Interesting words

Words interest me.  When I was growing up, whenever our Mother used a word that was unfamiliar to me, I'd ask her what it meant, and she'd tell me to look it up.  That encouraged me, indirectly, to become an avid user of words (much to Karen's amusement) and, naturally, a voracious reader.

I remember clearly how I came to learn both the pronunciation and meaning of the word victual.  I was reading Plato's Republic in high school (yes, my nerdiness began early) and came across this word.  Considering the tome I was reading, imagine my surprise when I found out that victual means food and is pronounced vittle.   Interesting things like that fed my appetite to learn more and, much to Karen's consternation, led to a lifetime of word usage that is out of the norm.

Yesterday I was reading a biography of Abraham Lincoln that Karen had given me for Christmas.  I finally got to the part where he was shot and his breathing was described as stertorous.  I'd never heard that word before and had to look it up.  It means labored.  I don't know why David Herbert Donald felt the need to use that word, but I'm glad he did, because I learned a new word.  Look out Karen.

But there are words that I run across infrequently that I just like.  It can either be because of how they look, or what they mean or a combination of the two.  I don't intend to go all William F. Buckley, but here are some words that I like to read now and then.

Gewgaws.  It means decorative trinkets.  Think baubles or, if you want to get ethnic about it, tchotchkes.

Ukase.  It means an authoritative pronouncement or declaration.  It sounds like a disease.

Kerfuffle.  It means disorder or confusion. 

Akimbo.    It means to stand with one's hands on one hips.  Women do it a lot, which is only fitting.

Ken.  It means range of vision.  Not to be confused with what Barbie sees.  Although, I guess, she could see Ken in her ken which, when one hears it, sounds weird.

Zugzwang.  It's a situation found usually in chess, but also in various other games, where one player is put at a disadvantage because he has to make a move when he would prefer to pass and make no move. The fact that the player must make a move means that his position will be significantly weaker than the hypothetical one in which it was his opponent's turn to move.  Yes, I like chess and yes, this happens to me on occasion.

-use words.  Check out obtuse and abstruse.  Discuss.

There are more, but I'm pressed for time.

(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles