Word Nerd: Guilty of Definitions
Collecting words is what makes a Word Nerd’s heart go skippety-skip and so it sheer delight to discover Susie Dent’s Guilty by Definition is essentially a picnic of vocabulary. The setting is a renowned dictionary establishment in Oxford (yes, it does ring a bell). It isn’t long before this band of erudite editors start sleuthing. Amateur detectives are not unique. What makes Dent’s book standout is her ability to surreptitiously weave in weighty words and archaic delights not only as chapter headers but within the text. They impressively serve as foreshadowing while providing a witty lexicon lesson.
Here are a few textual examples I jotted down while reading:
- falsedict: an untrue utterance
- mountweazel: fictitious entry in a dictionary
- vellichor: the musty smell of old books
- apricity: the warmth of sun on a winter’s day
- respair: recovering from despair
- kything: the recognition of old friends in a crowd
- bellywengins: a small beer
- dallop: the missed patch of ground by the plow
- rackups: consequences of ill-doing
- sonder: the realization other people have rich and complicated lives we will never know
- susurrus: low soft whispering or low rustling
- mubble-fubbles: eve of something unpleasant dose of the blues
- tidoptimist: a time optimist
- finifugal: not wanting the story to end; stalling the ending; drawing it out
Aren’t they delightful?
Words by Definition absolutely created a feeling of finifugal. Fortunately, the dictionary detectives are rumored to appear in a sequel.
Can’t wait. My Word Nerd heart awaits in anticipation.
Pam Webb 