Vocabulary words

I ran across a new word the other day and can’t seem to get it out of my head:

Bloviate \BLOH-vee-ayt\, intransitive verb:To speak or write at length in a pompous or boastful manner. Bloviation is the noun form; a bloviator is one who bloviates. (from Dictionary.com)

Some words just stick to me. I think it is because of the way they feel when I say them. Bloviate. “A bloviator is one who bloviates.” Wonderful word. If you saw the Harry Potter movie that starts with Harry getting mad at Mr. Dursley’s sister, who was bloviating as well as criticizing Harry’s parents, you saw the physical effects – she puffed up like a balloon and flew out the window. Now THAT was bloviating.

I’ve always had a fascination for individual words. When I was in high school my friend Thea and I used to get hung up on unusually pronounced words. ‘Refrigerator,’ for example. Or ‘porch.’ Since different letter sounds are produced in different parts of the mouth, using the tongue or teeth in different ways, some spoken words seemed inherently funny, just from their ‘location’ of origin.

Sometimes there just isn’t a word to fit the bill, so to speak. I feel perfectly justfied to just make them up then. Or sometimes there is a word, but it seems inadequate anyway. For example, the little things that form on sweaters – the result is called ‘pilling’ but somehow ‘a pill’ doesn’t say what the individual thing is. So to me it is a ‘nerny.’ I’m not sure why – that just seemed like the right thing to call it one time and it stuck – so obviously that IS what the name is, right? Or the thing that contented cats do with their front paws to something soft (or, usually, to me) – it is called ‘kneading.’ Which is fine if you write it, but to say it, you risk confusion with ‘needing.’ So, to us, it has become ‘smoofing.’ A good word. Go ahead, use it. You are welcome to it.

Maybe it will stick with you too. But for heaven sake don't bloviate about it.