Oh what a wonderful read! I am so tired of the online 'experts' who command that the way forward is to 'keep it simple', 'write the way your audience speaks' (whatever that means!), 'forget academic writing' (again, whatever that means!!!).
Are we writers? Do we not love words? I love just the sound of certain words - even when I have no idea of their meaning. Similarly, certain words are like nails on a chalk board to my ears - to my mind, that is still a wonderful thing, to be able to elicit that response.
So, let's not leave beautiful words to languish in the corner along with the best china, that which is brought out only on high days and holidays! To coin that awful phrase, we must use it or lose it!
I am fully behind these thoughts. Definitely agree. There's plenty of audience for the more transparent kind of writing, where you read and don't really realise you're reading, and I'm all for enjoying that too, but I adore finding the lyrical complexity in literature and the specific style and voice of authors.
A rallying cry to use beautiful words! However, you make a great point that less melodious words have their place too and can be just as powerful; there is probably a specially locked drawer somewhere in the cabinet with a warning sign. Words to be used with care!
Loved this, Nathan and Jamie. I, too, am constantly in search of special words, and once I find one, I write it down and repeat it as if giving it a safe place to live inside me. The words you two have selected are very interesting, and I love their sound. As an Italian, I immediately recognized the meanings of limpid and aquiline. They're the same in Italian: limpido and aquilino. Latin derivation, I guess. As for limned and komorebi, they are totally new to me and a wonderful discovery. Although I'm still trying to remember where I recently bumped into komorebi. It was in something I read, but I can’t recall what. Anyways, great idea and a beautiful piece.
Two new Italian words for me—should be able to remember those! It is nice when one can latch onto familiar words in another language; I guess we do have Latin to thank for a lot of that across Europe.
However, this has also made me remember my school French teacher warning against trusting “faux amis”—foreign words that look rather similar to words in one’s own language, but that have totally different meanings. I love that they are described as false friends, with that implied sense of betrayal, as if they were undercover agents. How could they?!
I hope so too. I really should have added a “please add your own special words in the comments” section, but I am strangely averse to any call-to-action type comments at the end of posts.
Oct 18·edited Oct 18Liked by Nathan Slake, L.J. Gearing
The beauty of words, like shiny treasures buried in the sand. Some time ago, I’ve collected limpid, and aquiline, but not in the context of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (shivers).And speaking of shiny things buried in the sand, I recognized where this one came from ,Jamie. Limned. That black obsidian rock still lurks just at the outer edge of a dream, threatening to become a nightmare(more shivers). Nathan🫣. Truly a perfect example of how words can elevate a good story to a great one. Komorebi, my good friend who is a professor of Japanese literature enlightened me. I love this exchange! Other title names came to mind. Maybe a periodic regular event?
A treasure chest of words.
Words at play.
Caution ⚠️ words under construction.
Caution ⚠️ writers under construction 🚧
Or, my favorite;
Caution⚠️writers at play with words, enter at your own risk🚧.
Hehe, thank you Lor for the sunshine you bring to these comments once again.
May the exchange continue. (I'll force Jamie into it...)
I like your title suggestions. I quite like "words under construction" because it makes me ponder the idea of coming up with a fictional word with a fictional definition and usage!
I was delighted to see the word “aquiline” on here as it made me feel very clever as I knew what it meant 😁
However, I should make it clear that the only reason for that is I have just been re-reading snippets from Dracula for my latest article and came across it then before immediately looking it up
Words like these, to me, could possibly belong in a spell book before being brought together in a sentence or tale by the master writer to create a magical mirage of imagery and sound through the sheer nature of their complex construction 👍🏼
Thanks Nadia! Definitely a fun thing to do collaboratively; a little bit of an insight into each other’s perspective on language. Perhaps I shall now remember what limpid means too, because for some reason its definition has never stuck in my mind until now. Maybe it is hard for me to remember because the word itself is transparent!
Oct 20·edited Oct 20Liked by L.J. Gearing, Nathan Slake
Excellent series. I love these little gems of words, special, rare, beatific. Alas, more often than not, I forget about them. I have to read them many times. A cabinet of special words sounds delicious!
On the other spectrum are words writers tend to overuse, but that would be another series.
