
Graidely seems an alternative spelling to 'gradely' which means fine and good; promising and likely; being in good health or physically attractive; fitting and proper. "He's took a graidely fancy to thee. He wants to see thee and he wants to see Soot an' Captain."...
Fair moithered
Bothered or bewildered. 'Moither' can also mean to ramble or speak in a confused way. 'Mother's a good-tempered woman, but she gets fair moithered.' Source: Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden, illus. Inga Moore (London: Walker Books, 2009) (1911), p....
An abundance of afflatus
A divine creative impulse or inspiration, from Latin afflare, 'to' plus 'to blow'. Wishing you an abundance of afflatus. Source: Adam Nicolson, Sea Room: An Island Life (London: Harper Collins, 2013 (2002)), p. 11
Daffydowndilly
Another and charming word for 'daffodils', which are also more commonly referred to as 'daffs'. "Crocuses an' snowdrops an' daffydowndillys. Has tha' never seen them?" Source: Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden, illus. Inga Moore (London: Walker Books,...
Bombinate
A beautiful bumble-bee buzzing about. The dictionary insists this is a literary term for to 'buzz or hum' but such a round, friendly sound deserves more widespread use. For example, there are three trees in front of me that are full of tiny blossoms and every spring,...
Scramasax
A large knife with a single-edged blade, found among Anglo-Saxon grave goods, used for hunting and fighting. ‘I’ve heard of a Varangian grown too old to raise shield or scramasax.' Source: ‘Harald in Byzantium’, The Breaking Hour, Kevin Crossley-Holland (London:...
Jantelagen
A Swedish word used in the north of England – the unwritten rule that forbids anyone to feel or act superior to his or her neighbour.
Acuminate
A leaf tapering to a point; could we use it to encourage people to get to the point: ‘Oh for goodness sake, why can’t you just acuminate?’
Skobby
Another word for 'chaffinch', though it seems obsolete. Not that this should prevent our reviving it, it has a charming, affectionate sound. Source: Dorothy Wordsworth, The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals, ed. and introduction by Pamela Woof (Oxford: Oxford World’s...
Need some negus?
A hot drink of port, sugar, lemon and spice, named after Colonel Francis Negus (d. 1732), who invented it, may he rest in peace. In Dorothy Wordsworth's journal, it seems to have been used medicinally, along with broth. A delicious sounding toddy for a miserable...
Fretted
This use of 'fretted' seems to mean worn or damaged by weather, and 'teazed' is an old spelling of 'teased', here apparently meaning pulled or damaged. I know what she means about the weeds... we have bad hair days, bad garden days, glad to know that even the...
Clapping linen
This seems to mean something like smoothing out and folding linen, though it would baffle people now. 'Mary walked to Ambleside for letters, it was a wearisome walk for the snow lay deep upon the Roads & it was beginning to thaw. I stayed at home & clapped...
Pulling apples
Wordsworth uses this term several times - apparently an obsolete term for picking or gathering apples. 'We pulled apples after dinner, a large basket full.' Sunday 12 October 1800. Source: Dorothy Wordsworth, The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals, ed. and introduction...
Flowering and marking
Dorothy Wordsworth refers to 'flowering and marking', meaning to embroider identification signs on linen. I recently bought some wonderful, secondhand and fine quality bedlinen, with flowers and monograms beautifully embroidered along the top edge of what appear to...
Scrimshank
A playful, crunchy sounding word. Edmund de Waal uses this to suggest all over the place, at random: ‘bricks are piled scrimshanks’. However, the dictionary refers to a ‘scrimshank’ as one who shirks their duty, especially someone in the armed forces.
Jouncing
Jolting or bouncing, an apparently neat melding of both words. ‘Glaring at me staring at him / jouncing on her right wrist.' Source: ‘Girl with hawk’, The Breaking Hour, Kevin Crossley-Holland (London: Enitharmon Press, 2015), p. 65
Anagnorisis
Normally referring to the moment in a play or other work when a character makes a critical discovery, perhaps understanding the real situation for the first time. I liked Nicolson’s use of it in describing Keats’ discovery of Homer: ‘Keats had read and stared in...
