by Faye Westlake Newman

Created on: February 12, 2009

Write yo

Use the Right Word: In Praise of the English Language

Most writers I know love words. I do. I save words. Words I know well, words I've never heard of, words I may never use, and words that delight, fascinate or enthrall me. There, that's a good one: enthrall. It means to put in bondage, to enslave, to hold spellbound. Am I enslaved by a word? Well, I'm certainly enslaved by the use of words, by writing. And if enthralled seems a bit over the top, consider what writing is intended to do.

First and foremost, as we all know, writing must entertain. If it isn't interesting to an audience, no one is going to read it. You can write about unplugging the toilet (and I may, before this day ends!) but you must maintain the interest of the reader. And not all of your readers will be plumbers by trade, or have my recalcitrant porcelain appliance in the bathroom. An unsolicited bit of advice: do not drop the travel-sized bottle of shampoo in the toilet bowl while it's flushing, unless you like corralling zillions of bubbles from all over the bathroom and wearing out both the plunger and your back for the next several weeks. Or months. Two of the aforementioned plumbers each managed to get the water flowing temporarily, but neither believed the story about the shampoo bottle, so they made no effort to extract it. I imagine it is once again entrenched in a bend of the pipe, tightly lodged there, blocking the passage of all but the smallest objects. I've gone through two bottles of build-up-gobbling Drain-Free and two containers of liquefy-anything Drano to no avail.

Curious, I researched how long it takes litter to decay. Plastic occupies the bottom position on the inventory with the designation "indefinitely." No wonder the drain is recalcitrant. I wonder if plastic in the drain is a detriment to the sale of my house? There may be no other solution but to move.

Some months ago, I began saving Dictionary.com's Word of the Day to a file in my e-mail folders. Just for fun, I send those I find most interesting or unusual to members of my writers' group. Those who share my affection for words respond. One actually did recognize the word zanthous. Perhaps being an artist lent her exposure to this obscure word for "yellow" or "yellowish."

P- knew, and had used, the word yegg, a burglar, or safe robber. I expect when you write humor for Laugh-In, you need to know atypical words.

A- could hardly wait for an excuse to use horripilation, even though she knew the group would red-line

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