On interesting words

There are some words that just fascinate me. Most of them are what are sometimes called SAT words. We hardly ever get a chance to use them. I like the way many of them sound when you say them aloud. The word propinquity is a great word usually defined as nearness. Just say it out loud "propinquity". I have struggled to find ways to use pernicious and verisimilitude in casual conversation. A high school teacher once accused me of being supercilious. Disquisition was one of my favorite words to slip into writing assignments when I was in college. I did not write mere research papers. I wrote disquisitions. Ha!

I would like to see the word harbinger used in a business correspondence or hear the word tintinnabulation spoken on the evening news. I want to see a car advertised as being both sexy and reticular. We should all use truly descriptive terms like vacuous, slumberous, and querulous more often to describe our closest friends and relatives.

Serendipity is a good one. My wife named her cat, Serendipity. For many years, we had a cat named, Dreadful. Dreadful is a word that makes you feel Victorian when you say it aloud. It's the kind of word that only Mrs. Howell could have used while on Gilligan's Island.

I think the word sputum and its baby brother, spit are amazing examples of words that can almost make you produce the definition while saying the word. While on the subject, phlegm is a word that is always catching my attention when I see it in writing. At some point in history some person decided that that substance should have that name and it should be spelled that way. It is hard for me to imagine the thought process that led to their decision.