Page 1 of 1

What is a good Good Word?

Posted: Sat May 26, 2012 11:48 pm
by Dr. Goodword
Perry Lassiter found an old GW in the archives in which I lay out what I am looking for in Good Words that bears repeating here:

I try to find words that we have not used before (look in the Good Word dictionary), and that tell a story about us and where we come from, how we really think, what we are currently up to, what our ancestors did, and our ancestors' opinion of what we are still doing.

I also like words that stand out because special properties: pronunciation problems, spelling peculiarities, accentuation issues. I am especially fond of "garden path" words, words that lead our semantic machine in the wrong direction, like fartlek.

Other words of the day only aim at vocabulary building—and most of our GWs are chosen for that purpose, too. However, the words of a language draw a map of the peoples who speak them and provide a map of each word's journey through a thousand doors. The more turns and twists that journey has (or is having) the better.

Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 7:41 pm
by Slava
Let us not forget that an intriguing, or even convoluted, etymology is also of benefit.

Re: What is a good Good Word?

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 8:29 pm
by LukeJavan8
Why does it not surprise me that there are two blank posts, one from you, Doc, and
the other is slava's.

Re: What is a good Good Word?

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 7:02 pm
by LukeJavan8
6:00 PM Monday 13 August.
Still nothing.

Re: What is a good Good Word?

Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2014 3:12 pm
by Stargzer
Maybe because they are merely informative, describing what makes for a Good Word; not much to discuss about them.

Re: What is a good Good Word?

Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2014 3:42 pm
by LukeJavan8
My comment was back when something on the
site was broken. I was not receiving posts.

Re: What is a good Good Word?

Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2020 12:07 am
by David Myer
Slava, I do like your pleonasmic addendum to the Good Dr's contribution!
The Good Dr has rather poetically journeyed through a thousand doors and used old English words - twists and turns. Your equivalents are 'intriguing' and 'convoluted'. I wonder though if that is tautological or pleonasmic?

But whatever, the words with interesting etymology are amongst the most interesting in the series because the history often adds nuances of meaning. If we know what it meant originally, we can use it more accurately in future.

Well done, all round.