Before I get to my last bit of what goes through my troubled mind as I drive for hours on end I have to mention something I’ve neglected this week. I’m going to see Glen Phillips tonight… with my preacher. I’m looking forward to it. We leave in 1 short hour for the drive to Nashvegas to spend a couple of hours with my favorite singer/songwriter.
Several weeks ago as I drove to Opelika or Lanett or one of those other far away lands. I decided I would jot down some of my favorite words. Today, I share them with you. I’ll start with my inspiration for the list and I’ll end with my favorite word of all time.
1) Burglar – It’s fun to say, ugly to look at, and has an even more fun root word – burgle. That is a thing of beauty. The only thing that puts burglar over burgle? Add the prefix ham- and you get one of my favorite childhood memories and the nemesis of Ronald McDonald.
2) Gaggle – It’s a group of geese (as long as they are not flying). It’s an informal White House briefing. It’s a free web-based e-mail system for students. It’s fun.
3) I’m going to narrow this down by saying pretty much every word that ends in –gle makes the list. Bugle, gargle, boondoggle, jangle, jiggle, giggle… you get the point. I have to exclude g**gle, though. I think a certain Internet company just may demand a royalty fee if I include that one.
4) Snarky – Again, fun to say. You’ll earn a curious stare if used correctly. “Wow, Janet, you’re certainly in a snarky state of mind tonight.”
5) Argyle – I was going to include this in the –gle entry (just ignore the y). But it stands well on it’s own. Say it and it sounds like there’s something stuck in your throat. Lovely. Plus, If it’s not Scottish, it’s crap!
6) Statistician – Great word. Crappy job.
7) Splurge – It sounds dirty. I don’t mean naughty dirty, I mean dirty dirty. If I didn’t know what it meant and had to guess at a definition my guess would be: splurge – (v.) 1. The act of falling into a pool of stagnant sewer water of an open septic tank. 2. Throwing or splashing raw sewage on to a person or thing. 3. Soiling your clothes with sewage. “Billy, get away from that hole before you splurge your church pants.”
8) Defenestrate – I like the word because of its definition. Anyone know what it means?
9) Rotisserie – I’m talking baseball, not rotating chicken.
10) My favorite word in the history of human language and speech: Shellac! I love this word because of its versatility. “Put another coat of shellac on that table before you go home.” “The Braves got shellacked last night 11-2.” “Jacob, stop that right now or I’ll give you a shellacking you’ll never forget!” “I was running along and next thing I knew, shellac! My ACL popped.” Ah, it’s a great word.
There you have it, my top 10 (plus a few) words in the English language. I’d put them up against any word from almost any language. (I say almost because pretty much the whole German dictionary beats these like a drum. Except shellac, of course.) Feel free to add to the list.
This entry reminded me of something I did a couple of years ago. I’ll have to look up those entries. I would make up a word and let the readers (I think there were 3 back then) make up a definition. I may have to bring that segment back. We’ll see.
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