My Favorite Words

Preface “In the beginning was the Word.” That’s how the Gospel of John opens. The word is the start for religious people. Whatever their faith, the word is the start for writers. Later on, come sentences and paragraphs and chapters and stories, but in the beginning there is the word. For the past few years, I’ve kept a list of words I liked. Some words I’ve used. Some words I intend to use in the future—I’m hoping the opportunities will present themselves. To keep a list of words is to create a dictionary. At first, I kept this list to myself. Lately, I felt the urge to share the list. Other writers may find the list helpful in constructing their worlds of words. There are no off-color or profane words in My Favorite Words. Such words can be found in dictionaries stocked behind the cash wraps in less-than-reputable bookstores. And there are no unusual words that appear strange to the eyes and foreign to the ears. Such words rarely appear in print other than in compendiums of unpronounceable words. (I included at the end of the book a list of fancy words that, although not particularly odd-looking, are best to avoid.) None of the definitions in My Favorite Words are intentionally clever or witty. It’s not possible to compete with Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary. Of course, I take full responsibility for any unclear or idiosyncratic definitions—I have to, since there’s no one else to blame. There are words to live by—we find these words in the Gospel of John. There are words to write with—we find a sample of these words in My Favorite Words. I like to think that the words in this dictionary are useful and upright, interesting and wholesome, needful and necessary, the kind of workaday words any writer would be proud to put in a sentence. Note: words that do not appear in the English portion of Webster’s Ninth New College Dictionary (1988) are in italics. The covers have fallen apart from use, but this book still serves as the dictionary behind my dictionary.   Word ~ the basic unit of a spoken and written language; a sound of speech that cannot be further reduced and expresses a consensually understood meaning; the written form of the spoken unit of speech.   My Favorite Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives   A abashed ~ ashamed, embarrassed, shy abrade, to ~ to scrape, to scrape away; to erode abstemious ~ a person who eats and drinks sparingly abysm ~ an abyss adept ~ an expert in a field; in occult circles, an “ascended master” adroit ~ successful in handling difficult situations adventitious ~ arising from an independent, collateral source affable ~ having a friendly, agreeable nature; an extravert affined ~ related; having mutual obligations affirm, to ~ to assert; to validate a belief or conclusion afterglow ~ a glow that remains after the main light has extinguished afterling ~ a subaltern, an underling agitatione ~ bogus Latin for a state of great agitation or annoyance a-go-go ~ a common suffix, such as whiskey-a-go-go or pizza-a-go-go (not to be confused with a go-go bar) air hostess ~ a 1930s term for a flight attendant; a stewardess alcove ~ a nook; a recessed space in a room amaranth ~ a flower whose bloom never fades ambiguate, to ~ to confuse a situation; to make ambiguous amen corner ~ the corner seat in a tavern; a reserved pew in a church anacoluthon ~ a shift of meaning in a sentence, indicated by use of a dash in writing annulated ~ rings in an object, such as in a tree anomalist ~ a person who studies paranormal activities; formerly a “Fortean” aphorism ~ an apothegm, axiom, bromide, byword, chestnut, maxim moralism, precept, proverb, saw, saying, sutra, tenet appointed ~ comfortably furnished, such as an apartment; good-looking arch- ~ a prefix indicating prototypical or supreme, such as arch-fiend or arch-villain arctics ~ winter clothing ardent spirits ~ alcoholic beverages argot ~ jargon peculiar to a particular group, such as servers in a restaurant arm, on the ~ to buy an object on credit arrest, to ~ to bust, to collar, to nab, to pinch, to round up, to take into custody arroyo ~ a water-carved gully; a source of water in a desert arterioneurosis ~ a phobia about imaginary vascular diseases ascribe, to ~ to attribute a cause for an action or belief; to hold particular beliefs aspergillum ~ the perforated container used to sprinkle holy water on congregants assent, to ~ to agree; to approve asseverate, to ~ to state categorically and with emphasis atavism ~ a return to a primitive time or condition auroral ~ of the dawn austral ~ in a southern direction averments ~ statements declared to be true