For many years, long ago, I had a Peanuts cartoon stuck to the cover of the portable typewriter that I carried everywhere. It showed Snoopy on top of his kennel in his “great writer” period, poring over his typewriter and clearly wrestling for ages with some huge conundrum. Then suddenly, a flurry of inspired action over the keys and the word “The” emerged. Exhausted but exuberant, Snoopy sits back and says with a satisfied smile:
“Sometimes we authors have to search for hours for the right word!”
I know the feeling. If we really want to convey a message and/or an emotion, time spent searching our word toolkit is time well invested. Just think how the Gettysburg Address would have sounded if Abraham Lincoln had started it with:
“Eighty seven years ago…”
instead of the immortal:
“Fourscore years ago and seven…”
In more recent times I came across the term “meretricious sesquipedalienism” in a book by HJ Eysenck. On inevitably looking it up in the dictionary, I found that it meant showing off by using long complicated words that no one else understands. Point made!
It may be time-consuming at first, but the brain soon warms to the task and it becomes second nature to select le mot juste and you develop your own personal list of favourite expressive words. Right now I’m looking for a suitable target for the word “scrofulous.”
I can think of a few already.
