Whizzpopper Words

Words, words, words.  At one point in my life I decided to learn a new word a day.  Now whatever happened to that idea?   I guess the word "forgot" came into play.  As a little kid attending San Antonio School in Ojai, California, as I struggled over my lessons,

 I'd ask my mom how to spell or pronounce a word.  She always said, "look it up."

As a result I spent lots and lots of time with my nose in a dictionary because my spelling was abysmal and my vocabulary pretty darn inadequate.  And finding a word you cannot spell, wow, now there's a time consuming challenge.  Did the word start with a 'c' or  's'?   Maybe a  'sh' or  'ch'.  What followed?  Was it an 'e' or 'i' or 'a' or what?  In the process I decided I hated the dictionary despite my heavy use of it.  But,  slowly, very slowly, over the years I began to admire, if not love, this book.  It became my right-hand.   Look it up became my mantra.

And now, in our modern world, word fascination can be propelled out of bounds with the Internet.  Dictionaries, Thesaurus, Google, lists and lists of synonyms and anonyms along with spell check and grammar check reign.  I  have daily word assists that can morph into anti-assists.   Like, if you have a good friend named Drury,  as I do, it routinely gets changed to dreary.  Or apostrophes, good grief, they are confusing enough before my computer takes charge -- often improperly I might add.  Rereading my work often finds me gasping in exasperation.   Between the computer's not so helpful help, and my own failings, the results can be quite alarming.

Then there are the words that my trusty computer doesn't recognize.  It diplomatically suggests, "did you mean …?"  For coffiwomple, on the other hand, it bluntly says, "No results found."   But wait, digging deeper, Goggle says coffiwomple means to "travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination."   Aah, it does exist and that's exactly what Ed and I plan to do this fall.

Our destination is a trip to the Rockies, with an unstructured, boondocking-shunpiking Thistle adventure from Banff to Colorado.  Given it's snowing in Yellowstone and the Sierras right now, who knows what the route will be.   But, at any rate, the idea is to follow the changing fall colors, observe wildlife in their winter preparations, and bask in glorious rugged mountain scenes.

                               

One day for fun I found myself searching for travel words and I found some whizzpoppers.  Feeling delight at my findings I wrote this little story about our upcoming trip (translation included for non Scrabble masters): 

Right now, here in Langley, Ed and I are hygge. 

Right now, here in Langley, Ed and I are experiencing cozy feelings enjoying the good things in life with friends (hygge). 

Before we depart eleutheromanaia hits us.  Wanderlust overtakes us!  Or, is it fernweh?

Before we  depart we’re hit with an intense and irresistible desire for freedom. (eleutheromanaia). A very strong and irresistible impulse to travel (wanderlust) overtakes us.  Or, is it an even stronger urge (fernweh)?

Unfortunately, before we hit the road, resfeber engulfs us. 

Unfortunately, before we hit the road, a restless race of our travelers' hearts engulfs us with a mixture of both anxiety and anticipation (resfeber).

 But, once on the road, we'll coddiwomple along feeling our life is eudaimon. 

But, once on the road, we'll travel in a purposeful direction towards a vague destination (coddiwomple), with the feeling that our life is being lived well (eudaimon).

 Nemosphlisht lulls us into complete comfort, right before we're jolted into yugen.

Our fondness for forests and forest scenes ( nemophilisht)  lulls us into complete comfort when suddenly we're jolted into  a strange universe that triggers emotional responses too deep and mysterious for words (yugen).

 It’s a whoopsy waffling world!

It's a great (whoopsy waffling) world!

A 'biffsquiggled' Fran

~~~

"Don't gobblefunk around with words."

~ Roald Dahl