I recently acquired a big, thick dictionary full of wonderful words. I know this sounds like I'm trying too hard, but I really do like to read the dictionary. As you look up one word it can lead you to another word, especially if you have one of those nice dictionary-thesaurus hybrids. If I didn't have that dictionary, I would have no idea what a strumpet, jade, coquette, or trollop were! Can you imagine?
As I pondered the nuances between "perhaps" and "maybe" I began to fantasize about writing my very own dictionary, but then I realized my first imagined step was to get my grubby hands on an older dictionary. What a trollop I would be to simply copy the meanings to thousands of beautifully crafted words and slap my own name on the cover. It would be nothing but the work of a purloining charlatan! In order to write a dictionary I would have to take note of every single word I encountered, determine how that might be spelled, and write it down for others to follow. The endeavor of creating a dictionary suddenly became the most daunting task I could imagine.
But people have done this. Noah Webster created his first dictionary in 1806 in which he changed spellings and meanings of words to Americanize them. His efforts created spellers, dictionaries, and readers that standardized American English. One guy gets to establish the nuances between "maybe" and "perhaps". It's the spelling part that gets me. Spelling isn't easy. It comes natural to some folks, but others struggle with it throughout their life. Who can blame them? Phonetically speaking it makes perfect sense that "addition" can be become "addishun". Granted one should maybe pick up on the pattern that the suffix "-ation" denotes an action. Multiplication, subtraction, addition, decapitation. These things are acts, acts that are related mathematically speaking.
I like it when words look alike but don't rhyme. Good and food, mistress and distress, fear and bear. It's fun to make them rhyme, trading off their pronunciations.
That was some good food. That was some good food.
My mistress is in distress. My mistress is in distress.
I fear the bear. I fear the bear.
Don't even get me started on combos like "bare bear" or "mere fear".
