10.17.08
Rated R for Recommended
As an editor and a writing instructor, I’m very much a fan of wordplay—dancing with words, cavorting with them, making them jump, allowing them to commingle, nestle in on one another, breed neologically. Show me yours and I’ll show you mine!
Sounds a bit racy, doesn’t it? I’ll arch my eyebrows a bit, and then say that I’m speaking of my long-time advice to writers to take every opportunity become intimate with words. If you spot a word you don’t know, look it up in the dictionary. But do not stop at reading the meaning; immerse yourself in the etymology, the construction, the core syllables. Then get promiscuous. Covet thy verbal neighbor’s spouses. Dally with the surrounding words—common meanings? Common ancestry? A little incestuous?
It is with such attitude that I encourage you to visit a blog I recently discovered because the blogger was kind enough to stop by here and post: Word Porn: Your Home for Language Lust. This is one of the most energetic, interesting and challenging vocabulary sites I’ve encountered. With regularity, your gracious wordpornster host Amy introduces you to an unusual but fascinating word, pokes at it, mocks it gently, defines it, then uses it in a complete sentence, with artistry and a wink. And then challenges you to perform with the word as well, big guy.
I’ve long been a proponent of wordplay to develop vocabulary, language and writing skills. Now I can point you to something perhaps even better: word foreplay.
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