“The difference between the right word and the almost right word
is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”
~ Mark Twain
Have you ever run into
the “almost right” word? I sure have. In fact, I’m pretty certain that I've contributed many “almost right” words to the Great Book of Life. I've also
spent many an hour rummaging through my brain, books, and basement in search of
the elusive “right” word.
You know, I almost
listed drawers there as one of the places I've searched, but
that most definitely would not be the right word. Although
some drawers may, in fact, contain words… other drawers categorically do not.
Whew — another word crisis averted!
Anyway, I once
encountered an “almost right” word in an intake report, back when my job was
giving psych assessments. There within the section used to describe the
patient, the referring medical resident had written, “He reads ferociously — sometimes six books at a time.”
Ferociously? As in, “exhibiting
or given to extreme fierceness and unrestrained violence and brutality”? A
word usually associated with lion-like behavior. Hmmmmmm.
I think the word that
this poor, exhausted resident intended was voraciously. As in,
“excessively eager, or having an insatiable appetite for something” (like books
in this instance).
Well, I happened to
find this “almost right” word ferociously funny at the
time. Mostly, because when you’re working on a psych ward, I assure you, the
laughs are few and far between. And so, who can blame me for being absolutely
tickled over this all day long? Then I went home…
When I walked into
my apartment, I noticed some things I’d never noticed before — the paperbacks
dog-eared and stacked carelessly next to my bed, the hardbacks strewn across
the sofa, and the magazines lying mangled on the kitchen table.
Leaping Lions! The
evidence was undeniable! I was, in fact...
a ferocious reader.
I still am.
Because sometimes
when you least expect it, the “almost right” word happens to be “exactly
right”, after all.
PROMPT: Have some
ferocious fun by putting all the wrong words in all the right places — or
perhaps all the right words in all the wrong places. Stretch the English
language like salt water taffy, bend it like Beckham, then throw it against the
wall. See what sticks. For visual artists — create some color confusion, just
for kicks. Is black really this year’s pink?
