"Use Your Words, Honey"

I feel like the English language is slipping from my mind--like I'm losing my words.

I hear people like my mom and one of our VP's at work talk, and they use such descriptive well-placed words. Words that I know the meaning of, but that I forgot even existed. Words that I would never remember to use in a sentence.

I love the use of a well-placed word. Which is perhaps why I love witty humor more than anything--the art of using words creatively. (Just listen to the dialogue from my favorite movie, "An Ideal Husband." Every time I watch it, I'm hanging on almost every phrase in pure joy. Props to Oscar Wilde)

A similar thing happens with my emotions. I only have a few words to describe the typical emotions I experience--fine, frustrated, annoyed, hurt, uncertain, thoughtful, tired, quite, goofy, witty, and giddy. That's it really, the only words I ever really use to describe how I'm feeling. (Well, and often I don't actually now how I'm feeling, but that's another blog post...)

But there are so many other really cool, descriptive words out there, ones that don't get used very much.

persnickity
agregate
distain
entitled
capricious
nafarious
clandestine
juxtapose
sentinel
mileu
postulate
aberrant
abscond
egregious

I spend my days trying to write as simply as possible and to not use "big" words. Society as a whole doesn't use "big" words much either. And I realize that they are all slipping from my memory.

I don't want to lose my words and just use a generic term instead of something more specific. Why say "anger" when "distain" "contempt" or "rage" is much more accurate? It's like I'm only painting with a few colors on my pallet. I'm missing all the shades and nuances of color. It's not about trying to sound pretencious or snobby by using "big" words, it's more about an appreciation for language and using it well.

"A word fittly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver"

So anyway, how do I retain the English language and not lose so many delightful words? Perhaps I can find a way to do a "word of the day" or some sort of vocab memory. Not sure.

But those are my thoughts for the day, unstructured as they may be...