Did you gasp when someone first told you that the world “sequoia” contained all five vowels? Did your consciousness almost reach a state of disequilibrium when you found out that the word “facetious” not only includes all five vowels, but that they are in alphabetical order (and was your mind blown when you changed the vowel-full adjective to an adverb, “facetiously,” by adding the sometimes-vowel “y” to the end of the word)?
Did you tremble with delight when you learned the etymology of the word “sabotage”? Do you relish telling friends that "Maine" is the only U.S. state whose name is just one syllable? Do you fervently study the spellings of words to discover what other words are contained therein (and by the way, the word “therein” contains 10 words that can be formed by using consecutive letters: the, there, I, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, and herein)?
Do you actively follow @PangramTweets because it automatically retweets pangrammatic tweets (those which use every letter of the alphabet)? Do you religiously play Twitter word games like #artwiculate, #altwic, and #lqw?
If you answered “yes” to any or all of the questions above, then you’re “werdy.”
What’s “werdy”? That’s our term, a blend of “word” and “nerdy,” for the giddiness a logophile experiences when discussing trivia about language and words. One’s werdiness is particularly noticeable at the end of the year when dictionaries, organizations, and others name their choices for “Word of the Year.” This year your uber werdy friends will be easy to spot. They'll be spouting words like “vape,” “lumbersexual,” “conscious uncoupling,” “budtender,” and “manspreading.”
Get werdy with us on December 31st. That’s when we’ll name our “Word of the Year.” You can check our complete countdown HERE. We think you’ll agree with most of our choices, and when we announce our final “Word of the Year,” we suspect you’ll give yourself a facepalm and exclaim, “Of course that’s the Word of the Year!”
NOTE: The American Dialect Society will choose their "Word of the Year" on Friday, January 9th, at 5:30 PST.
Did you tremble with delight when you learned the etymology of the word “sabotage”? Do you relish telling friends that "Maine" is the only U.S. state whose name is just one syllable? Do you fervently study the spellings of words to discover what other words are contained therein (and by the way, the word “therein” contains 10 words that can be formed by using consecutive letters: the, there, I, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, and herein)?
Do you actively follow @PangramTweets because it automatically retweets pangrammatic tweets (those which use every letter of the alphabet)? Do you religiously play Twitter word games like #artwiculate, #altwic, and #lqw?
If you answered “yes” to any or all of the questions above, then you’re “werdy.”
What’s “werdy”? That’s our term, a blend of “word” and “nerdy,” for the giddiness a logophile experiences when discussing trivia about language and words. One’s werdiness is particularly noticeable at the end of the year when dictionaries, organizations, and others name their choices for “Word of the Year.” This year your uber werdy friends will be easy to spot. They'll be spouting words like “vape,” “lumbersexual,” “conscious uncoupling,” “budtender,” and “manspreading.”
Get werdy with us on December 31st. That’s when we’ll name our “Word of the Year.” You can check our complete countdown HERE. We think you’ll agree with most of our choices, and when we announce our final “Word of the Year,” we suspect you’ll give yourself a facepalm and exclaim, “Of course that’s the Word of the Year!”
NOTE: The American Dialect Society will choose their "Word of the Year" on Friday, January 9th, at 5:30 PST.
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