The Power of Words

I just lifted up my weighty New English Dictionary and discovered a flat spider.
Poor thing.I had a few hours in the old dictionary at the weekend. This is something I do quite often. My experience is that I can easily find myself relying upon a favoured palette of words. An occasional refresher does the power of good.

So I flicked open at a random page and jotted down useful words as I read - words that I felt might come in handy in the chapter I'm currently working on, or words that have filtered through to the back of my head and gathered dust and needed a short jolt back into place. I think this happens to us all. I also jot down any cool words that I've never heard before; I'll probably never be able to use them because of their obscurity (and they would buffet the reader out of their 'trance'), but hey, I love words! And you never know when the appropriate context might present itself.

Here's my weekend harvest:

indolent

infect

iniquity

insatiable

insensate

insidious

insuperable

intaglio

intemperate

inviegle

isinglass (a kind of gelatine obtained from some freshwater fish)

jabot

jacinth

jangle

jaunty

jejune (simple, naive; meagre)

jocund

jonquil ([n] fragrant yellow or white narcissus; [adj] pale yellow)

judder

juggins

kermes

kibble

kist

knead

lacquer

lambent

lance

laniary

lapis lazuli

I guess it's a part of my style, my voice, but I have a fondness for old-fashioned words. For example, rather than use the word 'date' I'd prefer 'court'. With so many words to choose from, I do feel that, from time to time, it's worthwhile taking a step back and looking at the ones we have chosen. I find it beneficial picking through, say, an Aldous Huxley novel and adding to my style library. From the opening chapter to Antic Hay:

virtuous

fortify

conviction

portentous

tumbled

budding

importune

piety

pedagogue

orris root

swink

sumptuous

capricious

ignoble

abject

dispensation

decadence

umbrageous

clamorous

cherish

rapt

bedded

aureole

denigrate

trot

uncommonly

disinterested

luminous

sedentary

One of the advantages to this is that my child protags can use profanities such as 'harridan' or 'sook'.

I also have readily-accessible lists of useful synonyms, mainly colours and textures, that I have built over the years from every source I can find.

So, if ever you feel that your voice needs an injection of adrenaline, reach for the writer's friend (even if Hemingway was disparaging about writers who use dictionaries).