Words that Make Life Exciting

I’m a word-nut. I have been since I was a small child. For a long time people thought that I was shy because I didn’t speak often. But the truth is that I did not want to say anything unless I had the 100% most precise words to say it with. Whatever I had to say wasn’t worth saying if I couldn’t say it exactly the way I meant it. (Clearly I’ve outgrown that phase, and bandy words about willy nilly!)

But to this day, and I think for the rest of my life, there will be certain words and phrases which excite me in both their intricacy and simplicity, their connotation and their denotation, their elegance and their sound. Here’s a list of some of those words:

1. renegade – one who deserts or betrays a set of principles, or a country or group
2. facetious – flippant, ironic, sarcastic, sardonic
3. serendipity – events happening by ‘happy chance’
4. intrepid – fearless, adventurous
5. philanthropic – promoting the welfare of others
6. regalia – emblems or insignia of royalty
7. repertoire – a stock of skills or behaviors used by a person
8. fastidious – attentive to accuracy and detail
9. joie de vivre – exuberant enjoyment of life
10. quarrel – argument or disagreement between people usually on good terms
11. articulate – to express fluently and coherently
12. posthumous – after death
13. peculiar – odd or strange
14. circumnavigate – to sail all the way around something
15. abscond – to leave hurriedly and secretly, usually to avoid detection
16. conniption – a fit of rage
17. enthrall – to capture the fascinated attention of
18. prevaricate – to speak evasively
19. efficacy – ability to achieve desired result
20. somnambulance – sleep walking
21. nocturnal – occurring at night
22. ornery – stubborn, bad tempered, combative
23. obfuscate – to bewilder or render obscure
24. thalassic – relating to the sea

I stopped before I got to 25 because I knew if I hit that milestone I’d just keep going to 100 or more, and ain’t nobody got time fo dat. (See my excellent usage of my extensive vocabulary at work here?)

What can I say – when I was a kid I liked to read the dictionary…

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