{"id":758,"date":"2011-02-07T15:51:50","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T20:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.old.caraghobrien.com\/book\/?p=758"},"modified":"2011-02-07T15:52:22","modified_gmt":"2011-02-07T20:52:22","slug":"words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/writing\/words\/","title":{"rendered":"Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than a few readers have written to tell me they\u2019re surprised by the vocabulary in Birthmarked<\/em>, enough so that I was unsurprised to be in another conversation about \u201cavuncular\u201d last Friday.\u00a0 We love our words, don\u2019t we?\u00a0 Especially the fun and pithy ones.<\/p>\n

\"\"

My bookmarks for Birthmarked list favorite words from the novel.<\/p><\/div>\n

When I\u2019m writing and revising, I consult a couple of dictionaries and a thesaurus regularly.\u00a0 Often I have the meaning of something in mind but the first word that surfaces doesn\u2019t have the color or emphasis I want, so the thesaurus nudges me towards a better choice.\u00a0 \u201cDimwit\u201d is quainter, for instance, than \u201cidiot,\u201d but still has a bite.\u00a0 Sometimes I think I\u2019m using a word correctly, like \u201cslue,\u201d but I need to check to be sure.<\/p>\n

I particularly relish encountering new words I want to adopt, and I keep a list to remind me of them until I\u2019ve memorized them.\u00a0 Recent entries include: \u201cproclivity,\u201d \u201cvicissitude,\u201d \u201clitotes,\u201d \u201cineluctable,\u201d and \u201cSisyphean,\u201d all of which I\u2019m still shaky on.<\/p>\n

Some words remind me of people.\u00a0 My dad is the only one I ever knew to say \u201cdesultory\u201d aloud.\u00a0 \u201cGrotesque\u201d reminds me of my mom because she taught me how not<\/em> to pronounce it, and \u201csupinate\u201d I learned from my son, who fences.\u00a0 Some words I associate with the books I first saw them in, like A Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em> taught me \u201cpalimpsest,\u201d and The Road<\/em> gave me the creepy \u201ccatamite.\u201d\u00a0 I haven\u2019t used that one in my writing yet.<\/p>\n

The only time I don\u2019t use a word I really love is if a simpler word would make the meaning come through more cleanly and I can\u2019t risk interposing the distraction an unfamiliar word.\u00a0 \u201cSupinate\u201d is a good example.\u00a0 It means to turn your hand palm-upward, and there\u2019s a point in Prized<\/em> when Gaia does precisely that.\u00a0 It\u2019s a small but important moment.\u00a0 Since \u201csupinate\u201d is not in the dictionary I most frequently consult and I never knew it until lately, I suspect it\u2019s rare, and I don\u2019t want the reader to have to scratch her head when I\u2019d prefer to have her thinking about the light.\u00a0 So here\u2019s what I have:<\/p>\n

She held her other hand out, too, turning it in the light, and then she stepped down the two steps and pushed out into the garden where sun fell on her bare head and shoulders\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

I would dearly love to substitute \u201csupinating it in the light<\/em>,\u201d but no:\u00a0 \u201cturning<\/em>\u201d is the right word.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to think Strunk and White<\/a> would commend my restraint.<\/p>\n

My other favorites these days are \u201ceviscerate,\u201d \u201ccoruscate,\u201d \u201csylvan,\u201d and \u201chyperbole.\u201d\u00a0 It helps when they\u2019re pleasurable to say.\u00a0 \u201cUnlake.\u201d\u00a0 I like that one, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than a few readers have written to tell me they\u2019re surprised by the vocabulary in Birthmarked, enough so that I was unsurprised to be in another conversation about \u201cavuncular\u201d last Friday.\u00a0 We love our words, don\u2019t we?\u00a0 Especially the fun and pithy ones. When I\u2019m writing and revising, I consult a couple of dictionaries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,37],"class_list":["post-758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-birthmarked-2","tag-writing-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":761,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions\/761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}