Thanks Alexander! I certainly had to think hard to recall my own selection. All to easy to forget, as you say—indeed, if somebody asks me to think of word I like, apparently all words temporarily disappear from my mind. Um… how helpful!
That would definitely be another series… and potentially a dangerous, because in reply somebody could point out something that one repeats too much oneself! I do say “well” a lot. Well, perhaps that is not too much of a problem. Anyway, never mind. (“Anyway”—that’s another one!)
Oh dear! I rather like whatnot… but not in meetings, which are a different question entirely and have their own abominable language. Almost any word can become intolerable in a meeting. Why does everything seem to be a space these days? “In this space”, “in the such-and-such space”… and whatnot.
I once recorded a meeting and played it back for everyone afterwards, an effective lesson in public speaking. All the "ahhms" and "uuuhms," or elongated "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehs" after almost every word. Yes, evil filler words... and then there's the classic "but ahm", like, you know, when you say it, like, a lot, like right now.
One could indeed, a potpourri of words and phrases. such as "he screwed up his eyes." I can only screw up my eyes at the frequent use of such a phrase, sometimes screwing them up with fear, smiling, scrutinizing, a lot of eye screwing going on in War and Peace...
What a fascinating list! I hope it will be expanded in the future too. One of the words I immediately thought of, that I enjoy very much (but never use...) is petrichor, the smell of rain in the air.
And one of my favorite Japanese words would be tasogare, twilight, also the verb tasogareru, which can mean "to wane" or "to be lost in thought, melancholic".
Yes! Fantastic word. I almost considered putting it in, but for now it remains safely in the cabinet.
Didn’t know tasogare, but that’s wonderful. It makes me long to revisit Japan! I would be 100% down with you writing a post about Japanese idioms and words. Just saying. ;)
Not a bad idea! Here's another teaser: neko wo kaburu, literally "to wear a cat" means to feign friendliness. (Idk if I have that many more beautiful or funny things... should definitely make a list at some point.)
Nathan, I hope you continue this as a series. I love discovering new words and especially appreciate hearing how one stumbles upon them, and how it forever changes them.
The word limned is wonderful and I admit, I remember it from your short story but mistook it for “limbed”, and instead saw limbs of light branching from the stone. Funny how both work in a way.:)
A lovely read. Nearly… sensual? … Words and languages are fascinating. I knew the first three of these well and enjoyed exploring their… sensuality… And word four is such a good example of how different languages honour different senses. What a delightful new discovery. One word to capture that unique sense. Lovely. Thank you both. Most enjoyable.
Aw, thank you Beth. You know, whenever I send out a non-fiction post I always think of you and find myself thinking "I hope Beth will enjoy this non-fiction post." 😊
So pleased to hear this was enjoyable and, dare I say, sensual.
These are interesting words, and interesting mini pieces. I'm interested in how each of you first encountered these words. In literature, as implied by the quotations/excerpts, or meandering through a dictionary or thesaurus?
Thanks, Terry. Definitely through reading books. I think it's only in the last four or five years that I've really started paying more attention whilst reading and noting such things properly. Just wish I'd taken actual notes to refer back to!
If it's any consolation, Nathan, I've been meaning to do that for years. Tried different approaches too. I might try again. Although it's time-consuming at the time, it's even more time-consuming afterwards.
Yes. The benefit of the Kindle is certainly in being able to easily take snippets, along with the fact that you can search. With books that I leave pencil notes in, I've now started putting asterisks in the top corner of the page when there's something of special note in that page so that it's at least easier to flip through the book and locate places of note. I should be more rigorous though and actually keep separate notes, but that's not the easiest thing when e.g. reading on the train and not want to be carrying a notebook and a book!
Thanks Terry! For me, the two quotes I chose were the moments I really discovered those words. (Well, perhaps I had come across komorebi before on list of untranslatable words long ago, but seeing it in context in the film felt like a proper first encounter.) I do enjoy meandering through a dictionary or a thesaurus too, as you nicely put it. You just reminded me that I happened upon the word inveigle in such a way. That is a good word.
Oh what a wonderful read! I am so tired of the online 'experts' who command that the way forward is to 'keep it simple', 'write the way your audience speaks' (whatever that means!), 'forget academic writing' (again, whatever that means!!!).
