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Say Anything, or Just Say Your Favorites: Favorite Words

Wallace Yovetich

Staff Writer

Wallace Yovetich grew up in a home where reading was preferred to TV, playing outside was actually fun, and she was thrilled when her older brothers weren’t home so she could have a turn on the Atari. Now-a-days she watches a bit more TV, and considers sitting on the porch swing (with her laptop) “playing outside”. She still thinks reading is preferable to most things, though she’d really like to find out where her mom put that old Atari (Frogger addicts die hard). She runs a series of Read-a-Longs throughout the year (as well as posting fun bookish tidbits throughout the week) on her blog, Unputdownables. After teaching for seven years, Wallace is now an aspiring writer. Blog: Unputdownables Twitter: @WallaceYovetich

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Perhaps you are not as dorky as I, marking words in your reading that you like (or didn’t know). Before the iPhone I used to do this in my dictionary. Hello, who saw Say Anything and didn’t want to be Ione Skye’s character? Apparently she influenced me beyond wanting a boy to stand outside my window with a radio over his head, because I have an old dictionary filled with checked-off words. Now, I “favorite” them in my Dictionary app, and because it calls it favoriting, I started marking my favorites – not just the words I wasn’t familiar with.

Fellow word-nerds, let us unite. I’ll show you (some of) mine if you’ll show me yours…

  • amortize (sounds like love, but it isn’t)
  • anachronistic (because I like to correct people, an endearing quality I’m sure)
  • belletristic (because it sounds like Bellatrix and I love Helena Bonham Carter)
  • bibliophage (an ardent reader; a bookworm… what’s not to love?)
  • cicatrix (basically it means “scar”, but say it out loud – so fun, right?)
  • gasconade (I really, really wish this meant fart grenade; it does not)
  • idoneous (a smart word for a simple meaning)
  • leviathan (its meaning gives me the chills, and also makes me think of “Wingardium leviosa” – nerd alert!)
  • nefarious (sounds like what it describes – and sounds good when said emphatically to make your point)
  • obstreperous (the word is difficult for me to say – which is fitting – so it wins a spot on my list)
  • pedantry (because it sounds like “pantry” and I like food, but also because I like rules)
  • solipsism (it describes an entire generation of people in one word; so convenient)