Clàr
Scottish Gaelic: plural clàran. A dish, three to four feet long, 18" wide, made of deal, with straw or grass on the bottom; a communal dish from which the family ate, with the food crumbs and straw being given to the animals after. Other meanings given by Wiktionary...
Syke (or sike)
Scottish & N. English: Alternative spelling of 'sike' meaning a small stream or rill, typically one that flows through marshy ground and is often dry in summer. Source: Dorothy Wordsworth, The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals, ed. and introduction by Pamela Woof...
Annaid
Scottish: this seems to be bound up with many place names and to refer to an old church which, for one reason or another, was abandoned and subsequently replaced at a different site. Source: Adam Nicolson, Sea Room: An Island Life (London: Harper Collins, 2013...
Tacksman
Scottish: no, not the man who keeps asking you for huge chunks of your hard-earned money. This refers to a man who holds a tack from another, a tenant. In Scottish law, a tack is a contract by which something is let, hired or leased to another. 'Tacksman's house.'...
Machair
Machair refers to low-lying arable or grazing land formed near the coast by the deposit of sand and shell fragments by the wind, in Scotland, particularly in the Western Isles. '... the beautiful, easily worked machair of Barra itself.' Source: Adam Nicolson, Sea...
Run-rig
Scottish. An agricultural system whereby each year narrow strips of arable land were parcelled out among the families of the community, each family receiving different lots each year, as a form of communal fairness. Source: Adam Nicolson, Sea Room: An Island Life...
Scrutator
Sounds like a cross between a dictator and a screw-ball, or worse. In fact, a rather vividly awful sounding word for someone who scrutinizes, a scrutineer or invigilator. The dictionary says it is someone with the duty of examining or investigating, or historically...
Scripophily
The hobby of collecting old bond or share certificates. Know any scripophiles? You could claim to be one the next time you are trying to impress someone at a party.
Lightduress (Lichtzwang)
Another hybrid word coined by the poet Paul Celan – does it refer to a light amount of duress or the duress that light brings to the eye? Source: Edmund de Waal, The White Road, p. 388
Breathturn (Atemwende)
A word coined by the poet Paul Celan. Edmund de Waal mentions that ‘Celan cannot find words to fit together easily. German is his language, but he is Jewish and German is also the language that killed his family. So Celan brings words together into newness’. One...
Shearling
A ewe who lambs for the first time.
Octothorpe
Another term for the hash symbol, apparently American and dating from the 1970s. Let’s see if this unleashes a worldwide fad for ‘octothorpe tags’.
Catspaw
Seems to be a type of wind, quite distinct from the more common term of ‘cat’s paw’ which refers to someone used to do someone else’s dirty work. In Arthur Ransome, however, I found: ‘There was very little wind, though now and again a catspaw hurrying from the south...
Throstle
An old fashioned term for a song-thrush; a machine for continuously spinning cotton or wool. ‘No longer my sweet throstle, attending the sun’s rising.' Source: ‘Grail of ash’, The Breaking Hour, Kevin Crossley-Holland (London: Enitharmon Press, 2015), p....
Poikilometis
Nicolson refers to this word, used to describe Odysseus, and translates it as ‘dapple-skilled, with so much woven into him that he shimmers and flickers like an embroidered cloth’. If I ever qualify as ‘dapple-skilled’, I will have a big party to celebrate. Source:...
Claggy
Sticky or otherwise inclined to form clots or clods, as in ‘claggy mud’. A suitably cloying, clotty, cloddy word. OED suggests it could be of Scandinavian origin, comparing it with a Danish word for ‘sticky mud’, klag. Given all the rain we’ve had, my next...
Savssats
Savssats ‘occur most often in fjords, where a band of sea ice too wide for marine mammals to swim under on a single breath cuts them off from the open sea. As the fjord continues to freeze over, the animals are restricted to a smaller and smaller opening in the ice...
Shoat or shote
A North American word for a young pig, especially one which is newly weaned. Source: OED and Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams, p. 152
Windrows
‘A long line of raked hay, corn sheaves, or peats laid out to dry in the wind. In North American English: a long line of material heaped up by the wind.’ ‘Windrows of feather from molting geese.’ Source: OED and Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams, p....