Are we writers? Do we not love words? I love just the sound of certain words - even when I have no idea of their meaning. Similarly, certain words are like nails on a chalk board to my ears - to my mind, that is still a wonderful thing, to be able to elicit that response.
So, let's not leave beautiful words to languish in the corner along with the best china, that which is brought out only on high days and holidays! To coin that awful phrase, we must use it or lose it!
I am fully behind these thoughts. Definitely agree. There's plenty of audience for the more transparent kind of writing, where you read and don't really realise you're reading, and I'm all for enjoying that too, but I adore finding the lyrical complexity in literature and the specific style and voice of authors.
A rallying cry to use beautiful words! However, you make a great point that less melodious words have their place too and can be just as powerful; there is probably a specially locked drawer somewhere in the cabinet with a warning sign. Words to be used with care!
Hah. I bet there is.
Huzzah Remanon!
Loved this, Nathan and Jamie. I, too, am constantly in search of special words, and once I find one, I write it down and repeat it as if giving it a safe place to live inside me. The words you two have selected are very interesting, and I love their sound. As an Italian, I immediately recognized the meanings of limpid and aquiline. They're the same in Italian: limpido and aquilino. Latin derivation, I guess. As for limned and komorebi, they are totally new to me and a wonderful discovery. Although I'm still trying to remember where I recently bumped into komorebi. It was in something I read, but I can’t recall what. Anyways, great idea and a beautiful piece.
Thanks Silvio!
Two new Italian words for me—should be able to remember those! It is nice when one can latch onto familiar words in another language; I guess we do have Latin to thank for a lot of that across Europe.
However, this has also made me remember my school French teacher warning against trusting “faux amis”—foreign words that look rather similar to words in one’s own language, but that have totally different meanings. I love that they are described as false friends, with that implied sense of betrayal, as if they were undercover agents. How could they?!
I think you may have told me of this previously It's a great term, "faux amis".
Yes! Faux amis is a lovely way to describe them. It perfectly captures what they do: betray you. Thank you for sharing this, Jamie.
Thanks, Silvio. I just looked up the etymology and it is Latin derivation indeed.
I'm very pleased to hear you now have two new words from this post.
I'm the one thanking you two. I hope you make this recurring, somehow. I'd love to see more. :)
I hope so too. I really should have added a “please add your own special words in the comments” section, but I am strangely averse to any call-to-action type comments at the end of posts.
I love that the word komorebi exists. Wonderful haiku, Jamie. And, Nathan, I agree that aquiline is a fantastic word.
Great post, both of you.
Me too! Thanks so much Holly, that is very kind of you. Happy you enjoyed reading!
Thanks Holly, I’m pleased you enjoyed!
Jamie and Nathan, I feel like you have both just sent a gift of consent! How I love beautiful words but always feel too shy to use them...
Thank you.
I found a word I had never seen before not so long ago, I cannot stop thinking about, 'aliferous'! 🧚🏼♂️
That is a lovely word Susie, thank you for sharing it.
I understand what you mean though—let us resolve to be brave and experiment with beautiful words! I hope you can use this one somewhere soon.
How wonderful to hear, Susie. And how wonderful a word in aliferous. This is new to me, so thanks so much for sharing.
What does it mean Susie?
"Having wings; winged." What a lovely way to describe having wings. I will certainly be trying to use this word at some point.
As Nathan rightly said, it means to have wings... Isn't it beautiful, even the sound of the word feels like flight!
The beauty of words, like shiny treasures buried in the sand. Some time ago, I’ve collected limpid, and aquiline, but not in the context of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (shivers).And speaking of shiny things buried in the sand, I recognized where this one came from ,Jamie. Limned. That black obsidian rock still lurks just at the outer edge of a dream, threatening to become a nightmare(more shivers). Nathan🫣. Truly a perfect example of how words can elevate a good story to a great one. Komorebi, my good friend who is a professor of Japanese literature enlightened me. I love this exchange! Other title names came to mind. Maybe a periodic regular event?
A treasure chest of words.
Words at play.
Caution ⚠️ words under construction.
Caution ⚠️ writers under construction 🚧
Or, my favorite;
Caution⚠️writers at play with words, enter at your own risk🚧.
