Friday Fun is a group post from the writers of the NHWN blog. Each week, we’ll pose and answer a different, writing-related question. We hope you’ll join in by providing your answer in the comments.
QUESTION: Do you have a favorite word that you like to play with every now and then? It doesn’t have to be one that you use in your writing – although that would be neat to find someone who makes sure to include 1 particular word in every piece of work – but just a word that you love the sound of. Maybe you have more than one. What is it, and why does it have your attention?
Lee Laughlin Well, my favorite word of late is kerfluffle.It strikes me as a good way to describe all the little tiffs and skirmishes that seem to erupt on a day to day basis either in real life or in the media. Another one I’m having fun with is shenanigans. Just like the way they sound.
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Jamie Wallace: I don’t think I could ever pick an all-time favorite word, but there are some that I definitely use a lot. “Discombobulated” comes up frequently in my world. I’m not sure that’s a good thing. I’m also enjoying the word “onomatopoeia” at the moment because my eight year-old daughter has just learned about it in her second grade literature studies, and she likes to point out examples in her bedtime stories.
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Lisa J. Jackson: “Ponder” always comes to mind, and I used to use it a lot in speaking, but not so much any more. Another favorite is “curmudgeon” because a former boss fits the word perfectly as a first impression, but he’s such the opposite and he holds a special place in my heart. I should look him up and see how his writing is going!
Deborah Lee Luskin: I live with a man whose family has its own language, filled with both established words, like “nurley-groodies” (which are the tasty bits that fall to the bottom of the salad bowl), and words-of-the-moment, like – well, you have to be there when they occur. My favorite of these words, and one that has spread around the world with our children, is “schloop,” which describes a particularly good dinner dish, one that usually has a certain amount of sauce to it. One of the highest accolades for a stewy-soupy-casseroley meal in my house would be, “This is really good schloop.”
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Diane MacKinnon: I really love the word balaclava. I once told my stepkids that I was going to slip it into a conversation at work that day. Since it was summer day and I was going to be seeing patients, they didn’t think I could do it. But we lived in Maine, so I just brought one of many conversations about hiking around to winter hiking and there you go–”My husband always wears his balaclava when he’s winter hiking.” I personally have never worn a balaclava, but it occurs to me that if I actually had one, I could use the word so much more!
Susan Nye: Although I rarely use them in my writing, I love big, multisyllabic words. Words like multisyllabic, exacerbate and incorrigible. My writing is more plain-speaking so why use undulate when rise and fall will do?
That said, I am a big fan of epiphany. I like the way it trips off my tongue. And I am always more than grateful when a bright idea or brilliant solution pops into my head. Especially when I’m on deadline … like today.
Julie Hennrikus: Favorite word? Lovely. How boring is that? But for me, it is a wonderful descriptor, very specific in tone. It makes me smile.
Wendy Thomas: It’s funny, I do have a favorite word and we joke about it all the time. It’s the word “anthology.” For whatever reason, I just love the way it rolls out of one’s mouth. Other than adoring the sound of the word, that’s my only relationship with it. Until this entry, I doubt I’ve used it in a sentence and anthologies are at the bottom of my list of things to read.
By the way, my second favorite word/phrase? It’s Bosnia Herzegovina. Go figure.
Consideration.
Not fancy but very multi-purpose: I can whisper it to myself at the worst moments as a reminder to maintain my cool or think about another person’s perspective. A concept I constantly reinforce with my kids in pretty much everything they do, including consider how their actions affect other people as well as themselves.
Second favorite word: ultramicroscopicsilicovolcanopneumoconiosis
Cuz it makes me feel smart that I can say it and spell it! LOL
(Hey, we all need a boost on those days the words won’t make their way out of the brain, right?)
Laura – you are smarter than me! I had to look it up … So for those like me … ultramicroscopicsilicovolcanopneumoconiosis is a pneumoconiosis caused by the inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust. Now that you’ve brought this word to my attention I will be looking for any and all chances to use it. Have a great weekend – Susan
It cost alotta money to learn that word, Susan – six years of pre-med training in college – a word drilled into me during a pathology class by a professor! haha (He actually put it on a test too, as a “bonus” answer, thus the motivation to keep it in memory!)
aka – some call it miner’s lung
I don’t remember ever having a favorite word. I will tell ya! I never liked the word Granny. All my grandchildren call me grandma. Now that I’m a great-grandma, Granny is looking pretty good.
That’s funny, I’ve never liked any of my kids calling me “mommy” I was always either “mama” or “mom” to the older ones. I think that when my kids get older they can do ahead and just call me Wendy.
