As promised in 2020, we will be focusing more on what inspired Jay Speyerer and I to start This Awful Awesome Life – our love of words. Words can be fun to say and funny to hear, like “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” Their utterance may conjure images of great beauty or instill feelings of tranquility. Some words have the power to inspire or repulse.

There are words that must be said and words that should never be heard or read again.

We often speak of the power of images. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” according to a popular cliché. This is true, but conversely the proper word or sentence can also create an unforgettable image(s) in our minds. Reading or hearing powerful words like, “I have a dream,” or “Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last,” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., conjure images of Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement and suddenly a thousand images are racing through our minds.     

In The Weird World of Words: A Guided Tour by Mitchell Symons, the author examines words for their meanings, symmetry, definitions and common misuses. Symons starts with words that name things most of us don’t realize have names such as an armsate which is the hole in your shirt or sweater through which you put your hand and arm or an F-hole which believe it or not is the name of the S-shaped opening in a violin.

He discusses the repetition or lack of repetition of vowels and consonants in words. Did you know uncopyrightable is the only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter or that dreamt is the only English word that ends in the letters mt?

Symons has researched the origins of certain words. He identifies new words, obsolete words and words that are making a comeback. For example, curglaff is an obsolete word for the shock felt when one first plunges into cold water.

He also covers expressions. Did you know “wreck a pair” means to scramble two eggs in American diner lingo?

Can you identify Palindromes, acronyms, synonyms, mnemonic words, portmanteaus, kangaroo words or anti-kangaroo words? Read this book and you’ll learn the meanings of these terms.

Other interesting features in this book include a chart identifying words used to denote how dogs bark in different languages and misuses of words or expressions in actual term papers, advertisements and Tweets.

Readers will find some topics more interesting than others, but parts of this book will have you laughing out loud. It’s a fun way to learn about words and easy to share with others.

Mitchell Symons is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster. He was a principal writer for the early UK editions of the board game Trivial Pursuit and he has written over 60 books of fiction and non-fiction for children and adults.

Image of author taken from:

https://www.harpercollins.com/author/cr-101519/mitchell-symons/