I collect words. This is what I do, I grab them from random situations and people. I write them down or look them up then run with it. I mostly dilute them in poetry. At other times, during the writing process of my current project, the word is submerged in the very next paragraph. I do not write it down to 'save' the word for a rainy day. I use it immediately.
Imagine the cornucopia of words I might have packed into a stand alone book by now. I could have written a literary journal of new word encounters. Has this been done?
I have this peculiar memory recall for that initial brush with a new word. For instance 'cornucopia' is one word I came across when I worked for a community cable television channel of that name. The word has popped up regularly ever since. I will forever associate the word with that company.
When I wrote songs I would jot down ideas or sing into a dictation machine - I bought my first one on a trip to Japan. I know, so analogue! A new word would find itself in the mix. Bearing in mind that I never carried a pocket dictionary with me and second guessed the meaning of each word by context. Before Google search or smartphones the creative process was a very different one.
Technology has seen me develop a 10-Word-A-Day habit, regularly searching for definitions or meanings online at the end of my fingertips. It has impaired my hobby a little. It's cheating. Is it not?
I am that person whose pride takes a sizeable dent if caught misusing or misunderstanding words. A bit like the man who refuses to ask for directions, I refuse to ask 'what does that mean, what do you mean, please clarify?'. I simply struggle to admit my ignorance in front of anyone. There's a stubborn resistance which says more about me, I'm sure. I mean it is only a word. Looking back, the knock on effects have impacted negatively along the way and as a result I have resolved to speak up going forward. In this multimedia age we perch, perpetually over the digital cusp of change and language is an ever evolving offshoot of this.
Some time ago, I found myself working in BBC Breakfast News department. A time when RSS and EMPD news streams ran over computer screens in LED script. The editor instructed me to keep an eye on the fax regarding a news item update. She said 'there's an embargo on that story, we will look at it again at 11am. Just sit on the fax for now when it comes in.' My action was to call my friend in Factuals department to ask 'What does 'embargo' mean hun?'. The diplomatic crisis of getting that wrong could have been far reaching. It was something to do with the Ethiopian government.
I am not a stickler for punctuation. There's a difference. People are free to uphold standards, that's their prerogative. See what I did there? I bought the book Eat, Shoots And Leaves before Google search or Amazon existed. I am not an anorak about it. Needless to say, I haven't read it all. Yet. I think by owning a copy it somehow validates my attention to such matters.
Not for me, saving up a word for Sunday best use. I will throw new words into my blog with immediate effect. Steer my hobby in that direction. A home for them at last.
The funny thing is that when I read through my drafts that 'new word' jumps right out at me and sated, I exclaim, 'ah, there you are, you made it in'.
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