Delightful Words

I revel in words, especially new words I find. Throughout my life, I have enjoyed learning new words much like someone searching for gemstones.

I can often remember the person or situation when I found a delightful new word. In reviewing this habit, I cannot point to a particular epiphany regarding words, but more like a steady stream of fun. About the age of five, I found an early reader, brown and orange, and taught myself to read it before I entered first grade. Then there was my discovery of "Black Beauty" in the library and subsequent forays into the Nancy Drew Series, Pollyana, and the Bobbsey Twins. From the high school library, I remember reading "Gone With the Wind" and "River Road"--both of these about 1,000 pages long. My geometry teacher would ask who knew the meaning of words.  I still remember that I was the only one who knew the meaning of "ennui" and "fortnight."  I couldn't wait to sit down in my history class and study the daily quotation.

As an adult, I remember when a new acquaintance first used the word "interface" in the 1970's. From that time on, it seemed that new inventions, discoveries gave the English language a plethora of new computer and internet words. Each decade introduces new words in all fields. There are always new words and old to learn. To me they are more fascinating that counting sheep to go to sleep.

For example, some words such as discrimination, meaning "making a distinction" can have both a positive and a negative connotation.

    !. A positive connotation might be "An artist, Georgia O'Keefe's careful color discrimination sets her flowers apart from many other artists." 

    A negative connotation might be "The school board does not condone racial or gender discrimination in high school; however, many parents objected to "men entering the girls' rest room" when transgender students were asking for the right to enter the rest room that matched their gender change.

     Some words such as ORT can be used in many contexts: relating to food, in crafts, and various others. For example, "Put the ORT in the trash bag under the sink." ORT means to put the table scraps in the bin or bag in a kitchen setting. ORT in a craft setting may be referring to the scraps left after the main project has been completed. For example, "Put the pink Ort in the plastic bag."

The following selection from TIME Magazine: " We will focus ORT the role of parents in exercising their rights, making parents realize that they are part of the school-parent team" illustrates another usage in education.

      Around the 21st Century, the Social Media and TV sites began to use acronyms for meanings to shorten them.  For example, YOLO means you only live once, and POTUS means President of the United States.

Words can delight in many ways.