Wednesday’s Word of the Week #1: Linguaphile

October 17, 2018 / 12 Comments

I am trying out a new weekly series on my blog…a word of the week. As a writer, I have always been obsessed with language and words. It always felt so magical to me the way beauty can be created by stringing together words in unique and interesting combinations to form different images in the mind’s eye. I also am intrigued by how words have come into existence and use in the English language (I specify English because I am not multilingual in any way).

Recently, I ran this idea by my good friend, Susan Marinelli, another wordsmith who shares my obsession with words and language (you can read her recent guest post on my blog here), and she supported the idea of a weekly word post. So I am going to pay heed to her suggestion to go for it and give it a try. I hope at least some of you love words as much as I do and enjoy these brief Wednesday posts!

The word linguaphile seemed to be perfectly appropriate to kick off a word of the day series!

It means a language and word lover. Like myself. And Susan. And I am certain many other writers, readers, and wordsmiths, too.

The origin of the word linguaphile taken from Dictionary.com:

“Linguist has existed in English since the 16th century. It means ‘one who is adept at learning and using foreign languages; one who is a student of language or linguistics; a translator or interpreter.’ Linguaphile has a somewhat different meaning: ‘one who loves words or languages.’ The originally Greek suffix -phile (‘lover of’) is completely naturalized in English. Lingua in Latin means ‘tongue, language’; its Old Latin form was dingua, from Proto-Indo-European dṇghwā, which is also the source of Germanic (English) tongue, and of Celtic (Old Irish) teng, Baltic inžũ-, and Slavic (Polish) język (with Baltic and Slavic loss of initial d-; ę represents a nasalized vowel). Linguaphile entered English in the late 20th century.”

I have to say that I was surprised to learn that this word didn’t enter the English language until the late 20th century. It sounds like a very old word, doesn’t it? It is based in Greek and Old Latin roots, so I suppose it would naturally sound like an antiquated word. Yet it is quite modern as far as words go. (I am such a word nerd! I literally get very excited about this stuff!)

Do let me know if this type of post is something you would enjoy seeing on a weekly basis. On Wednesdays to be exact. In place of my former Wednesday Wish Lists. I will continue to periodically share Weekend Wish Lists on Saturdays when I am feeling inspired to do so!

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

Linking up with these Fabulous Link Ups.

I am a midlife woman, wife, and stay-at-home mother of 2 boys and 2 cats. I have a passion for helping other women feel fabulous in the midst of this crazy, beautiful life.

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