Vocubu-nutsy

So.

This is a "in case you don't know me by NOW" kind of post, in which I reveal a deeply held secret (that by now you've probably already figured out).

I.Love.Words.

And, as if you didn't know by now, here comes the story.

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A few years ago I was going to lunch with a couple of friends; one of whom I'd known for a few years and the other I'd just met a few months earlier.

(Tangent - Does that make one of those people a friend and the other an aquaintance? What's the cutoff from transitioning from acquaintance to friend? 3 months? 6? More? Less? Can someone be a friend instantaneously without that whole awkward period of acquintanceship? Conversely, can you have an acquaintance of long standing that never really evolves any further into friendship? Now, return from tangent to story)

We were riding along, gabbing away, when I mentioned that someone at a meeting I'd attended that morning was "remarkably monosyllabic."

My new friend said "mono-who-wha-bic?"

And my friend of long standing said "Oh, that's the way she always talks...you'll get used to it."

My question would be: Is there something WRONG with that?

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Further to the point:

When I was in 8th grade I was smitten with a boy who was the object of my attention for 2 very good reasons -1) he was taller than me, and 2) he was a wildly engaging and verbally active boy (can you say "turned out to be GAY? Why yes you can.). He taught me a poem that I still remember. He started with a challenge: "see if you can guess what familiar children's poem this is," which immediately got my attention and which I highly recommend to all 8th-grade boys who want to pick up geek-ettes such as I was.

Herewith I present the poem. (ahem)

Scintillate, scintillate, globule vivific

Fain would I fathom thy nature specific

Distantly poised in the ether capacious

Closely resembling a gem carbonaceous

Well, after hearing it a time or two I was like the Grinch, puzzling and puzzling 'til my puzzler was sore. Certainly I knew almost all the nursery rhymes there were to know; I had studied the Mother Goose book until I had almost every line of all its stories and poems memorized!

And yet, I could NOT figure it out.

Until he hummed a few bars.

"Twinkle twinkle, little star....."

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Further-further to the point:

In 6th grade I read "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and presented it as a book report to my class. My teacher refused to give me a grade higher than a C because, in her words, "that book is too advanced for a child of your age to read; I don't believe you read it."

Ignorant gutter snipe.

Years later I wished she was still teaching so I could go back and show her the 720 I got on the verbal portion of the SAT.

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I don't present these snippets of my life and personality as a "hey, lookee here! See me over here being all bookish and smarty-pantsy and erudite and whatnot!" Really, that's not the point. The point is that I just like words. They're interesting, and because we have so MANY of them that aren't being used and should, I've come up with a little baby-sized idea for this blog.......

Commence with the drum-rolling, pleeeeze.

Ladies anda gentlemen, I have started a "words I like" list on the right side (over there, on the sidebar!) of this blog. Occasionally I'll add some more, particularly if they're new to me and tickle my expressive fancy.

I am debating with myself on whether or not to also link to their definitions, so that y'all can get all edified and whatnot while wasting time on the 'net, but I'm thinking that if I spoonfeed you the info you won't remember it tomorrow, but if you have to GO and RETRIEVE the info yourself for a word that is attractive to you, then maybe you'll remember it and use it in conversation.

So to y'all, a question - do you prefer you vocabulary on a spoon or free-range?

(There is a part of this exercise that smacks loudly of Niles Crane, but I'll try to ignore that bit. Perhaps I'll go to an oenophilia site to cleanse my mental palate of that somewhat off-putting thought....)