Adopt a word, save a language
Rogalian. Antipelargy. Opotopolist.
Do those words sound familiar to you?
Probably not. However, the folks at Oxford Dictionary want them to be more familiar to all of us.
Oxford has launched a new website, www.savethewords.org, devoted to rescuing some of the English language’s little-used words. Too many perfectly good words are disappearing every day and it’s to the detriment of the English language.
According to Oxford, 90 of all our communication today is made up of only 7,000 words. This leaves words like gleimous (that means slimy) falling into disuse.
And that’s a shame.
So, Oxford has launched a website that has thousands of little-known words on a large screen. You choose, or adopt, your word and then pledge to use the word often to keep it in circulation.
There are some good words here, too. I had a hard time picking my own personal one.
Should I choose gnathonize, which means to flatter? Or, maybe montivagant, which refers to wandering over hills and mountains, as in “Over the hills and montivagant, to grandmother’s house we go…”
Quaeritate is a good word. It means to ask and maybe, as a reporter, I could work that into my daily life easier, as in “I’d like to quaeritate you a question.”
That would be easier than, say, sputcheon, which refers to the metal lining on the mouth of a scabbard, the sheath used to hold a knife. That’s a little harder to work into daily conversation.
Leeftail is not a bad choice. It means “in great demand,” which is rather ironic considering leeftail is not a word that’s in leeftail itself. Neither is helctic, which apparently means to drag out longer than necessary. (Boy, sometimes writing columns can seem very helctic.)
In the end, I adopted temerate, which means to break a bond or promise. I figured this was a good choice, as chances are I will temerate my pledge to use the word temerate daily.
Oh, and if you’re wondering about the words at the beginning of the column… Rogalian means pertaining to a great fire. Antipelargy related to an act of mutual kindness. An oporopolists is someone who sells fruit.
Of course, if you do this, you will sound like a blaguer. I will let you look that one up for yourself.
