I want to talk to you today about words, we all use ‘em whether written or uttered, their meanings are mutable depending on the tone we use, context--the different words we choose say a lot about what kind of person we are.
Something that’s always fascinated me as an actor and a lover of the written word is the way that certain words manage to encapsulate exactly the thing they stand for.
Something that’s always fascinated me as an actor and a lover of the written word is the way that certain words manage to encapsulate exactly the thing they stand for.
Take as an example the word MOIST. Kind of a gross feeling when you say it, just take a second and say it out loud...Moist...what does it make you think of? A clammy, sweaty handshake?
That rag long ago forgotten that has been occupying the place under your sink,
growing a dewy, delicately fuzzy mold?
How about SCURRY? Can’t you just see a mouse running for it’s life or a particularly shy librarian hurriedly skittering among bookshelves?
That rag long ago forgotten that has been occupying the place under your sink,
growing a dewy, delicately fuzzy mold?
How about SCURRY? Can’t you just see a mouse running for it’s life or a particularly shy librarian hurriedly skittering among bookshelves?
Then of course there are ottomottopoeaic words like ZOOM, BUZZ, MEOW, GURGLE...
I’m getting a little carried away now...
but there are literally tons of other words that are just as visceral--
I think that’s what words were actually invented for in the first place.
I’m getting a little carried away now...
but there are literally tons of other words that are just as visceral--
I think that’s what words were actually invented for in the first place.
But then there are also words that don’t really seem to have much meaning to them, as if they were arbitrarily assigned to a thing and are sort of embarrassed and unenthused, like that kid that gets picked last in kickball. The word WORD is an example of this...who actually decided that word would mean...word?
How did these words actually manifest themselves, though, how did they go from an odd sound or action observed by the eye into a few squiggly symbols written on the page or printed in a book? Who chose them? Questions!?
Back during Elizabethan times it is much noted that the English Language was a living, breathing entity--people loved to hear words aloud, liked the sounds they made and were constantly adding new ones in a variety of different spellings. Shakespeare himself added to this pool by creating over 1700 words of his own according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
What keeps us modern types from being so facile with language today? Why isn’t everyone making up their own words and using them among the general public?
Yeah, yeah, I guess you could count some of the internet speak like LOL and sexting and the lolcat crazy grammar-ness, but I mean like actually finding something and naming it something else. Maybe all the actual things have been taken, but there are plenty of situations that are just itching for a word to actually describe them! Like that uncomfortable feeling you get when you see someone in the street whose name you don’t remember.
Why don’t we make this interesting? If anybody feels so inclined,
make up your own word (with a meaning attached, obviously).
I’ll give a shout out to the best ones that are listed in the comments and then
we’ll send a list to the Oxford English Dictionary for consideration...
not really...but that would be pretty cool, wouldn’t it?
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