Wendy
So funny. I never encouraged “mother”…”mama, or mom” suited me just fine.
How about stealing the Brits ever-so-proper, “grandma-ma”?
My kids still call me mom. I’m not their friend,I’m mom.
RuthE
I hadn’t thought about ‘Granny’ before. Little Red Riding Hood leaps to mind immediately. I always used “Gram”, “Grammy”, and “Grandma”. Growing up I used “Mom” and “Dad”, now my folks are “Mama-sita” and “Papa-sita”.
Where I was raised granny was not in the vocabulary. We moved south to be closer to our grandchildren. They said I needed to change to Granny. Nope!
I like using “kudos”… fun and well meaning!
I like kudos too, giving and receiving ‘em.
My favorite word…really? No, seriously, I like the word REALLY, with a question mark as an inflection. I say this too much, I suppose, however, sometimes I just cannot believe the things people do and say.
I use “seriously?” the way you use “really?” Sometimes, too many times, it’s just the right thing to use!
I have to say my all time favorite word is “shenanigans”. The word in itself makes me chuckle. My family and colleagues have heard me say that my day isn’t complete unless I use that word at least once a day. I even have a co-worker using it–and always with a smile.
You’re right! How can any say or hear ‘shenanigans’ without at least grinning?
er, that should be how can *anyone* say or hear…
My favorite word is phenomenological. It’s a discipline and a philosophy that provides an infinite amount of vantage points for the individual to interpret his or her relationship to self and beyond. Instead of going to the gym, I examine a certain angle/point of this philosophy in a creative genre.
The word takes me too long to sound out, so I think that counts as a workout in itself! Thanks for sharing, Jessica!
My favorite word of all time is fabulous! You simply have to smile every time the word is used. And who doesn’t love to smile?
Good point, Shell. But I can’t just say ‘fabulous.’ I have to say ‘fabulous, dah-ling’.
I like the word intentional. It reminds me of how I should be living. We are so half-hearted about the things we think are important. We show love to our families whenever the mood strikes us. We do a lot of kind things – if the opportunity slaps us in the face and if it’s convenient. If it really matters, be intentional about doing it!
I agree, Sharlene. I need to be more intentional with my life. Thanks for sharing!
I love the word “nurley-groodies”! Having just been introduced to that word moments ago by reading the above it perhaps doesn’t count. I have two: trepedatious, which is a word coined by my husband – it’s much quicker to say your are feeling trepedatious rather than ‘filled with trepedation”. Also, hurr-do-do – I’m not sure if I have spelled it correctly but I am pretty sure I got it from the novel Watership Down.
my favorite word is ME i don’t know why, but i liked it sooo much..
My favorite word is skullduggery.
My favourite word is ‘farctate’ and I love the definition too – ‘filled to capacity, without vacuities’. I found it when browsing the dictionary as a teen and decided it needed to be revived so I began to use it
I think it began life as a botanical term, describing a cell, but I use it when I am so stuffed with food I couldn’t eat another thing. My family and friends have adopted it to some level, at least when with me 
and I also spread it round the internet at the drop of a hat! It is gaining some recognition in certain circles, which I don’t believe I can take sole credit for, but who knows? 
Scarily I suppose I have been the advocate for this word for about 25 years…
I love the word “Clarty”, it means muddy or dirty. It is a Geordie word from the Newcastle area of UK where I lived when I was a child. After playing in the lanes or on the slag heaps on the edge of the moors around what was the old mining village of Felling, we children would always come home “clarty”! I just love the sound it makes and the memories it awakens.
Nice work thanks for the blog
I can’t believe that someone beat me to pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which I remember from an old UK word based TV game show. It also used to be my ‘drunk test’ at University, i.e. how could I possibly be drunk if I could say and spell the above word? Foolproof, eh? My second favourite word is far less intellectual. It’s ‘poop’, which is perfect as an expletive in an office. The plosives at the beginning and end make it particularly satisfying to say!
One of my favourite words is WAIT, which also stands for Why Am I Talking…
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I like Purple — A word I can smell and taste rolling off my tongue.
This is too funny. Last night at the dinner table the kids were telling us about how in Health class they had to role-play the part of a kid trying to convince another kid to take drugs. We all started to brainstorm silly reasons of “why” you should take drugs and “It lets you taste purple” was our number one reason!
Excellent! The word Serendipity might be a close second …
Obviously, it’s HORSE as my favorite word. Suppose DOG would be next.
My favorite word tends to change every few years. Currently, “oxymoron” just seems to fit almost everything out of the politician’s mouths, not to mention statements by the elderly, white, Southern conservatives that surround me in this little NW Alabama town where I am currently in a sort of “mission field.”