Is there a word for that...

This is one of the those books that you just pick up randomly off the library shelf, but after reading it I would whole-heartily recommend it. I found that I was completely delighted and fascinated by it. I even laughed out loud a couple of times. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys words. As I tell people about this book they are almost disgusted that I could be so happy reading it. I have always thought that there is such a power to words. Words choosen carefully in the scriptures or other books make the meaning so much more multileveled and interesting. Have you considered words before? I know that my man has learned about a new depth to a concept by the way the word is used in spanish and I assume that could be the case in any language. I learned so much about words, the history, use, etymology of words. Now, I am going to review this book probably in too much detail so if you prefer to read it yourself or are simply not interested, do not proceed.

The Oxford English Dictionary was first published in 1928. The edition that Ammon Shea read was the second, which is 20 volumes, 21, 730 pages, and weighs in about 140 pounds. He finds that "The fact that the OED cares so much about words that almost everybody else happily ignores is one of its finest traits." He says that he is pro-book when asked why he doesn't just read the computer version. "You cannot drop the computer on the floor in a fit of pique, or slam it shut... Sitting down at the computer has never provided me with that delicious anticipatory sense that I am about to be utterly and rhapsodically transported by the words within it... I get a nervous excitement as I see the number of pages that remain to be read draining inexorably from the right to the left." I agree. Whenever I read a book, even one that I am enjoying thoroughly, I feel a sense of accomplishment as the pages turn one by one til the last. There is something very special about books that technology cannot replace. One thing I also never questioned but now understand is the absurdity of the statement that a word isn't a word unless it is in the dictionary. "How can you say that something people use as a word is not a word? It can be a bad word, or a slang word, or a substandard or colloquial word; but it is still a word... (ie. irregardless) Dictionaries are not set in stone, nor are they error free... Any dictionary ever written is at least to some extent, already partially obsolete by the time it is published." I had never ever realized that before. Hello! Ammon says he loves it when the OED does silly things on occasion. "It humanizes the dictionary and makes it more apparent that this creation is the work of people, not machines. It is fallible, and all the more impressive for it." Maybe it is just me but I always thought of the dictionary as fairly complete and correct. Little did I know. I love that he says, "I'll often go through pages and pages without recognizing a single word. Some days I feel as if I do not actually speak English... Time and again I will read fascinating definitions that turn out to belong to words I had always thought to be pedestrian and boring. To be so often intrigued and amazed by the meanings of words that are quite common is something I find both delightful and unsettling." There are twenty five pages just for the word set. And there are 451 pages just listing un- prefix words. Isn't that incredible. Anyway, I just wanted to list some of the words. I just want to tell you all the thoughts and feelings that I had with all of this words as well as Ammon's commentary but I think that it will just take way to long and nobody will read it anyway. I am sitting here debating whether I can really go on for a couple more pages. I felt like I needed some of these words and others are just interesting that they exist in the first place. Many of these words should not be used because that are out of date and nobody will know what you are talking about. But they are nonetheless fabulous.

acnestis: the place on your back that you cannot reach to stratch

barla-fumble: a call for a truce, from one who has fallen to disadvantage (like uncle)

cimicine: smelling like bugs (I know this smell from my collection, gross)

debag: to depants somebody

exsibilation: the act of hissing somebody off stage

fornale: to spend one's money before it has been earned (why this obsolete scottish term went extinct, I don't know)

forplaint: tired of complaining ("It can be tiring, having to constantly remind the world at large that it does not quite live up to your exacting standards.")

gymnologize: fight naked (this is my advice for all newlyweds)

heterophemize: to say something different from what you mean to say

impluvious: wet with rain (pleasant word)

jehu: a fast driver (My man)

killcrop: a brat who never ceases to be hungry and was popularly thought to be a fairy that was substituted for the real child (ha)

latibulate: to hide in the corner (Sunshine likes to latibulate)

lipoxeny: the deserting of a host by the parasites that have been living on it

micturient: having the strong desire to urinate

nemesism: frustration directed inward

obdormition: the falling asleep of a limb

petrichor: pleasant loamy smell of rain

quag: to shake, said of something that is soft or flabby (relief society arms)

quisquilious: of the nature of garbage ("I would enjoy it if more of our vocabulary did not match with its meaning, and things of beauty were described as skrug and more unpleasant things were described by words such as quisquilious")

ruffing: stomping of feet as a form of applause (there is a word for that, cool.)

surfeited: oppressed by eating too much (I know the feeling)

tacturiency: the desire to touch (oh, that is why the crystal in the store in smashed on the floor)

tricoteuse: a woman who knits; specifically, while watching a beheading during the french revolution (Humph?)

umbriphilous: fond of the shade (I am especially in AZ)

undisonant: the sound of waves

velleity: wish or desire for something without accompanying action or effort

vitativeness: love of life

wonderclout: a thing that is showy but worthless

xanthrodontous: having yellow teeth, as a rodent

yepsen: amount that can be held in two cupped hands

zugswang: a disagreeable position in which a chess player is obliged to move but cannot do so without disadvantage ("Such are the surprises of the OED; there was enough need to coin a word like unbepissed, but not one to describe the fairly common experience of beling in an untenable position and needing to make a decision."

I would like to end this "never-ending" post with some poetic lines. Sometimes this is how I feel reading a great book and I forget temperarily that I need to take care of my kids. "Instantly I am lost, and happily wending my way through the ages, and the alphabet, word after word. I sit there, losing minutes and hours and gaining the world." (Aaaaahhhhh!)