Polynya
Polynya refers to a ‘stretch of open water surrounded by ice, especially in Arctic seas’ or ‘large areas of persistent open water that stay open all winter.’ Source: OED and Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams, p. 213
Whiffle
‘To make a soft sound, like that of breathing or a gentle wind. To move or cause to move lightly as if blown by a puff of air. A slight movement of air, or the sound of such a movement. Also ‘whiffle cut’, referring to the very short haircut worn by US soldiers in...
Orographic
I learned some fine landscape words from reading Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams. Orographic means ‘relating to mountains, especially as regards their position and form. Or, of clouds or rainfall resulting from the effects of mountains in forcing moist air to rise....
Polyskarthmos
‘Used to describe Myrine, a dancer, ‘much-skipping’ as the word means literally, even ‘very frisky’, as it is a phrase used of calves and lambs playing in the springtime grass.’ I must remember to practice ‘polyskarthmos’ daily. Source: Adam Nicolson, The Mighty...
Growan
A southern English local word for granite, also called ‘moorstone’. Source: Edmund de Waal, The White Road, p. 251
Cock-a-doodle-doo
In this year of the rooster, what better animal noise to kick off with than the Chinese version of ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’! And no, this isn’t ‘wow, wow, oh!’ It is more like waw-waw-waw.
The rustling wind
A se is a 25 stringed instrument like a zither, so I like the doubling up of this character to create the sound of the wind rustling.
Tooting and honking
You can imagine Toad of Toad Hall charging around the streets of Shanghai giving his car horn a ‘dudu’ as he goes.
Miemie, black sheep, have you any wool?
This is an excellent sound for a sheep’s bleat. Add your own little vibrato and you too can sound like a Chinese lamb. The character is also visually clever, combining the character for 'mouth', signalling this is a sound, and the character for 'sheep'. See how...
With a moo, a low, and a bellow
Some things do travel well, and here we have a moo turned into a ‘mou’, as in mo-jo, so now you can imitate Chinese cows.
Chinese chirps
Very close to the sound of some birds, this Chinese cheep-cheep chirpy sound. Perhaps a turtledove?
Roger
‘A Roger is the Norfolk name for a sudden squall which makes a loud hissing noise as it comes sweeping over the reeds.’ Source: Arthur Ransome, Coot Club (London: Jonathan Cape, 2009 (1934)), p. 279
Haptic
Edmund de Waal speaks of haptic knowledge, ‘the ways in which it is possible to know something complex without having the need, or the means, to articulate it in language’. We can sometimes perform without knowing how the thing works, and a friend of mine describes...
Eskimo word – ilira
My woeful ignorance of Eskimo culture was modulated by Lopez’s writing. A few things struck me particularly, including the astonishing geographic map-minds they have managed to cultivate in the toughest of landscapes, and an innate sense of mechanics and materials,...
Eskimo word – kappia
Another word embodying a form of fear. Lopez observed that Eskimos have lived with more fear than we are used to, saying that ‘on a day to day basis, they have more fear’ (which is not to imply any less courage). He also refers to someone asking a shaman about...
Eskimo word – nunatak
An originally Eskimo word now in general geological usage to describe ‘the ice-free spires of rock that pierce the Pleistocene stillness of the Greenland ice cap.’ Source: Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams, p. xxiv
Eskimo word – oomingmannuna
How could I resist this word, magical in its rounded sounds, even if its meaning may not give us much pretext to use it on a daily basis: ‘where the muskoxen have their country’. Say it three times in quick succession, whether or not there are muskoxen nearby....
Eskimo word – perlerorneq
May you be ever spared this suffocating, madness inducing winter depression. Lopez describes the misery or insanity it can bring on, and the compassion often shown to those who succumb to it. It seems a product of endless cold and darkness, but it has an...
Eskimo word – upirnaagiit
An Eskimo term for early Western visitors. Understandably, as ships came in the spring the better to be able to explore and exploit to the maximum before the winter returned, the Tununirmiut Eskimos called British whalers ‘the men of springtime’. Lopez also mentions...