Thanks for reading, Lor. Some nice alternative premises and titles here. We shall have to keep searching for more treasures…
Hehe, thank you Lor for the sunshine you bring to these comments once again.
May the exchange continue. (I'll force Jamie into it...)
I like your title suggestions. I quite like "words under construction" because it makes me ponder the idea of coming up with a fictional word with a fictional definition and usage!
Yes sir, whatever you say, sir!
I have never read it, but I believe this might have been something like the premise of the book The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd.
Interesting. Didn't know that.
(But of course, everything has already been done.)
I think somebody else has already said that everything has already been done.
I was delighted to see the word “aquiline” on here as it made me feel very clever as I knew what it meant 😁
However, I should make it clear that the only reason for that is I have just been re-reading snippets from Dracula for my latest article and came across it then before immediately looking it up
Words like these, to me, could possibly belong in a spell book before being brought together in a sentence or tale by the master writer to create a magical mirage of imagery and sound through the sheer nature of their complex construction 👍🏼
Thanks very much for a great article 🙂
Ah, thank you Dan!
And how funny that you'd just been reading a Dracula quote with aquiline in it. The fates are at play, somewhere!
The spell book notion is great.
Oh what a splendid idea to explore mysterious words with a fellow writer. I am enamored with these, and some I had no idea what they meant until now.
Thanks Nadia! Definitely a fun thing to do collaboratively; a little bit of an insight into each other’s perspective on language. Perhaps I shall now remember what limpid means too, because for some reason its definition has never stuck in my mind until now. Maybe it is hard for me to remember because the word itself is transparent!
Meant to link this for you in case you haven't seen it, but I think you'd enjoy these from Nadia: https://whenhopewrites.substack.com/p/fun-animal-based-idioms-in-russian
“I will show you where crayfish spend the winter.“ So menacing! Superb.
Well now I won’t unsee it, it is so clear in my mind lol!
I am now reminded of your wonderful post on Russian phrases (if I remember correctly?) Thos were all fantastic.
I do have one written like that! Hehe.
Well and here I thought "limpid" meant floppy or lethargic, but I clearly just got it confused with "limp."
I also thought "aquiline" meant "looks like a god," but that's clearly Aquaman.
I'll just be over here with my equations now! 😂
I think that is why I always used to struggle with limpid too, so you are not alone, Renee—well, not for that, but maybe for the Aquaman thing!
Thanks for reading!
Hehe, thanks Renee. Glad to have cleared up that confusion. I certainly don't think the meaning of limpid is intuitive from how it sounds.
Delightful tour - this could get quite grand, looking forward to more entries perhaps? :)
Not the first to ask! Sounds like we might just have to follow up at some point with more entries.
Thanks, Troy!
Excellent series. I love these little gems of words, special, rare, beatific. Alas, more often than not, I forget about them. I have to read them many times. A cabinet of special words sounds delicious!
On the other spectrum are words writers tend to overuse, but that would be another series.
Thanks Alexander! I certainly had to think hard to recall my own selection. All to easy to forget, as you say—indeed, if somebody asks me to think of word I like, apparently all words temporarily disappear from my mind. Um… how helpful!
That would definitely be another series… and potentially a dangerous, because in reply somebody could point out something that one repeats too much oneself! I do say “well” a lot. Well, perhaps that is not too much of a problem. Anyway, never mind. (“Anyway”—that’s another one!)
Everyone has their vices ;)
My 100% current detested word is “what not”. Urrggh. In meetings so many people say “Yes, and this and that and what not.”
It’s become so overused. I hate it. I hate it with a passion.
In equal place, is ending a conversation with “do you know what I mean?”
Oh dear! I rather like whatnot… but not in meetings, which are a different question entirely and have their own abominable language. Almost any word can become intolerable in a meeting. Why does everything seem to be a space these days? “In this space”, “in the such-and-such space”… and whatnot.
Eh oh. But yes, I'm sure you're right, it's the context in which it's used.
I once recorded a meeting and played it back for everyone afterwards, an effective lesson in public speaking. All the "ahhms" and "uuuhms," or elongated "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehs" after almost every word. Yes, evil filler words... and then there's the classic "but ahm", like, you know, when you say it, like, a lot, like right now.
