Linguistic Idiosyncrasies

Linguistic Dinner

I attended a function last night where my cousin Duvy spoke.  He's usually excellent when he speaks, and last night was no exception.  Being at least as insecure as I, he often approaches me after he finishes and asks me how his speech was.  Last night he didn't ask, so I offered.  I told him he was great except for two things: 1. In my humble opinion, he mispronounced the word
"indefatigable".  2.  He used the word "apochryphal", and I had no idea what it meant.  I'm pretty sure most of the other people in the room didn't know, either.  In my mind I somehow connected it to "apocalypse", but as it turns out, the two words are not at all related.  When I got home I looked up "apochryphal".  It means "of questionable authorship or authenticity".  So I got to thinking:
 everyone's vocabulary is different.  I know a lot of words like "lawnmower" and "toothpick", but not too many words like "apochryphal" or "ferruginous" (def: "of the color of iron rust").  I have no idea how many words I actually know, but it's gotta be more than twenty.  More than thirty, even.  Also, I know that I have a few favorite words that I use when I'm trying to show off.  "Albeit" is one of them.  Also "quinoa".  Did you know that quinoa ("kin-wa") is a species of goosefoot (chenopodium)?  Did you even know that there is such a plant as goosefoot?  Why am I bothering to even write for such ignorant people??  I know that I've used "albeit" several times in this blog, but have not yet been able to find a place to stick "quinoa".  Birds love quinoa so I guess I could have used it in one of the myriad bird posts, but...hey, there's another one of my favorites
...myriad!  I know I've used that myriad times.  Ha, ha, aren't I clever!  Also, I make up words sometimes, like "kapupie" and "chimlobuni".  And, as many of you know, I'm very fond of the word "cheese".  I just think it sounds funny.  I say "cheese" a lot.  Not when I'm smiling for the camera, either.  I'll just be strolling down the street and say "cheese."  I used the word "soliloquy" in one of the posts, also "reverie".  I was particulalry proud of those two.  And then, of course, there are the "pin" words.  There are some words that I mangle by substituting "pin" at the beginning instead of saying the actual word.  Some examples:  "pinxactly" (exactly), "pinvited" (invited), "pinstead" (instead), "pinvorce" (divorce), and "pinball" (pinball).  I do this strictly for my own amusement, of course, and, outside of the family (where everybody already knows how bizarre my sense of humor can be) I get a lot of confused looks.  The "pin" words actually have an etiology (that's another good one!): my kids started it, specifically Kalman, I think.  They stopped doing it ages ago, but I didn't. There doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason for which words get "pin-ized".  "Pinvited" kind of makes some sense, but "pinvorced"?  Now I wonder if there's any way to tie this rather ludicrous post in to my illness.  Hmmm.  Let's see.  How about, "I'm thankful that I'm still here and well enough to be silly"?  Nah, that's pretty lame, n'est pas?  How about "when I had the trach, I couldn't talk without a valve, so I couldn't say silly words"?  No, that's even worse.  No matter.  I'll just end it here, before I start pulling out my ferruginous, albeit sparse hair, trying to think of a connection, and then I can return to my reverie, confident in the knowledge that this particular post undoubtedly will not be the least bit apochryphal.