A quirky word for an ordinary bird
I was curious about this term and didn’t expect it to be simply the North American name for a long-tailed duck. Something affectionate about it. ‘The haunting sound of oldsquaw in the ice.’ Source: Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams, p....
Rowing about on a voyage of discovery
The lovely word ‘imram’ is, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, old Irish for ‘rowing about’ or ‘voyaging’. In its plural ‘imramha’ it refers to early Irish stories of adventurous voyages, including those of Irish saints travelling to Iceland, Greenland or...
A fother of…
Principally a measure word, in England referring to a quantity of lead, or more generally to a cart-load or a large quantity of something. It also means to stop a leak in a ship’s hull, as in: ‘They fothered their broken hulls with wads of sail …’ Source: Barry...
A claver of birds
A Scottish or Northern English dialect word which seems to have travelled to North America. It means to talk idly or gossip, and can also be a noun. Lopez uses it to refer to a noise of birds – I can imagine the caw of crows. It reminds me also of the ‘chattering...
Two ancient long-haul boats
Lopez refers to some of the ancient boats that reached the Arctic from Europe, including the Irish carraughs and Norse knarrs. A carraugh is a long, narrow, open and seaworthy boat made of a basket frame covered with oak-tanned oxhide caulked with tallow. Source:...
Berms of the road
How did this simple word elude me all these decades? It refers to a strip of land or grass, a bank, or a terrace bordering a river, canal or road. Or an embankment, such as one built as a defence against tanks. Or a slim space between a ditch and the base of a...
Bedizen
A bedazzling word meaning to dress up or decorate gaudily: bedizened with resplendent medals. Kenneth Grahame uses a noun: bedizenment. Source: Kenneth Grahame, The Golden Age
Drugget
Nothing to do with trafficking, drugget is a floor covering of coarse woven fabric. Its origins lie in the 16 century French word drogue meaning ‘poor quality article’. ‘The pattern on the carpet represented bunches of flowers on a light ground, but it was carefully...
Dree
A Scottish or archaic word meaning to endure and used in the expression to ‘dree one’s weird’ – to submit to one’s destiny; the original meaning of ‘weird’ (or wyrd) was ‘fate’. Source: Kenneth Grahame, The Golden Age
Coclackia
This curious sounding (and looking) word refers to flooring made from pebbles set in mortar. ‘An inner court. Gold loops across the sluiced coclackia.’ Source: Christopher Logue, War Music, p. 99
Dottle
This nice glottal stop word refers to the remnant of tobacco left in a pipe after smoking. In Christopher Logue’s War Music, it’s used metaphorically. ‘But when – as is required – we distribute, / To you the delicates, to meet the dottle of their loss’. Source:...
Dimity
A hard wearing cotton fabric woven with stripes or checks – in Gaskell it’s used to refer to a ‘dimity bed’, presumably a bed covered in this cotton. Source: Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters
Hobbledehoy
An old fashioned word that deserves a chance at revival. It means awkward or clumsy, or a youth unfortunate enough to be so. Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters refers to hobbledehoyhood, the state of being awkward or clumsy. ‘… the difficulty of finding subjects...
Narcissistick
A neologism coined to describe the widespread telescopic poles used by some people to fix their camera phones the better to take selfies. Of disreputable provenance, which is to say I am under the illusion I made it up. Hope you like it and would be happy if you...
Nesh
Came across this in Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South which features a few northern words. This dialect word means ‘weak and delicate; feeble: It was nesh to go to school in a topcoat’. Apparently related to the Dutch dialect word nes, ‘soft or foolish’. Source:...
Squab
Nice, squat, fat, short word. A short sofa, according to Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South, though the dictionary says it refers to a young unfledged pigeon, or the padded back or side of a vehicle seat; or a thick stuffed cushion, especially covering the seat of a...
Stravaig
A lovely word this, mainly Scottish or Irish, meaning to wander about aimlessly: stravaiging about the streets. May you stravaig to your heart’s content. An alternative spelling is ‘stravage’.
Trumpery
Decades since I saw this word, until I found it again in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters. The dictionary says it refers to attractive articles of little value or use, or to practices or beliefs that are superficially or visually appealing but have little real...
