Wordy nerdy

I love words. Have I ever said that before? Because I do. As does my whole family, actually, which has greatly amused our current company. We keep a dictionary in the dining room and use it with great frequency during meals to check definitions and pronunciations and the various etymology of words.

Last night, sitting around in the living room, we started discussing the pronunciation of a certain word, and I realized that we didn't have a dictionary in the living room. What a terrible oversight! I promptly told my parents that we needed to rectify the situation, at which point my mom most cheerfully told me that at least I could get my exercise this way. Fine then--I marched to the dining room to look up our word. After which I took a detour to my bedroom to collect my OED so we could properly research the word.

This was when our befuzzled guest amusedly blurted out that he'd love to watch us play word games. Oh, trust me, it's not as fun as it looks.

First of all, we usually belabour the point (whatever the point may be in the various word games we play) excessively. We discuss whether the verb can be pluraled or singulared, and everyone has a vehement opinion on the matter. Nice.

But it's fun because, well, our family has a lot of fun when we do pretty much anything. Bible readings, picnics, trips to the museum, home improvement projects (which we are greatly in the midst of in recent days), games--whatever the activity, we tend to enjoy it. So yes, we love word games. We love words. They're not the be-all and end-all of our family experiences, however, since I come by my love of words naturally, yeah, I'd say we tend to spar a little more wordily than many families that I know.

Like I always say, my mom taught me to love and understand words, and my dad taught me to respect the power that words carry. With all that knowledge tucked inside of me, I figure that's why words hold such appeal to me.