The movie The Full Monty uses the word "twizzle" as a verb. One person describes another's antics as "twizzling about". I believe it referred unfavorably to dancing. I believe.
I like words that sound like things. Onomatopoeia, I suppose.
Twizzle sounds like something that had been sizzling, but has now become crispy. Sizzling pork chops or twizzling pork rinds. Or pork cracklings. Equally evocative.
My dad has at least two favorite words. They are "trudge" and "shrub". They both have a wet, sludgy kind of feeling to me. He likes trudge because it sounds like trudging. Shrub just feels good to say. Say it out loud and think only of the sound. It's a warm, humid day, motionless and hypnotic. Shhrruuuuubb.
Once it's been too hypnotic, try out cityscape. It's a pointy word. Like skyscrapers in your mouth.
I have a couple of words that I don't like. The big one is "packet". Why not package? I'm not too fond of booklet, either, but it's better than packet. Maybe if it were packette? With the accent on the second syllable?
In third grade we had a work book and an activity packet for our reading lessons.
Work book? Okay. We've all had those, possibly have those. But an activity packet? That's what you get on Survivor. But they don't call it that. Only losers say "activity packet". And we know "activity" isn't all that offensive. So it must be packet. Bleh. In my head it sounds like one of those lizard toys with the sticky tongue? You flick the lizard's tongue and you can pick up paper flies and things.
Paa kit!
uuuugh.
In college I was a resident adviser (how long did that last? Hmmmm, how well behaved is Dotty?) and our resident director hated the word "Yo". So, of course, we used it constantly. I still say it. It's ingrained from trying to annoy the hell out of her. Yo. She was a horror.
I know there's lots more stuff to be mined from my noggin, but I fear my brains will boil over.
And, yo, we don't want that.
Posted by dotty at April 24, 2005 10:01 PM