Wednesday, April 1, 2009

I Love Words

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I Love words.


I love the way that they can roll along your tongue
like soliloquy and parallelogram

Or get caught in your throat like hark and puke

There are harsh words like fracas,
fastidious, belligerent, lash and hag


Sticky words like
salubrious, sap and pithy


I love picturesque words
azure, halcyon and periwinkle

Flowering words like efflorescence,
pirouette and photosynthesis


Serene words
like calm, peony and ethereal

Sensual words
voluptuous, caressing and mesmerise

I like words that tangle your tongue
antithesis, extraterrestrial and sloth

Chewy words like
ruminate and masticate


Words that are noisy like rampageous,
rambunctious and cacophany


Sparkly words razzle, dazzle, glitter

I love imported words like mêlée, fattoush,
mulligatawny, piquant and fait accompli


Smelly words like
putrefaction, effluent and sewer


Australian words warm me didgeridoo,
billabong, dinky-di and jumbuck


Biblical words make me feel reverent
like begat, hallowed and thee

I adore made up words like
humdinger, scrumdiddlyumptious,
fantabulous and canoodle


There are words that march
danger, pistol and gun

And intoxicating words
ambrosia, nectar and morphia

I love onomatopoeic words
like harrumph, gargle, fart and oink

Melancholy words like maudlin,
morose, miserable and moribund


Divisive words like
racist, misogynist and xenophobic


Musical words make me want to move, staccato,
adagio, pianissimo, salsa and tango


Then there are flashy words
like glitz, bling, Dahling and flounce

Mystical words tease me
alchemical, epiphany and metamorphosis

I am cautious of disdainful words
like diabolical, hypocrite and liar

And political words like
agenda, normalcy, obfuscate and nepotism


I love promising words that transport you
nirvana, omm, Eldorado, Xanadu and Tao

Gentle words
like mellow, mahalo, and soporific

Scientific words like epiglottis, embolism,
haemoglobin, psychosis and sputnik


Literary words
like epigram, oxymoron and malapropism

Ancient words thrill me
like aqueduct, tabula rosa and Euclidian

I am very fond of soothing words
like honey, eiderdown and massage

Jumpy words interest me like
scatterbrain, razamataz and piccaninny


There are revolting words
like haggis, lush, tripe and pus

I love celestial words like
heavenly, aurora borealis and nebulous

I am enthralled by deep words like subconscious,
existentialism and psychoanalytical


Flighty words
like flippant and flibberty gibbet

There are similar words
quack, quark and quirk

There are words that are in a hurry
like vamoose and skedaddle

Scary words
carcinoma, arachnid, emergency

Strong solid words
like ennoble, wood and buxom

Intriguing words like
evocative, cornucopia and transformation


And feisty words
like obstreperous and obnoxious

And good, wholesome slang words, rats arse,
galah, tucker, yakka and bonzer



Yep, I love words.


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30 comments:

  1. yes i love words too but as you have noticed I make mistakes , cant find the words to fit my thoughts so i will use your dictionary for when I need it!..thanks Delwyn!

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  2. Mona, you do a great job, and express yourself very well. I am mono-lingual and always wished I had another one or two languages under my belt. I know a smattering of school girl French which surprisingly came back in a rush at French classes.
    Enjoy the glorious day...

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  3. yes, i love words too. but between you and me (well, and the other bloggers as well... =))i prefer written words than spoken words. because written words are composed on a piece of paper after much thoughts and consideration - so that the intended meaning is successfully conveyed. whereas when words are spoken, it tends to get misunderstood by the other party.

    and honestly, my feelings are a lot clearer when i am writing. i find it hard to speak about it openly. so i guess that i why i love blogging because i don't have to speak. lol!

    have a nice day, delwyn.

