Words

enygma81: Is vagarity a word? Do you mean vagary? I think most girls would pt to hold it until they can find a clean bathroom. I know I would.

I

have a love for words. I have for most of my life, perhaps because I like to talk. I love jokes and stories and the way words can be manipulated to effect (not affect) a response. It is, I believe, the single most important aspect of being human because it is the way we communicate and that is what separates from most other animals.

Granted, many animals have their own communication system. But I think most are used to express basic and immediate ideas: Food over here by the picnic table. Danger, hyenas approaching. I wanna mate with you, you hairy monkey you. Or maybe even I love you. But humans are able to communicate abstract thoughts without the limitations of time. We can recall the past or talk about future dreams. I have yet to read any studies on whales discussing winter vacation plans in Baja California.

So I love words. And I really love new words. I sometimes come across new words that don't seem to mean anything, only to find later that they really are words. I also find words that seem to have meaning but actually aren't in my Webster's. Which of the following words are actual words? No fair looking in a dicionary.

• simulacrum : image, representation.
• vagarity : quality or condition of randomness; whimisicality.
• musicality : sensitivity to, knowledge of, or talent for music.
• argumentive : given to arguments.
• signage : signs or a system of such signs.
• randomocity : nature or quality of randomness.
• synchronicity : synchronism of events that appear to be connected but have no demonstrable causal relationship.
• verbosity : being given to wordiness.

Anyway, yesterday, Memorial Day, the family and I went to our local shopping mall to get some clothes for Newman. He's going back to Japan and will be living with his elder brother, working part time somewhere as he tries to figure out what he wants to do with the future. Later, Newman, Chipmonk, Mrs. Riceball and I went to our local watering hole for dinner. We ate. We talked. I grabbed a few stuffed animals in the crane game. Then we went home.

It was an amazingly simple day, the kind that I look forward to these days when work, responsibilities, indeed life in general are so hectic.

Answers: The real words are simulacrum, musicality, signage, synchronicity, verbosity. Argumentive is not a word, but argumentative is. Randomocity and vagarity (or more commonly, vagarities) are non-existent but can be read or heard from time to time. It should be randomness and vagaries.