My 10 favorite words

RJ over on Flamingo Musings http://flamingomusings.blogspot.com/is a blog that is new to me and is thoroughly good reading. She asks “What are your favorite 10 words and why?” Immediately I thought of the best two words I can ever hear, say or feel and they occupy spots #1 and #2.

After that, some words came tumbling out of my pen (I was sitting in a meeting at work), but some took a little more consideration before I committed them to the list. My words are favorite because I like to say them.

Wiggle-my favorite word makes me think of babies and puppies. Jell-o can wiggle, little girls can, too. I wiggle if I sit too long as I am a kinetic person, which is a polite way of saying that even in my 40s I am a wiggle-worm.

Giggle-this word makes me think of little kids, delighted laughter, giddy and happy feelings everyone should feel at least once a day. Hearing my niece really giggle is one of the nicest sounds I can think of. Giggles can be naughty, sexy, silly, happy, or involuntary and giggling often leads to more fun than you expected to have before the giggling began.

Tickle-related to the first two words, tickle is fun to say. It can be fun to tickle someone, but of course that quickly turns to torture best left to siblings. The smell of a library tickles my nose, grass tickles my feet, soft kisses tickle my fancy and silly jokes tickle my funny bone.

Hush-This is a comforting word and I don’t mean it in the way you say HUSH! to noisy children or drunken sorority girls. I mean it in the way that when you were a kid and you hurt yourself, grandma would take you in her arms and whisper, “hush now, baby, hushhhh” That’s a fabulous way to use the word. It does, however, get used at our house when the cats get the urge to fight each other and I tell them to hush when the growling begins. That spoken “hush” always leads to my next favorite word to say out loud:

sa chuisneoir-in Irish, this is actually a phrase that means “in the fridge” but it is (loosely) pronounced, “sa hush-nor” There’s a bit of a throaty thing involved with that CH that makes it even more pleasant coming off the tongue and it is not strictly pronounced “hush.” I typically say it four or five times at once because it makes me happy.

Squirm-I am beginning to pick up on a pattern in this list. My words bring to my mind pleasant visuals as well as movement. Babies squirm, kids squirm, friendly bugs squirm, lovers squirm. The more you say it, the less sense it makes. It begins to sound like it isn’t really a word.

Bubba-this is an exception to my rule (yes, I have a rule) against having a favorite word that involves a P or a B, especially doubles of either letter. I like Bubba, not as a proper name, but because I have taken to calling boy cats and little boys Bubba even though I never set out to do so. At this moment I can’t remember how it began, but it began with another word I was using with Roscoe, the alpha cat at home. It morphed into Bubba and has become Bub-bub-a-dubba, which really violates the rule about double Bs and so should make my skin crawl. But it doesn’t.

Lovely-the first time I noticed how much I like this word, I heard a friend (Natalie) say, “What a lovely home” and I fell in love with lovely because of the way she said it and still says it to this day. I always want to say the word the way she does.

And here is where I realize I only have 8 favorite words to say, so I switch to words that are important to me.

Proud-I am a sucker for proud. Very few people in my life use that word when talking to me for some reason and I have been profoundly aware of its non-use for years. When someone tells me they are proud of me, I can feel myself radiating joy because I believe them. It is a shame so many people are stingy with the word, or maybe I am just not one who inspires pride in others. What a shame.

Adore-One of the meanest things written to me in an email full of mean things was a reply to my saying that I adored this person’s children. She wrote back to say sure I did, after all, kids are adorable. Well, maybe that doesn’t sound so bad, but the email I am referring to made me cry and forever altered a relationship I cannot walk away from. Other than that one bad experience, I adore the word adore because when it is used correctly, it means so very much more than just, “Oh, I simply ah-dore chocolate cake!” It means, to me, “I love you so much that I think everything you do, the way you look and laugh and talk and smile are pure heaven, even when you are being a Grade A stinkpot. Maybe even especially when you are being a stinkpot.”