I feel like celebrating words today. I listed some of my Favorite Words in December, and then started to keep a list of more words as I thought of them or heard them. Of course I don’t hear these words very often while living in Sweden…which is another reason for me to do this.

Not in any particular order, and I include a bit of why the word resonates for me personally.

Watch out for the Wootton Wawen

• amorous - strongly moved by love and especially sexual love; indicative of love.

I like this word. My name, Amanda, means “having to be loved,” “deserving to be loved,” or, simply, “worthy of love.” I have spent my life trying to live up to my name, with the occasional success and many internal failures. There is something about the word amorous that speaks to my soul that is still a work in progress and that still considers this a foreign, and unfamiliar, word.

• despot:  a ruler with absolute power and authority (plus some other meanings).

This is one of those words I remember learning because I decided to randomly open the dictionary one dull day at work many years ago. And, well. The word is so innocent in sound and so evil in action.

• plethora: a bodily condition characterized by an excess of blood and marked by turgescence and a florid complexion. Or excess, superfluity; also : profusion, abundance.

I was only aware of the second meaning before today…but I kinda like the main definition too. It sounds a lot like a vampire who exercises excess.

• chortle: to utter, or express with, a snorting, exultant laugh or chuckle or to sing or chant exultantly.

I love words that sound like what they mean! Chortle chortle chortle. (snark snark snark).

• vituperate:  to abuse or censure severely or abusively;  to use harsh condemnatory language.

I don’t know if a new word can be categorized as a favorite, but whatever. I like it because it is another one of those words that when you say it, it elicits the same feeling as it means. You can shout it and people might think you were swearing at them.

• nefarious: flagrantly wicked or impious; evil

I like wicked evil things, and a word that rolls off your tongue and makes you bite your lip is delicious.

• prevaricate: to depart from or evade the truth.

Easy one. I love it because Wallace says it in Wallace and Gromit, The Wrong Trousers – click here to listen… 

The Wrong Trousers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)