A+ A-Words, brought to you by Ellix

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I have begun a new endeavor

I give to you

The A-words with an A+

A few days ago, I decided I must annotate the dictionary. Specifically, A Student's Dictionary (23rd edition). Now, it's taking quite a bit of time, and I don't exactly have an excess of hours to write this blog post. So, I will be talking through the first few pages of words starting with the letter "a". 

First of all, what exactly am I writing in said dictionary? I'm giving my general thoughts on words, taking into account their meanings, sounds, spelling, and random statements that come to mind when seeing a word. I'll be focusing on the words "a" through "achieve" for this post. That way, it isn't the length of 40 football fields.

So far, I've noticed that there are a lot of words with the same prefixes. Starting off with the first page of words, page 7 in my dictionary, we begin with all the "ab..." words. There are too many of them, honestly, and we only get to the "ac..." words until the second half of the second page. I was thinking about ab muscles a bit too frequently for my liking. There are two words on the first page that I must shout out:

- Abacus: "a frame holding parallel rods with beads, used for doing arithmetic" (7).

While being fun to say and pretty snazzy to look at, these items were used to count numbers larger than 10-20 (numbers you can count with hands and toes). They came in handy for merchants and whoever else needed to keep track of some hefty digits. I've always loved this word, and I'm glad that it's the second word in my dictionary. My only gripe is that it cannot be used as a verb. I think it would be mighty helpful to walk up to someone and ask whether they're going to "abacus out the door." I feel like it would be equivalent to defenestration, except only applied to situations where someone is walking out of a 21st story (or higher) door. While people most likely didn't use abacuses to count small numbers like 21, that's still a greater amount than what most people can count with their hands and toes. 

- Abode: "home, a place of residence, a habitation" (7).

I don't have as much to say for this word. I find it incredibly enjoyable to say and use, especially when you're feeling a little too fancy to use one of its many synonyms. I mostly enjoy this word because of its sound and appearance, while "abacus" is just an all-around winner. 

Moving on to the next page, I have some strong opinions to present. First, there are some more words that are pristine and enjoyable for all audiences. On the other hand, there’s a collection of nasty little buggers that I think deserve to be called out:

- Absorb: "To soak up a fluid or moisture; to hold someone's attention; to dissolve a debt completely and accept the loss; to assimilate information" (8)

Hear me out, this word tastes good. It rolls off the tongue, and it also includes "orb." Who wouldn't love something like that. It cleans up spills, captures people's awe, dissolves debts, and compiles information. Cleaning up spills is fabulous, and the orb's abs are definitely accomplishing their life goals on that front. Capturing awe and attention is self-explanatory. I had actually never heard of the third definition before this project (look at me, I’m learning!). Compiling information is a fabulous pastime, just look at what I'm doing right now!

- Abundance: "large quantity, plenty" (8).

A bun dances. That is all I have to say.

- Abysmal: "immeasurably bad; bottomless" (8).

Now, this might seem like I've transitioned to the absolutely terrible words based on the definition. But, no, "abysmal" is one of my favorite words. It encapsulates so much emotion into just 7 letters, and who doesn't love a good enunciated dose of outrage. I must admit that "abyss" has less intrigue. Something about it is lacking after the masterpiece that is "abysmal."

- Abscess: "an accumulation of pus due to an infection from bacteria" (8).

Here's the big old shifteroo. I despise this word. I can't even use "abysmal" to describe it, because that would be ruining my good pal's name. "Abscess" sounds like someone is hissing violently into your abdominal region. The definition is equally trashy.

- Abuse: "hurtful treatment; to hurt someone or something intentionally" (8).

For obvious reasons, "abuse" and "abusive" deserve a hate shout out. Anyone who abuses another person is flat out terrible. I don't see a need to argue my point here.

Sidenote: in my opinion, there are way too many words beginning with "acc." One might say there's an abundance.

We're nearing the finish line, the final two pages of words I'll be covering. All but three of the words on page 9 start with "acc" and I'm tired of it. I couldn't help but think about AC units. Most of those words will not see the light of day AKA this blog post. Nonetheless, I give to you my top words from page 9 and 10:

- Accumulate: "to collect, to amass" (9).

I love saying this word for reasons I'm unsure of, but I enjoy that it has a simple definition. The word "act" has 5 different definitions in this dictionary, and that seems like 4 too many for a 3-letter word. "Accumulate," on the other hand, has the perfect balance of word to definition. I also like gathering random stuff, so this word comes in handy often.

- Acoustic: "of or relating to the ability to carry a sound without distortion" (10).

I think if "acoustic" was turned into a room, it would have some killer sound quality. It also gives me circular vibes, which is always satisfying. I like the order of the letters and the general aesthetic.

- Acronym: "a word formed from the initial letters of a series of words" (10).

I love the use of "y" in a word for once. Like I've said many times in this post, I LOVE the way "acronym" is pronounced. It also reminded me of OWCA and LOVEMUFFIN from Phineas and Ferb, which is simply a win-win scenario.

So, why read and annotate the dictionary? You can learn lots of new words, and find new ways to think about words. If you enjoy expanding your vocabulary, then I highly recommend doing some dictionary digging. If you want to, you can also go onto the interwebs and learn more words. For example, I went down a bit of a hole with "abacus." The only downside is that this project takes a LONG time. But, you might as well scroll through the dictionary instead of scrolling through *insert social media application*.

And there you have it, A+ words with Ellix. This post is quite out-there, but I hope it provides some insight on words and their true importance to the English language (slight exaggeration, I know). Thanks for reading :)

(I apologize if any formatting is wonky, my computer keeps changing how it's displaying everything, so I'm not entirely sure what this post looks like. Hopefully it works, though)