btt buttonOkay, today’s question is going to be a little different. First, I’m posting it early because Thursday is Thanksgiving here in the U.S. and I’m going to be busy making and eating turkey as I’m sure some of you will also be, so I want to give everyone time to play. And two, because I’m basically going to link you through to somebody else’s blog with a question that I thought was pretty interesting.

Joanna and Brad are asking about “connecting words,” and they don’t mean conjunctions like “and” or “but.” No, what they’re looking for are unique, or treasured words that we’ve found out and about in our daily travels, words that might not be common usage, or often heard, but which struck a chord for some reason.

This is unorthodox, of course, but here’s the thing: if you link back to Joanna’s post (which is where the rules are written), you’re eligible to win a prize. Not to mention joining in some great conversation about interesting words.

Ok, this one made me think.

One that occured to me was peripatetic. The reason I thought of it was because it is a word that I consciously remember having to look up in a dictionary to find out what it meant. And I like it. It has a slight onomatopoeiac feel to it too - like feet marching along a dirt road, or a train on tracks. I’m not sure I have ever used it in an actual conversation, but I guess I have it stored up just in case. I can’t even recall what the book was where I found it, so perhaps it was the best thing in that particular tome. I have come across it fairly regularly ever since that first discovery and always feel a slightly smug warm glow for having it in my vocabulary.

Another word, which probably fits the original criteria more closely, is wee… as it is used in the part of Scotland that my family came from. This is in a couple of ways… looking at a boy for example and saying “He looks wee” (he looks small) or saying to a guest “bide a wee” (wait a short time / stay a while).

While wee is not an uncommon word here the more common useage, (apart from the toileting one), would be along the lines “He’s a dear wee thing” or “wait a wee while”, which is subtly different from our familial use.

I guess that all adds up to me liking the word for it’s tradition and because I like the sparsity of it. I have passed it on to my kids, although they are still at ages where they giggle at the toilet humour of the word, but they have been heard to use it the same way I do, so hopefully the style of use may continue on for at least one more generation.

Added note: The use of wee in the more unusual useage within the family has lasted over 150 years since all my ancestors came to NZ pre-1860