October 18, 2002
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**At a cyber, feeling happy for having gotten some news from an old friend, wishing he were closer again…Listening to Marisa Monte, thinking she reminds me of the great pleasure of being Brazilian…
Just words…
I have been receiving Merriam-Webster Online‘s Word of the Day for just over a year now. I’ve saved all the cool words and deleted any words that I already knew, or that were unimpressive, or that pained me by their very existence. I have 135 interesting words in my “Cool Words” folder… There are approximately 40,000 words in the English language, yet people always manage to come up with more. Not only that, there are so many feelings/concepts that English does not have words for… For example, there is no word to describe a sense of solid and complete rightness that one can feel in one’s skin. That’s a constant irritation of mine. But at the same time, English is amazingly versatile and welcoming and adaptive. Not to be lingocentric, but English’s permeability is one of the reasons it’s so popular…. Well, that and most powerful nations in the world speak it, but that’s a rant for a different day. I haven’t even finished the rant at hand… What was my point? I think it was to express wonder at how a language can have so many words at it’s disposal and still be inadequate.
Hmmm, of the approximately 40,000 words in English, I wonder how many are actually used on a regular basis….. I would bet not even half. I like digging out musty old words and gloating over them. It’s kind of strange to think about how I can find words charming or repulsive….
You know, I could talk about language all night… But I won’t.
Comments (11)
Check out Wordspy at http://www.wordspy.com sometime for the most recently coined words and phrases gaining popular acceptance in English!
Adoro Marisa Monte, em especial esse CD!
oh could you? please? i could read your musings and thoughts all night
However you treat a very intersting topic . Contibue.
Amitié
michel
ive been recieving words frm dictionary.com for sometime now. i try to recall those words n use them in a normal convo….ur right abt how ppl can manage to always come up with new words.
I use the Merriam-Webster “Say-It” option and mix cool words in with cool music like a tape sequencer. You have to try it. Punch in `Extremist’ and then hit “Say it again” while playing some cool modern tracks. Fits in well with today. You could also try `Dreamer’.
Haven’t seen you in awhile.
lol i keep looking for new words n forgetting them
I get word a day and never thought to make a folder of the words. Ive thought about trying to use the word in my blog everyday but thats as far as Ive gotten. Im usually all widdershins anyways.
but truely.. that doesnt make me a snollygoster.
I love Merriam-Webster!!
Like you, I love talking about language. According to my Swedish teacher, about 5000 English words are commonly used “in the street.” And there are actually 390,000 English words altogether (Whoa!). In comparison, there are 260,000 Swedish words, but as many as 8000 are commonly used in the street. He also said that many great English literature use simpler words than Swedish literature, thus more people are able to enjoy English literature even if they don’t have a huge vocabulary. Pretty interesting, eh?
Hi Shy…I am just practing how to send comments…
Bye…