Monday, August 04, 2008

Fun Monday - Word To Your Mother...



This week's fun Monday is being hosted over at Mothers of Brothers and here is the Fun Monday Topic: Wordly Wise. She says:

Words are our building blocks, our stepping stones, and, for many of us, our salvation. We string them together so quickly at times, we often lose sight of how precious they are. So tell us about your favorite word… or if you can’t pick just one, tell us about a few. Are there certain words that feel good the way they roll of your tongue? Do some words make you feel smart? Or silly? Or happy? Which words do you find yourself selecting to put in your posts? Since this response could be a short one, feel free to poll your family and friends and include some of their favorite words as well. If you think a definition is required, please share one. Please keep the words rated G for all audiences. Any language is acceptable, but please provide a translation. And stick to real words as opposed to ones made up along the way. We then challenge everyone to visit the posts on Monday and try to use other bloggers’ favorite words in your blog next week. We can’t wait to expand our vocabulary!

When I read that, I couldn’t help but be a little excited about it. I LOVE words. Of course I love words, I am a writer. Without words…well, we’d have a whole lot of blank pages, wouldn’t we? So, without question, I would be participating in this FM and sharing with you some of my favorite words.

But wait…did somebody say favorite? As I explained in this post, I don’t do favorites very well. Ask me my favorite color, song, or food, and you’re bound to get a blank stare and a long “ummmm”. Or, you might get a list. A long one.
So, how was I then going to be able to narrow down all the words in the English language to just one (or a few) favorites? And even worse, she said “any language is acceptable”…I speak three! This was getting to be quite overwhelming. What was I to do? How was I to choose? Where would I begin? Before the hyperventilating kicked into full gear, I decided to take a deep breath, and just go for it. And then I started laughing, because the following memory popped into my mind.

The other day I was playing “Loaded Questions” with a group of friends. If you’ve never played this game before, I urge you to go out and get it right now…it’s a good time in a box. One of the questions was to name a word that made you laugh. Picking just one word proved near impossible for all the players involved, but we managed to do it. For me, it was instant…a word I probably hadn’t heard and/or thought of in a decade immediately popped into my mind. That word? Fahrvergnügen.

I’m not even entirely sure it’s a real word (truth is, I’m pretty sure it’s not), but it became a word, very much like the word Text has become a verb, or yada yada yada has become a part of our language. Pop culture has a way of doing that to our vocabulary. And I love that fake word. Go ahead, say it, I dare you to do it and not laugh. See…not possible.

So, maybe I would do this post with just funny words, it might make it easier to narrow down, right? I could give you words like “nincompoop”, “indubitable”, and “humorous”…great words one and all, and the type that make me smile every time I hear them.

But then I’m neglecting such an enormous amount of words I love. How about neglected words? You know, the ones we don’t use all that often, but when we do, we go “I love that word choice”…words such as: obscure, unscrupulous, peculiar, and deplorable. Seriously, how great are those words?

Then there are the pretty words: airy, lacy, shiny; words that immediately bring to mind feelings of girly things.

Or, how about the words I love because of their meaning? Words like Sale, shoes, sushi, chocolate? Or the ones with power behind them because of the emotions they elicit? Friends, family, God, faith.

And then there are the Portuguese words I can never get enough of: amor (love), Deus (God), minha mae, minha filha (my mom, my daughter, words I exchange jokingly with mom on the phone weekly), papo seco (my favorite kind of Portuguese bread).

Or, I could go with the words I use on a daily basis, over and over again. Lately, they are things like “text”, “blog” and “twitter”. But they’re also things such as “blessed”, “love” and “fun”.

How could I possibly just pick a few favorites then? I thought about it, and I decided that I won’t do it. I refuse, decline, reject, repudiate.

Maybe someone else followed the rules, go check out what their favorite words are here.
And before I forget, next week FM is being hosted over here. Make sure to go sign up!
OH, and do come back again tomorrow, won't you? I have a goal to post EVERY DAY this week...I haven't posted daily in quite a while, but I decided that just for this week I would do so, so...come back please...It's lonely lately here at Candid Karina's!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Karina, wonderful thoughtful answer. And thanks for the tip on Loaded Questions - I'd never heard of it before. Love the sound of papo seco, it's definitely fun to say. We look forward to hearing more from you as well as to the next FM!

Molly said...

I adore your post about words. You have selected a creative title. I understand what you mean about favorites. However, the way that you have categorized words, you have suggested a number of word choices.

Pamela said...

I remember that VW commercial using the F word. hee hee. WE loved it too.

Can I just take your post and put it on my blog and say I wrote it.

Sauntering Soul said...

I'm like you - when someone ask me to tell them my favorite [whatever] I never have an answer. I can't pick favorites and my list of words is rather long too.

ChrisB said...

I think I got a bit tongue tied trying to pronounce the 'f' word. I love nincompoop, probably because I use it! Great post.

Alison said...

great post Karina...I love it.

Robocop said...

Very good post. It can be hard to narrow it down to one word.

Tiggerlane said...

I love your masthead - FYI! And I think I'll narrow your words down to "twitter." That's just one I can't do without!

amanda said...

I just love your post title. I think I may be saying that all day now!

Big Momma said...

I loved that you included many of my favorites!!! Great post girl!