Hah! You should write a post on “A trash dump of overused words.” ;)
One could indeed, a potpourri of words and phrases. such as "he screwed up his eyes." I can only screw up my eyes at the frequent use of such a phrase, sometimes screwing them up with fear, smiling, scrutinizing, a lot of eye screwing going on in War and Peace...
What a fascinating list! I hope it will be expanded in the future too. One of the words I immediately thought of, that I enjoy very much (but never use...) is petrichor, the smell of rain in the air.
And one of my favorite Japanese words would be tasogare, twilight, also the verb tasogareru, which can mean "to wane" or "to be lost in thought, melancholic".
Thanks Vanessa. Yes, petrichor is a lovely wood for a delicious concept.
Great Japanese contribution to the cabinet too!
Yes! Fantastic word. I almost considered putting it in, but for now it remains safely in the cabinet.
Didn’t know tasogare, but that’s wonderful. It makes me long to revisit Japan! I would be 100% down with you writing a post about Japanese idioms and words. Just saying. ;)
Not a bad idea! Here's another teaser: neko wo kaburu, literally "to wear a cat" means to feign friendliness. (Idk if I have that many more beautiful or funny things... should definitely make a list at some point.)
Love it.
A fabulous piece. Three new words for me and an old favourite ‘Komorebi’.
Great to hear! Thanks for reading.
delightful and truly moving — a celebration of language and curiosity! I hope there’s another installment.
Thanks so much for reading Faith! We shall keep an eye out for more words…
Thanks, Faith! Me too.
Nathan, I hope you continue this as a series. I love discovering new words and especially appreciate hearing how one stumbles upon them, and how it forever changes them.
The word limned is wonderful and I admit, I remember it from your short story but mistook it for “limbed”, and instead saw limbs of light branching from the stone. Funny how both work in a way.:)
I'm certainly keen to keep it as a series, if Jamie is on board too.
Hehe, that's funny to hear, but yes it definitely works both ways.
Thanks for reading, Kimberly!
A lovely read. Nearly… sensual? … Words and languages are fascinating. I knew the first three of these well and enjoyed exploring their… sensuality… And word four is such a good example of how different languages honour different senses. What a delightful new discovery. One word to capture that unique sense. Lovely. Thank you both. Most enjoyable.
Aw, thank you Beth. You know, whenever I send out a non-fiction post I always think of you and find myself thinking "I hope Beth will enjoy this non-fiction post." 😊
So pleased to hear this was enjoyable and, dare I say, sensual.
🤗🤗❤️💕
These are interesting words, and interesting mini pieces. I'm interested in how each of you first encountered these words. In literature, as implied by the quotations/excerpts, or meandering through a dictionary or thesaurus?
Thanks, Terry. Definitely through reading books. I think it's only in the last four or five years that I've really started paying more attention whilst reading and noting such things properly. Just wish I'd taken actual notes to refer back to!
I should definitely start taking notes like this too. All those great words that we have probably forgotten!
If it's any consolation, Nathan, I've been meaning to do that for years. Tried different approaches too. I might try again. Although it's time-consuming at the time, it's even more time-consuming afterwards.
Yes. The benefit of the Kindle is certainly in being able to easily take snippets, along with the fact that you can search. With books that I leave pencil notes in, I've now started putting asterisks in the top corner of the page when there's something of special note in that page so that it's at least easier to flip through the book and locate places of note. I should be more rigorous though and actually keep separate notes, but that's not the easiest thing when e.g. reading on the train and not want to be carrying a notebook and a book!
I sometimes write the noteworthy page numbers in pencil in the front pages of a book
Thanks Terry! For me, the two quotes I chose were the moments I really discovered those words. (Well, perhaps I had come across komorebi before on list of untranslatable words long ago, but seeing it in context in the film felt like a proper first encounter.) I do enjoy meandering through a dictionary or a thesaurus too, as you nicely put it. You just reminded me that I happened upon the word inveigle in such a way. That is a good word.
Shhh, save it for volume 2!
(A new word for me. Perhaps I cannot inveigle you to put it into volume 2, but I will certainly try!)
Whoops, spoiler!
Thanks for enlightening me. Yes, inveigle is definitely a great word, but my new ambition is to use 'komorebi' wherever possible!