There, there, poppet
It's a long time since I have heard this charming, kindly, playful word. I've had it used towards me in affection and kindness and with sarcasm. In the first instance, in the soothing tones of a warm-hearted nurse during a medical procedure: 'It'll be over in a jiffy,...
Carronade
A short, fat cannon, named after Carron, near Falkirk in Scotland where they were first made. I came across this in reading the childhood memories of Kenneth Grahame, where the little boy is forever dreaming of naval and other triumphs that will settle scores with his...
Scrouged together
I had never heard this word before and it isn't in my dictionary, but it seems to mean crowded or scrunched together. '… a knot of kids in overalls stood scrouged together, holding the buckets of dinner they had brought to their daddies.' Source: Carson McCullers, The...
A perfect blue sky
'The sky was a fleckless blue…' - I liked this way of conveying a perfect blue sky. Source: Kenneth Grahame, Dream Days, illus. by Maxfield Parrish (Edin.: Paul Harris Publishing, 1983), p. 116
A budding thrust and foison
An archaic word for abundance or to describe a rich harvest, it also refers to physical energy, power or strength, or a plentiful supply or yield. ‘Oh, the riot, the clamour, the crowding chorus, of all silent things that spoke by scent and colour and budding thrust...
Colourful capulanas
A sarong worn mainly in Mozambique but also in other parts of Africa. They come in beautiful abstract designs and strong colours.
The clash of a stramash
A lovely sounding Scottish or northern English word for a row or an uproar. Never heard this word before, but I'll try to start using it on a regular basis. ‘Anyhow there was a shake and a roar and a general stramash, and I found myself miles away underground and...
Convex columns
A clever way to counter the optical illusion of concavity that straight-sided columns have, by making them convex.
Gamboge yellow
A gum resin produced by various East Asian trees, used as a yellow pigment and as a purgative in medicine. In Grahame's Dream Days a sister criticizes her brother's painting of trees because they're blue. He retorts that they'd have been green if she hadn't stolen his...
Chaptalization
I thought this might be something to do with church architecture, but no, it refers to a wine-making technique to improve the fermenting must by adding calcium carbonate to neutralize acid, or sugar to increase alcoholic strength.
Casuarina tree
A tree which sounds like the name of a girl, with slender, drooping twigs like horse-tails (the tree, not the girl), native to Australia and South East Asia.
Good morning aubade
An aubade is a poem or piece of music appropriate for early morning. In summer, I am lucky enough to have this composed and performed by birds.
May you make the welkin ring!
A literary term for the sky or heaven, from Old English welcin meaning ‘cloud or sky’ and related to Dutch wolk and German Wolke. ‘To make the welkin ring’ means to make a loud sound. Source: Kenneth Grahame, Dream Days, illus. by Maxfield Parrish (Edin.: Paul Harris...
May you not thole
'Thole' is an Old English word for 'to suffer' or to endure without complaint. It also refers to a pin, typically one of a pair, fitted to the gunwale of a rowing boat on which the oar pivots, a ‘thole pin’. ‘He knew what they had tholed, the long times and troubles...
Care for a tarn dip?
A small mountain lake, originally Middle English from old Norse: tjorn. In Beowulf, it refers to the watery home of Grendel's mother: ‘the tarn-hag in her terrible strength’. Source: Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, p. 50
A wyrd fate
'Wyrd' originally referred to fate or personal destiny, and relates to the modern word ‘weird’. As a Middle English adjective it meant ‘having the power to control destiny’ and the Weird Sisters, later Shakespeare’s witches, originally referred to the Fates. Source:...
Swingeing cuts
'Swingeing cuts' usually refer to sharp budget cuts - note the 'e' making it a soft 'g' (like a 'j'), not like the hard 'g' of 'singing in the rain'. To swinge means to strike hard, or beat, and comes from Old English, swengan, ‘shake, shatter, move violently’, of...
May you never be reft
To reave is an archaic word meaning to carry out raids for plunder, or to rob somebody by force. The past tense is 'reft'. Deliver us from reavers. ‘Nobody knows / where these reavers from hell roam on their errands.’ Source: Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, p. 7...
