Today, I’ll Be Mostly Talking About Words

February 09, 2011

I like words. I like knowledge.

I love to know different pieces of information, particularly from history and this ties in with my adoration for words, languages and how most modern day words are the derivatives of much older variations.

Whist I’ve always enjoyed writing since I was able to hold a pen and always excelled at school in both English language and literature, largely because I found it easy due to my interest, I didn’t realise this love for both knowledge and words until I started writing for a living.

When I started freelance writing and I was given the ability to, in essence, say what I wanted, as well as being able to have the time to research different topics, more suitable words and certain phrases, my love for language and knowledge blossomed.

Take the ‘and’ sign — & — as an example. Known by the general public to be called just that — ‘the and sign’ — I was curious to know what it was actually called a while back and love the fact it’s official name is the ampersand (I love saying it, too — like most words that you don’t use often, it feels unusual to say it).

But my fondness for this quirky little symbol doesn’t end with the simple fact I like to use it by its full name, but stretches to why it’s called the ampersand.

Coming from the Latin language, there was a point in this language’s history where any letter that could be used as a word by itself — this would be ‘A’ or ‘I’ today — would be preceded by the phrase ‘per se’, which literally means ‘by itself’.

At this time, when writing the alphabet, it was common practice to put ‘&’ at the end, which simply meant ‘and’.

As the word was a single item just like ‘A’ or ‘I’, it was therefore preceded by ‘per se’, meaning that when the alphabet was written, it would look like “…X, Y, Z &”, but when spoken it would be pronounced “…X, Y, Z and per se and”.

Over time these last four words were spoken closer and closer together, until ‘and-per-se-and’ became ‘am-per-s-and’. Ampersand.

I have the same fascination with the word ‘ubiquity’.

Not one I use much — I never have a regular need for the word omnipresent, never mind an alternative of it — but it’s a word that I love to say and whilst its history isn’t as exciting as ampersand (ubiquity comes from the Latin words ‘ubi’ and ‘quity’, which mean ‘where’ and ‘and’ or ‘everywhere’ when used together, with the word ‘ubi’ deriving from the Indo-European phrase ‘kwo-bhi’, meaning ‘where to?’) it’s still interesting to know.

If you’ve got this far through the post, you’re either thinking I’ve lost it completely or you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Language is something that everyone can enjoy and having the interest to enhance your knowledge and understanding of words only makes things better.

Something that I’ve really come to love and find interesting since I’ve started writing for a living, it’s a weird point if you’re not a logophile (a lover of words!), but it’s one of those things I find myself spending hours spending hours researching.

As a writer, do you enjoy words and languages? Has your knowledge increased in certain areas? Have you come to be a particular fan or of something because of your writing?