Word of the Week

This week when I was reading, I came across a word I had never heard of before. I wrote it down to look up in the dictionary later on, and I thought to myself, I'll write about this on my blog, because then it is more likely to stick, and maybe you will learn something new too - or maybe you have a better vocabulary than me and already know this word.

The word was 'bonhomie' - frank and simple good heartedness.

"So now, to prove he was happy, here he was, trying to sparkle with bonhomie."*

The funny thing with words, vocabulary and language is that we judge people and their intelligence, or worth, according to what words they know, and to what extent they can deliver a strong sentence or speech, whether it be in writing or in the spoken word. But how is that a measure of worth? How is that a measure of intelligence? It is something that interests me and I think about it a lot, and I do wish my own vocabulary was more varied as language is one of the greatest gifts in life. It is something that is never finished. Language and words - they are what keep us alive.

*Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go, Faber and Faber Limited, London, 2010, p.97.