Mattock
An agricultural tool shaped like a pickaxe, with an adze and chisel edge as the ends of the head. I remember reading the word 'adze' when I was a child, and looking at a black and white drawing of a man wielding one. The spelling of the word dazed me. 'In battle they...
Hauberk
A piece of armour covering originally only neck and shoulders but later consisting of a full length coat of mail or military tunic. Middle English from Old French hauberc, originally referring to protection of the neck, of Germanic origin. 'A hauberk of steel mail...
Oneiric
Relating to dreams or dreaming; Greek origin: oneiros, meaning ‘dream’. ‘He is at once a stratum of the earth and a streamer in the air, no painted dragon but a figure of real oneiric power.’ Source: Seamus Heaney, Beowulf,...
Hirple
A Scottish and N. English word meaning to walk with a limp, to hobble. Hence ‘hirpling’. ‘He is hasped and hooped and hirpling with pain, limping and looped in it.’ Source: Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, p. 31
Ravening
This ravenous word is used to describe a wild animal, extremely hungry and hunting for prey: They turned on each other like ravening wolves. ‘… his days of ravening had come to an end.’ Source: Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, p. 24
Mizzle
Light rain or drizzle. British informal: to go away suddenly, vanish: he mizzled into the crowd. The dictionary makes a link to Low German miseln and Dutch dialect miezelen. ‘But he knows he need never be in dread / of your blade making a mizzle of his blood.’ Source:...
Glede
A live coal, an ember; any of several birds of prey, especially a kite. Most dictionaries only give the bird of prey definition, but the ‘live coal or ember’ explains Tolkien’s use of it in ‘as hot as a glede’ and also in this other Tolkien quotation. 'His last...
Hasp
A slotted hinged metal plate forming part of a fastening for a door or lid, fitted over a metal loop and secured by a pin or padlock. A similar metal plate on a trunk or suitcase with a projecting piece secured by the lock. To lock a door, window, or lid by securing...
Gorget
An article of clothing that covered the throat; a piece of armour for the throat; a wimple; a patch of colour on the throat of a bird or other animal, especially a hummingbird. From Old French, from gorge, throat. ‘I heard he presented Hygd with a gorget, / the...
Gammer
(Archaic) an old countrywoman; orig. late 16th century, probably a contraction of godmother, says the dictionary, but why not ‘grandmother’? Seems related to 'gaffer'. '... laughed at the greybeards and gammers who said that they had seen him flying it the sky in...
Graith
To make ready or put in order; to furnish, to array; equipment, apparatus, belongings; prepared, ready; to equip, clothe, prepare. Of Scottish origin. ‘So they duly arrived / in their grim war-graith and gear at the hall.’ Source: Seamus Heaney, Beowulf,...
Glebe
A piece of land serving as part of clergyman’s benefice and providing income; (archaic) land, fields. Origin: Late Middle English from Latin gleba, glaeba – ‘clod, land, soil’.
Dear Sir,
I like words. I like fat buttery words, such as ooze, turpitude, glutinous, toady. I like solemn, angular, creaky words, such as strait-laced, cantankerous, pectinous, valedictory. I like spurious, black-is-white words, such as mortician, liquidate, tonsorial, demi-monde. I like suave “V” words, such as Svengali, svelte, bravura, verve. I like crunchy, brittle, crackly words, such as splinter, grapple, jostle, crusty. I like sullen, crabbed, scowling words, such as skulk, glower, scabby, churl. I like Oh-Heavens, my-gracious, land’s-sake words, such as tricksy, tucker, genteel, horrid. I like elegant, flowery words, such as estivate, peregrinate, elysium, halcyon. I like wormy, squirmy, mealy words, such as crawl, blubber, squeal, drip. I like sniggly, chuckling words, such as cowlick, gurgle, bubble and burp.
I like the word screenwriter better than copywriter, so I decided to quit my job in a New York advertising agency and try my luck in Hollywood, but before taking the plunge I went to Europe for a year of study, contemplation and horsing around.
I have just returned and I still like words. May I have a few with you?
Robert Pirosh
Source: Letter No. 009, quoted in Letters of Note, compiled by Shaun Usher (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2013), p. 36
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