Miss Peach

I used to LOVE vocabulary lessons and tests. I like reading with a dictionary nearby so I can look up words I'm not so sure of the meanings to. I work in an industry where using prententious vocabulary is considered a virtue and not so much a pompous, obnoxious thing to do, which is nice, because I have an outlet to use the words without coming off as a colossal pain. Lucky me, and trust me, lucky you, because otherwise there's a good chance I'd be writing posts in language Jane Austen might use if not. And really, unless it's actually Pride and Prejudice or Persuasion, I'm thinking people don't want to encounter such discourse.

So, for this week's installment, I present you with five of my favorite ten-cent words. Some are useful, some are dumb, and some are just what I call FUN! (Wait, could this have something to do with why I'm single??)

1) Idiosyncrasy: this one is just fun to rattle off. Also, I have many idiosyncrasies which my roommate, if she ever read this or in the event she did could figure out how to post a comment, could tell you all about in detail. For instance, I get incredibly irritated if the sponge is left in the sink, and not placed on the counter next to the sink. And, please, keep the shower curtain pulled all the way across the tub, okay? And this is only the beginning, the tip of the iceberg, the smallest of my demands. In short: I’m annoying to live with, and my roommate should really get a medal or something. Though her propensity to pile all of my shit out of sight—which, ahem, if you can’t see it, NEITHER CAN I—might result in my being awarded a medal as well. In which case, I think both of us getting a prize for living with the other undermines the point of the award altogether, so maybe we can just pass on the whole shebang.
2) Archipelago: ooh, really fun to say as well. I don’t have an archipelago though, so I can’t really speak to my personal experience of them. I suppose if I were to write a novel or travel to, say, Alaska, I might have occasion to actually use this word in some way. I do enjoy the candles made by Archipelago Botanicals, and if I were ever to open up my own boutique or something (which I don’t plan to do, but you never know), I might name it Archipelago. And then start a chain. Ha!
3) Salacious (also, lascivious): This is a classy way to say something is dirty, and I like it. It’s particularly useful for cocktail parties because it doesn’t sound bad to say, “it’s really quite a salacious novel!” where as to say, “dude, that’s one dirty book” just doesn’t go over as well. Lascivious is really fun to say too, and it’s basically a synonym of salacious, but I have trouble getting it out sometimes. I might need the aid of a speech therapist to nail the pronunciation of that one.
4) Solipsistic: I really think of this as a fancy-schmancy way to say someone is a navel-gazer, but a navel-gazer would use it to glowingly talk about their navel-gazing behavior. I have no idea if this makes any sense to you whatsoever, but sometimes I like to toss this into conversation with certain, ah, self-impressed jackasses whom I come into contact with regularly in my line of work, and they seem to find it charming. Plus it’s fun to say. Wheeee!
5) Lugubrious: This one I love because it seems like onomatopoeia. It just sounds so sad and weighed down but it seems all to dramatic a word for such feelings. And, following in line with the others, is a shitload of fun to say. Not that I ever do, really, because it’s a little over the top.