Word Love

I warn you: Don't fall for words. Word love is unrequited. It's nearly as bad as falling in love with a statue or a spreadsheet! But, I must admit, I am a sucker for word love. I can't help myself. I love the sounds some words make when you put them together, like "A Hymn to Homonyms," a recent EWA. As you'll see below, despite my best efforts to take my own advice, a few words have warmed their way into my heart. I am uplifted by them. Then crushed by them when they make it clear they couldn't care less about my affections. Below: A few words I love:

Evanescent: Vanishing, fading away, fleeting
(''The evanescent glow of fireflies…'')

Diaphanous: Sheer, transparent or translucent

Aggress: To commit the first act of aggression

Caress: An embrace, a light stroking
(I particularly like ''aggress'' and ''caress'' used together. ''Shall I aggress or caress?'')

Lumpen: Dispossessed, displaced people who have lost social status.
(I see lumps of clay. ''These are the lumps of the lumpen.'')

Agon: A conflict, a struggle
(''Job had an agon with God.''

Parse: To examine critically, to break down in component parts
(''How could I begin to parse the sentiment behind that look?'')

Doleful: Sorrowful, mournful

Wayworn: Fatigued by travel

Coruscate: Give off or reflect flashes of light
(''They pulled up at the farthest end of a loop path that looked out over the great basin of the Gio Grade under brilliant, coruscating stars.''Bill Roorback, ''Big Bend'')

Swoon: To enter a state of ecstasy

Rapture: Joyful ecstasy

Confabulation: Easy, unrestrained conversation

Evocative: Tending to evoke
(''The fragrance was evocative of languid summer afternoons.'')

Sere: Dry, withered

Wizened: Shriveled, aged, white with age

Languid: Slow, listless

Rheumy: A mucous discharge from eyes or nose (sometimes snot)

Phantasmagoric: Deceptive appearances in a dream or created by the imagination

Languish: To become weak or feeble

Dear Reader: e-mail me your favorites.