Wordsmith

"Hey Cooper, will you wash off all those chairs?"
"Uh, that seems to laborious."

That was a comment made by my 12 yr. old nephew during Brooklyns 5th Birthday party.  I LOVE that a 12 year old nephew of mine used LABORIOUS in his conversation.  Awesome.

The other morning, after the kids had played outside for quite awhile, they all sat at the table and I gave them a cup of orange juice.

After taking a long swig of her juice, Brooklyn (a freshly minted 5 year old) let out a sigh and said: "Mmmm, that is SO refreshing."

HA!  She just said refreshing.  Love it!

"Maggie, stop doing that, it's so noying (annoying)"  That's what Max says to Maggie on the regular.  Or, he likes to say...."sersly (seriously) Maggie, SERSLY!"  My little wordy.

I have always had this fascination with language.  I love words, and how they're used, and what they mean.  I loves me a big, ridiculous sounding word. 
Like...Inauspicious, that's a fun one.  Or how about Loquacious that one is all KINDS of awesome.  I also like to use silly phrases like, "how delightful," or "this pleases me," or "you cease to please me." Whatever.

Point is....I might be a little nerdy, but I accept it.  I am what is "commonly" known as a WORDSMITH.

What in the world is a wordsmith (which I prefer to pronounce SMYTHE, thank you very much) you may be asking yourself?  No worries, I looked it up for you and the definition is this:

word·smith   /ˈwɜrdˌsmɪθ/ Show Spelled



[wurd-smith] Show IPA


–noun


1. an expert in the use of words.


2. a person, as a journalist or novelist, whose vocation is writing.
 
Oh shut it people.  Just because I like to use words like Totes, awesome, suh-WEET, and my new one today I'm H to the OT, etc. and completely cool phrases like "and then she was like, and he was like and it was like....." does NOT mean that I don't loves me a good word and fun phraseology.

Here's the deal....for many a year now, I have liked to think of myself as a bit of a wordsmith...an "expert" if you will (::SNORT::).  And mostly, just saying that makes me giggle in my 14 year old way.  I think of my sister Jenny and I spending countless hours talking, giggling, writing ridiculous letters to eachother and using the biggest words we could think of.  For example:  "I'm looking at my hand, and it is rather unesthetically pleasing."  DORKS!
 
I grew up a rather voracious reader.  I lurved me a good book.
Boxcar children, oh don't even get me started people!  BEST BOOK EVER!
Secret Garden, NO WORDS!
The Borrowers.....stupendous.
Harriet the Spy.  Have you ever read something more hilarious?
When it came to Childrens Lit.  I think I pretty much read it all. And I refuse to even think about the fact that my friend Melia was fully reading "Tale of Two Cities" and like "Ana Karenena" by 5th Grade, she was a special case.
In 5th grade I went through my biography phase.  I literally read every biography our school library had to offer.  And for the record "Julia Ward Howe" TOTALLY my favorite one.  I read it 3 times.  Whurrrd.
 
Point is, due to this excellent love of reading, AND the fact that my Mumsy read to us brilliantly, I loved words.  I understood words, big words and enjoyed using them.  Plus, Jenny and I just thought it was HI-larious to use big words in ridiculous phrasing.

Also, I'm sure that the many, MANY games of Boggle I've played with my Dad and siblings has helped.  Goodness knows my Dad is genius, and sorta a master at coming up with the most ridiculous words ever, that generally always end up being REAL words.  But lets just lay this one down....geniousy as my Dad is, I've totally kicked his bootay on MANY occassions.  That always feels grand...delightful, if you will.
 
I can vividly remember being in 6th grade and sitting in the kitchen, while my Mom and older sister (she was a senior) were having a conversation.  She kept using the word comprehend.  She said "I just can't comprehend.....".  I was completely enamored of this word.  I could not WAIT to be able to use that word in conversation.  Fortunately for me, I WAS socially savy enough to know that I should not be using it around my 6th grade crowd.  I never appreciated ridicule, and surely this fancy word would bring it. I mean really...who busts out "Billy, I can NOT comprehend why you just did that?" in the 6th grade?  The very next year, my sister had traded in "comprehend" for "fathom."  Oh my stars above, what a MAGNIFICENT word.  "I just can't FATHOM why he'd do that."  AWESOME!  Again, I was left waiting until I was "old enough" to use such spectacular language.
 
Another of my favorite memories.  So  now I'm young adult, fully "allowed" to use fancy words.  I was standing outside on the front porch of my friend Andreas parents house.  Andrea had a baby, maybe even her 2nd baby.  We were getting ready to run to a wedding reception for another friend of ours.  Andrea was wearing a dress that was not the best for nursing.  So, I said to her "well, that isn't very CONDUCIVE to nursing, now is it?"  She seriously looked at my like I sprouted horns and perhaps a third eye.  She thought it was so funny/wierd that I would use that high falutin word and what did it mean anyway?  Oh it's true Andrea.....don't try and deny it.  This is one of those moments in life I shall never forget.  It's a look I shant ever forget.  'Cause it re-iterated the fact that I'm a word nerd.
 
Language, words are cool.  And I think it's super the grooviest to use it.

However, I'm feeling a little rusty these days.  Perhaps it's time I pull out a book, read something again and you know...dust off the ol' language skills so I can comfortably utter things like fathom and fortuitous.  I don't want to lose my word-smithing street cred.

And so...I soldier on, wordsmithing it up, one STUPENDOUS and PRODIGIOUS word at a time.

I just found this little "gem" in my drafts.  I wrote it back in March and never posted it for some reason.  So, for your reading pleasure, and to up your "word power" hope you enjoyed.


Allyson