Lovely Words

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you.

〰 Roald Dahl 〰

photo © Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Falling in Love with Words

Few people dare now to say that two beings have fallen in love because they have looked at each other.

Yet it is in this way that love begins, and in this way only.

〰 Victor Hugo 〰

This wordcast is a valentine to words, our companions in everyday life.

Words are our most intimate symbionts, taken for granted, used and abused every day, cherished by writers and poets. I don’t need to explain the history of word, or introduce her family. You can read about that in a previous wordcast ~ The Wild Motherword.

Here we want to celebrate words, let them know how much they mean to us, how much we love and appreciate them, because without them, what would we do?

Words are alive
Words stick together
Words read your mind
Words share your secrets
Words mask your wounds
Words slip off your tongue
Words get put in your mouth
Words know your joy and pain
Words decode your body’s language
Word for word is not an exchange
Words get borrowed but never returned

Words have lives of their own
Words create poems and songs
Words write stories and history
New words are born and go viral
Old words give birth to new meaning
Words have magic and cast spells
Words have power to kill and give life
Words travel the world spilling their gut
Words break your heart and heal your soul
Words are passwords into the world you bring forth
Words are silenced through fear and kindled with love

One of my all time favourite words is hieroglyph [from Greek hieros = sacred + glyphē = carving]. It reminds me of a gift I received on my first visit to Egypt. I was 10 years old, and my parents gave me a book with the title Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
This was not the kind of book with illustrations, stencils, and colouring in pages, which you can find now for kids (and adults). It was an austere 6"x 9" hardcover, with a jacket in the same colour as the stone of the Ancient city of Thebes, the title printed in sepia, and the only ‘illustrations’ inside were hieroglyphics.

I loved that book and kept it well into my adult years. Due to my nomadic lifestyle, it got lost half a lifetime ago, so I don’t remember the author. I think it was in English. What I do remember is that with my nose in the pages of that book I fell in love with words.

photo © Tom Podmore on Unsplash

Spelling a Word

And think not you can direct the course of love,
for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

〰 Khalil Gibran 〰

The first things we learn to read and write are the letters of the alphabet ~ perhaps the letters that spell our first name. Letters are also called glyphs, because the first letters created by humans, as far as we know, were carved in stone.
Did you know that the letters we are using in the English alphabet are not English at all? You probably do, but we don’t normally think about this, when writing or reading our words.
There is actually no such thing as an ‘English alphabet’. The letters we use every day are the Latin alphabet – and to make it even more confusing 〰 the word 'alphabet' itself is not even Latin.
Alphabet is a Greek word made up from [alpha] and [beta] the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet. Having said that, the Greeks ‘borrowed’ their alphabet from the Egyptians, most likely from a tribe of Semites in upper Egypt, who developed their alphabet based on the ancient hieroglyphics.
Most words in English are ‘borrowed’, by the way. In contemporary anthropocentric language, we might call it 'appropriation'. The official linguistic term is 'loanwords’. Words are ‘on permanent loan’, never to be handed back to the original lenders.
Every contemporary language has many loanwords, which you usually only discover when visiting a very foreign country like Japan, or China, or Greece and find familiar words sprinkled into a foreign language and written in a foreign script. Contemporary English is unique in so far as it consists almost exclusively of loanwords.
Back to the alphabet:
A 𐤀 〰 The Semitic letter Aleph 〰 originally the symbol of an oxhead 〰 became the Greek 'Alpha', and later the Latin 'A'. If you flip the A on its side you can still see the similarity.
B 𐤁 〰 The Semitic Bet 〰 the Arabic word for 'house' to this day 〰 symbolises a tent or shelter made of reeds. The Greeks called it 'Beta' and the Romans shortened it to the capital 'B'.
C 𐤂 〰 Gimel is the Semitic word for 'camel' 〰 the symbol looks a bit like the hump of a dromedary 〰 it became the Greek 'Gamma', and the Romans used it for two letters: 'C' and 'G'.

With this verbiographic history in mind, we can say that the word 'alphabet' we use in English is a portmanteau ~ a pairing of two words ~ from the Semitic aleph = ox + bet = house. Translated into English, we would have to call our ABC an 'oxshed'. Or perhaps we could use 'byre' 〰 the old English word for cowshed.

The word portmanteau, by the way, is the anglicised form of the French word 'portmanteaux', which means literally a travelbag. In linguistic terminology, a portmanteau is 'blend-word' ~ two meanings packed into one word.

The term portmanteau was coined by the English writer and poet Lewis Carroll (Charles L. Dodgson, 1832-1898). It was one of a whole tribe of words he invented for his poem Jabberwocky, a nonsense poem from Carroll's novel Through the Looking-Glass,
The writings of Lewis Carroll are a rich source of inspiration for new words, if you are up for going down that rabbithole (this metaphor, of course, was created by Carroll too) while exploring the magical world of words.

photo © Ioana Radescu on Unsplash

Lovely Words for Valentines

Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made,
like bread; remade all the time, made new.

〰 Ursula K. Le Guin 〰

For this year’s valentine’s celebration I have packed a bag with a range of portmanteaus and other lovely words for you to enjoy this Valentine’s Day:

Ampersand ~ this is not used as a word but as a symbol ~ & ~ add your own pronouns to match your love-interest for Valentine’s day.
Girandole ~ this is simply a beautiful word referring to a firework with a radiating pattern, a.k.a. ‘Catherine wheel’ ~ girandole sounds so much lovelier, and is sure to impress and delight your Valentine.
Harmonograph ~ an instrument for combining two or more vibrations usually of two pendulums at right angles to each other and recording them in a single curve ~ not just a lovely word but a perfect measuring tool for gauging your vibes (and your Valentine’s).

Honeymoment ~ a portmanteau created on the pattern of honeymoon and capturing a similar mood, to be enjoyed for a shorter time period, without the need to invest in a special suite and expensive tickets.

Intimacy coordinator ~ a term from the film industry. A member of a film or TV crew who ensures the wellbeing of actors who participate in intimate scenes. Why not take the initiative to ensure the wellbeing of your Valentine?

Kinship-husbandry ~ husbandry is a term from the ship industry and farming. The care of the maintenance of a vessel or farm, translated to looking after the health of a relationship between you and your Valentine-kin.

Love-assessment, love-awareness, Love-care, love-confidence, love-defence, love-expression, Love-help , love-interest, love-knowledge ~ love-mastery, love-promotion, love-renewal, love-respect, love-responsibility ~ a range of ‘love words’ constructed on the pattern of well known ‘self-words’.

Minnesong ~ a term borrowed from a class of medieval German poetry, written and performed in the tradition of the troubadours [from Minne = love, loving memory + singen = to sing] Love-song to perform, surprise and delight your Valentine.

Togethership ~ composite of together = gathering, joining forces + -ship = state, quality, skill ›› a perfect practice for Valentine’s and every other day.

Wondrisland ~ portmanteau of wonder = admire, watch in a state of curiosity + island = to create an island of experience in space or time. A lovely word for an activity suitable for Valentine’s or any other day to enjoy with your beloved.

photo © Roman Kraft on Unsplash