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  4. Moonshin,
    You have a good point about the written word and how we can censor, alter, amend what we have written before it is printed, however I do think that this form of media does have the propensity for harm because it is so easy to shoot from the hip and push the button without enough revision or reflection on the content and how it may be read and interpreted by others.

    Like you I enjoy the written word as a means to clearly convey feelings that may be difficult to express face to face, or we may not want to share them face to face but they need to be vented.
    Have a happy thoughtful day...

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  5. Oh, I love words too! What a lovely list/poem! I'll let you know what my favorite word is
    ....
    "peculiar"!

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  6. Hi Tulsa
    what makes peculiar so attractive to you?

    It remind me when as kids we used to say if someone said something was 'funny':

    Is it funny haha
    or funny peculiar...?

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  7. ...and I love your list! I love words but can never think of the right one...

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  8. Oliag,

    Hello on Wednesday, an absolutely glorious day of 28*F, no breeze and the river is a mirror.

    I have found that I was becoming less skillful particularly in conversation as I am a bit of a recluse, but since blogging I feel more competent.
    Happy Days

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  9. I love palindromic words like kayak, hannah, and (ignoring spaces) Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog.

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  10. Hi Dan, Oops forgot those and my Mother's maiden name is Hannah too.

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  11. me too. and i love how you used color to give all these a real punch! very effective. :-)

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  12. I love words that can surprise, caress, empathise. The English language is so expansive - there's always a word for the purpose.

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  13. Hi Julie, its nice to see you here again...

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  14. Hello June. so many kinds of words...I was trying to use words that conveyed the feeling I had for them in other ways than just the straight denotation. I had fun ...

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  15. And I loved this post. Being a linguist myself and speaker of four languages including my mother tongue, Spanish, English, French and German (less so now) I love the power of words. I not only love the ones you mentioned but I adored your first sentence 'I love the way that they can roll along your tongue like soliloquy and parallelogram'. I have read this post three times in a row now. Many thanks.

    Greetings from London.

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  16. Dear Mr Cuban,
    you make me very happy - you are so appreciative...and of course a lover and connoisseur of words...and a wordsmith too...

    I have had most of that opening line rolling around in my in my head for over 20 years now. I was glad to be able to expand on it...
    and that people have enjoyed it and also thought about the words that they love...

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  17. I love all your posts, but this is my all-time favorite to date. Yippee! A word blizzard! I can just imaging all those words written on slips of paper, floating down like snowflakes and starting poems and conversations. Some of them might cuddle up and have an affair or even get married. What stellar possibilities.

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  18. Delwyn, so well done. Your posts are always about the beauty in things, and now this which we bloggers absolutely share. Thank you.

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  19. I thoroughly enjoyed skipping through your delightfully wordy post!

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  20. Meri, its a rainy morning here but I managed a walk with camera in tow.

    What a lovely image you conjured with words bonding all over the place...

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  21. Jennifer, I'm glad you came on our wild,wordy, wandering...

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  22. Hello Willow,

    Glad you could come along...

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  23. I love words too! This is a great post I would like to print it out and use it in our homeschool if you are happy with that!

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  24. hello Ali
    I would be honoured, please take it...
    Happy days

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  25. Delwyn I am a total word lover too.

    I so agree about the 50s. Don't forget the boys had just come home from the war and they needed to be made to feel like kings, after all isn't that what they fought for?

    Love Renee xoxo

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  26. Renee, that's a good point, they did need some nurturing, and it wasn't til the 7o's that things started to really change...

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  27. I love words and I love this post!

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  28. Hello Reya,
    and you certainly have away with words.

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  29. Words are like paintings, don't you think - compelling and quite irresistable. What an absolutely wonderful post. Like Mr. Cuban, I've read this post over and over. It is poetry - 'An Ode to Words'....

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  30. Good day to you Tessa,

    That's a good way of putting it Tessa,
    Words can be just as captivating and transporting as images. Words conjure imagery and feelings and provoke thoughts and tickle the imagination ...and ...and...and...

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