Happy Valentime's Day!!!

Isn't it nice to have a colorful holiday made for spreading love smack-dab in the dead of winter?

(image from domiknitrix.com)


I've been thinking lately about words; more specifically, words I love. One year I received a gift of a dictionary for Christmas. Not a pocket dictionary, or an abridged dictionary, but one of those great big dictionaries like you see on a stand in a public library. It's one of my all-time favorite gifts. Thank you, Michael!

Here are some of the words at the top of my short list of beloved words. This is by no means a complete list...just what popped in my head over the past week or so:

Balmy

Dandy

Malaise

Ennui

Abbatoir

Mellifluous

Serendipity

Arcana

Behemoth

Queue

Malaprop

I like some of these words for their meaning, and some for the way they sound. For example, abbatoir has a pleasant sound, but I wouldn't like to be in one. I picture Poor Bessie, thinking she's finally being taken out on the town to a fancy French restaurant, when she really gets taken on a ride to the slaughterhouse. Maybe she ends up in the fancy restaurant after all.

Balmy can apply to the state of the climate, or the state of one's mind. Either way, they both sound pleasant. When I go completely insane, I hope folks will say I'm balmy rather than deranged.

The next time someone asks "How are you?" consider replying with "Dandy!" Keeps 'em on their toes. "Grand" works well in this application, also.

Queue is a fun word. It sounds like a letter in the alphabet, but it needs four extra letters to make it happen. Fun to say, fun to spell, and fun to mispronounce as "kwee" with unsuspecting people. Fun, fun, fun.

Mellifluous sounds pretty. And it should. It means "sounds pretty."

Serendipity is how I've discovered the best things in life.

Malaprop or malapropism has an interesting history. Read below (from dictionary.com).

Word History: "She's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile" and "He is the very pineapple of politeness" are two of the absurd pronouncements from Mrs. Malaprop that explain why her name became synonymous with ludicrous misuse of language. A character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play The Rivals (1775), Mrs. Malaprop consistently uses language malapropos, that is, inappropriately. The word malapropos comes from the French phrase mal à propos, made up of mal, "badly," à, "to," and propos, "purpose, subject," and means "inappropriate." The Rivals was a popular play, and Mrs. Malaprop became enshrined in a common noun, first in the form malaprop and later in malapropism, which is first recorded in 1849. Perhaps that is what Mrs. Malaprop feared when she said, "If I reprehend any thing in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!"

I'm sure you've known a Mrs. or Mr. Malaprop. I encountered a Mrs. Malaprop five days a week for years. The irony of her verbal confusion is that she had such a keen eye for the faults of others. I admit I delighted in steering conversations in ways guaranteed to bring out her spoken blunders. My buddy Scott shared a few he's heard from someone he knows, so I've included those as well. It's only fair that he helps with this project, since he's been prodding me to post a new blog entry. Thanks for the inspiration, Scott!

From my own Mrs. Malaprop:

Valentine = Valentime

K-Mart = K-Mark

Chaperone = Cafferone

Digital = Digikal

Chimney = Chimley

Hemoglobin = Hemogoblin

Credenza = Gazebo (don't ask me how this happens; I don't know)

From Scott's Mr. Malaprop:

Glove Compartment = Glove Department

Pall Bearer = Pall Burier

Supposedly = Supposebly

Ambulance = Ambalamps

Back in the 50's or early 60's my grandparents were traveling back home to their farm after visiting us in Virginia. These were the days before the interstate highway system, and they stopped for gas in a small Kentucky town. The man pumping their gas asked where they were from.
"Iowa," my grandpa offered.
"Iowa," the man repeated, paused, then said "Around these parts we pronounce it Ohio."

Rememble to add any malapriapisms you've underheard in the comments sectional!





"The file you need is in the gazebo."