OK, I started this thing up and then pretty much ignored it right away. Not my fault, my summer got all turned around immediately after I started this project. I am now spending 4 days a week babysitting my niece, which takes up all my free time save for about a half hour in the morning while I eat breakfast. I can't work on anything related to Diaryland while she's in the house, so I've just given up on this project for now.
However, I think from now on when interesting words catch my eye, I should make an entry here. Pretty much any time I have an interesting thought about words, I should post an entry here. Every time a word gets stuck in my head for days on end (does anyone else do this? it's like having a song stuck in your head, except it's one word, said over and over at annoying times for days) I should write an entry.
To start up my new enthusiasm for this project, here are some of my favorite words, and why I like them so much. To make the list, they have to be more than words. They have to have some sort of power over me. To strike an emotion, a smell, an image, a color, or some other sensation in my head. Some words are powerful enough to do that. Here are the ones that come to mind.
fuck
My favorite word of all time. It is my original, and ultimate rebellion. Probably stemming from my junior high years when everyone seemed to think I was so naive and innocent, they jumped out of their skin when they heard me say it. It embodies sex, especially hard, dark, sweaty, nasty sex. Now go read my dictionary's kick-ass "word history" of the word fuck on the word.
cunt
This word is so unbelievably powerful to me. Like homosexuals reclaiming the words gay and fag as positive catchwords, some feminists have hijacked this one. The word is female power personified. Go read this. Then read about the chick who put these strange ideas in my head Inga Muscio.
defenestrate
The first time I heard this word, I couldn't believe there was a word for throwing someone out of a window. It sounds like a combination of deforestation and demonstration. And fencing. An amazingly meaty sounding word for such a silly thing. I first heard this word here
brilliant
I've been reading too many British romance novels lately. The word rolls off the tongue. It's somehow associated with light, intelligence, and all things good. I imagine rays of sunlight in my head when I say it.
paradoxical
Gets points for having the often-ignored letter "x". Interesting concept, to somehow be defined in one word. One word that makes something scientific (a paradox) sound like something mythical and magical and mysterious.
triumvirate
It's fancy talk for m�nage � trois.
pythoness
Just learned this word is not a female snake, or even a female snake monster. But a priestess. Visions of giant snake priestesses with bared breasts and snakey bodies fill my head.
lovely
I say it alot. It reminds me of softness, of warmth, of love, and coziness. Dainty, light, shining beauty.
cunnilingual drift
While cunnilingus is an interesting word, cunnilingual sounds even more sensual. Add that to the concept it describes, and I'm in heaven with just two little words.
fellatio
Sounds like a dashing character in a Shakespeare play, when in actuality its a fun thing to do to your man.
evil
I hate that people make moral judgement calls about things and determine them to be bad, wrong, or evil. Evil implies someone going to hell, or something come from hell. I like to revel in all things evil and hellish, to do "my part to piss off the religious right" I suppose. So I claim the word as my own. All things delightfully sinful are then evil. Like hot fudge sundaes or just plain old hot sex. Or something marginally annoying that a friend does, for which you instantly forgive them as soon as you call them evil. The word is thick, black smoke with cat eyes in my head. Like the cheshire cat's disembodied smile, only with mischevious eyes instead.
witty
This doesn't evoke much emotion, I just overuse it. But it is a complicated word that momentarily evokes images in my head, images of other words that sound like it, as well as the faces of people I've used this word to describe in the past.
pithy
A word that sticks with me, like peanut butter coating the roof of your mouth, because I went so long holding a mistaken meaning of this word in my head. And it sounds a bit like "pity", which brings to mind the word "pity party", which brings to mind the song "it's my party and i'll cry if i want to".
scrumptious
For some inexplicable reason, this word causes visions of crumpets (possibly the use of "crump" in both words), coffee cakes with cinammon crumbles, and large Rubenesque women to fill my head.
lascivious
It sounds like luscious, so not only is it sexy, but also food is thrown in there too. Plus, it reminds me of "lashing", which is something I really like tongues to do to me.
darkness
I really like the word dark, because of evil connotations (see evil above), but adding the ness on the end somehow makes it sound sexier, more mystical. And somehow like a physical thing you could touch.
writhe
It calls to mind snakes and naked bodies having sex, superimposed on each other. I never realized I found serpent movements so sexy until I started writing this entry.
magical
How can you not like this word? The soft g sounding like a j is very appealing to the ear. Conjures images of fireworks and unicorns , accompanied by whispered chants.
caress
I can't say this word without thinking of silk sliding on silk. Possibly because of the bath-soap commercial. Because the word "care" is in there, it is more than sexual, but also intimate and warm and loving.
vibrant
Vibrating streams of bright colors fill my head, exploding jewel-toned rays of sunlight.
whore
Very much like "evil" (see above), I scoff at how easily someone can be labelled a whore. To me, the word whore embodies a sexual woman who enjoys her own sexuality, revelling in it. Or someone who'll do anything to have what they obsessively desire, like chocolate. Or sex.
witchy
Conjures up those sexy cat eyes wrapped in the black smoke under "evil". Somehow feminine and cat-like and sexual all at once.
dusk
The abruptness of the word is somehow appealing, possibly because it sounds vaguely like "fuck". Brings to mind my favorite time of day, sunset. Cannot be mentioned without flashes of Quentin Tarantino, Salma Hayek, and George Clooney in From Dusk till Dawn.
veracity
I think it slips off the tongue like a poem. Like mercury. It's better to say and hear than to read. There is also something odd about how my mind doesn't seem to want to just know this word, but always has to re-discover the meaning because it sounds like "verify". I do a mental "oooooo, of course" when I realize veracity has to do with truth.
heirarchy
All heirarchies suck. But it's such a pretty sounding word. I wish I could figure out something cool that I could relabel it a "heirarchy", and then it will have a cool meaning. Like "pulled a Monica" from friends. What if we called bicycles heirarchies? No, something light, like a butterfly. But I like the word butterfly. Maybe birds? "A heirarchy just flew by my window. Then it perched and started chirping really loudly. So I shot it because I was feeling grumpy." Shooting a heirarchy is a positive mental image, I think.
nemesis
I don't know why, but this word sounds sexy. Dark sexy. Fucking strangers in an alley sexy. I cannot hear this word without remembering the snippet from the Snatch soundtrack: "Do you know what nemesis means?" That man's voice, however, is very much not sexy.
luscious
Sounds like lascivious, only is also has food connotations. My two favorite things in the world: food and sex, together at last. Reminds me of Luscious Jackson, a very luscious band in deed.
murmur
People whisper, but lovers murmur. It evokes a feeling intimacy. Warm arms around you, whispered shushing noises in your head.
ramble
I'm going to sound crazy, but this word is purple in my head. Possibly because it sounds like "bramble", and aren't blackberry bushes brambles? Plus, yes, again, this word somehow reminds me of sex. I really don't know why.
cozy
The word evokes its meaning. Just saying or thinking the word evokes very strong emotions, remembering times I have felt cozy. See this and this.
bliss
Heaven on earth. Pure happiness. How can you go wrong with a word like that? I try not to say it very often, because it's a very personal word to me. I discovered it writing my diary here. Bliss was what I thought was lacking in my life. Bliss was what I discovered was lurking just behind me, because I had somehow turned my back on it. It was just waiting for me to turn around again. See this.
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