No, I’m not going for a crossword championship. I’m introducing you to my two new adopted words. I am the proud mother to “squiriferous” and his sister “senticous”. Squiriferous is quite the little gentleman; he insists on wearing a cravat and dining at his club when he isn’t holding doors open for women and laying his cape down over mudpuddles. His sister, Senticous, is a thorny girl – you might even call her prickly, but that is just her way.
Before you think I’ve gone around the bend, you should visit Save The Words and find a little word of your own, perilously close to extinction. It is a sad state of our modern English vocabulary, but many of our words are disappearing from the dictionary at an alarming rate. We collectively substitute fewer and fewer words to say what we mean and that leaves these little words homeless and close to the brink. Won’t you do your part and save one today? Just go to the site, find your little darling (click on a word as you scroll and you’ll find the meaning – unfortunately not the pronunciation; apparently people won’t be brave enough to actually say these words, just write them) and then adopt one for your very own. When you adopt your word, you pledge to use it as much as you can and try to bring it back from oblivion. Sadly, for my darlings squiriferous (to have the characteristics of a gentleman) and senticous (thorny, prickly), I think it may be too late to save them from Darwin’s cruel fate. I fear they have “evolved” into polite and bitchy as in “That boy is so polite, holding the door open for us, but his sister is just too bitchy.”
If you adopt a darling or two for your very own, please let me know. Maybe we can set up a playdate with the kids…with squiriferous anyway.
Nostalgic Home 