October 2010 |
Save the Words!
This is all your fault, you know!
You know perfectly well what finifugal means, yet you refuse to use the word to describe your passion for reading and collecting books.
And you certainly have enough Ollendorffian books weighing down your bookshelves to throw that word around occasionally, but you don't.
And what about scriptitation? You know you want your favorite authors to engage in this practice, but do you ever use the word in normal conversation? Nooooooooooooo...!
Small wonder that the English language limps along on a mere 7000 or so words for everyday communication. No one uses the good stuff!
When was the last time you used geoponic to describe the books you've collected about agriculture? Or scriniary to describe your bookish employment? And what about that protreptic book you've been trying to write for the last I've-forgotten-how-many years? Seems to me that such a book would be the perfect vehicle within which to unleash words like prodrome and nomenclator.
Fortunately, the good folks over at the Oxford English Dictionary have come up with a plan to combat your apathy. It's called Save the Words. A click a day will save [w]ords that once led meaningful lives, but now lie unused, unloved and unwanted.
Just do it!
