Word

My favourite word in the English language is »language«. However, if you gave me a slightly larger set of words to choose from I might have more difficulty expressing a preference.

Words beginning with the »sn« sound in English are often unpleasant: snide, snob, snigger, sneer, snicker, snub, snert, snotty, snippy, snit, snarl, snore, sneak, snag. »Snow« is a word over which there is debate and even an annual change of heart. The first snowfall is almost always welcomed. Christmas snow is considered magical. But too much of a good thing for too long and March blizzards push »snow« into line with the rest of the »sn« words.

Without another word spoken on either side, the lodger took from his great trunk, a kind of temple, shining as of polished silver, and placed it carefully on the table.

I bought one of those Word-A-Day calendars to improve my vocabulary for college.

reify – to regard or treat (an abstraction) as if it had concrete or material existence.

Rotor is a fine palindrome, thought Frank Leigh Dearie as he ambled down the Lost Highway.

Spaces define which letters to together to make up a word.

We had words. Each and every evening.

Sometimes, when he stopped for beer after work, we had dishes and pots and food, too.

“Be careful what you say—you may have to eat your words.”

I don’t think so much about eating my words as about wearing them. When someone sees me, the words come back to haunt like a miasma around me. No matter how colourful my dress, bad words turn everything grey and muddy brown.

Think how much acceptance Mary showed when she said:

»Let it be done to me according to thy word.«

Which is more useful to you: a dictionary that tells you how to use a word or a dictionary that tells you how a word is used?

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We shall never understand one another until we reduce the language to seven words.

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 – Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)
 – Sand and Foam [1926]

Words derive their meaning from the surrounding words, just as human beings derive their meaning from interacting with other humans around them.

»Therefore« is a word the poet must not know.

(Andre Gide)

... words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup, they slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe...