Words, words, words

If you're a nerd like me (and you and I both know who you are), you love words. Gosh, I love them. But all words are not created equal (nerds, nod with me now). The theme for the month of nablopomo is "in a word," and that has had me thinking about my favorite words, because yes, I have them. And yes, I have them in multiple languages.

In English, I've never been able to pick my favorite. It's a tie between bohemian and formaldehyde. They're both so fun to say. Go on, say them: bohemian... formaldehyde. Fun, right? I know.

In French, I also have a tie--apparently, I'm commitment phobic when it comes to loving my words. Hippopotome and alpinisme (hippopotamus and mountain climbing, respectively). If I can break the rules to my own game and add phrases into the mix (which I can because it's my own game), my favorite French phrase is "faire de l'alpinisme" which literally means "to do the mountain climbing." And while I love to say that phrase, I think what I love more is that it means "to do the mountain climbing."

Diversion alert: when I was four or five (around the time we were hit by a school bus causing me to miss the end of Super Friends and/or the time when I encountered the very elusive but very real Colorado field turtle), a couple of my mom's sisters were visiting us from Wisconsin. I had been downstairs watching educational children's programming on PBS wherein three adults dressed in dog outfits were just doing what adults in dog costumes do, conversing. One of the dogs was French (a French poodle named Bob to be precise) and when the show was over I bolted upstairs to find my aunts. Terrifically pleased with myself, I informed them that I had just learned to speak French, I cleared my throat and enunciated, "Bob." What isn't coming across in the written form is that I said it in a French accent. Speaking French, you see? Yeah, I probably won't ever live that one down.

An interesting side note, my favorite word in American Sign Language is .