Treasury of Wordage

A couple of days ago I treated myself to something I should have done a long time ago as an aspiring writer: I bought myself a Thesaurus! Not just any thesaurus, but the Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus, complete with 300,000 synonyms and exciting, innovative features to equip a writer to creatively utilize word spectrums most effectively.

This addition to my family of books triggered great delight for my inner English major. Strange, I know. But affinity for word meaning runs strong in our family–through the generations.

For my fifth birthday, my schoolteacher aunt gave me my first thesaurus. I loved it, memorized it—it became part of my DNA. Writing became a creative outlet for me. I ended up majoring in English in college and I still spend whole afternoons reading the dictionary. I believe my children do, too, though they might not openly admit it.

Do you know what the word “thesaurus” means? It comes from a Greek word meaning “treasure or storeroom”.

A thesaurus is a ‘treasury of words”.  Indeed, it is. Treasury of wordage.

Which got me thinking…

• Each of us IS a treasure trove of words. We have our own vocabulary that we develop and use to describe ourselves to the world.
• When we give our ‘word’ on something, we make a promise that we should make every effort to keep—or people will learn that they cannot trust or believe us.
• Words are meant to be delivered—and received. Give and take. How well are we able to put our thoughts on hold and just listen to another person’s words?
• When folks wait to hear a ‘word’, they are hoping for accurate information. What kind of ‘news’ report do we tend to deliver to our friends?
• Words inspire, encourage, or discourage—they change the atmosphere positively or negatively. We carry the power to bless or curse people and situations. We should therefore choose our words very carefully.
• We may understand fancy or ‘insider” lingo that could impress people—but if we do not make efforts to communicate with people on their own level of understanding or experience, we tear down–rather than build up—bridges to their hearts.
• Many of us need to make better efforts toward succinctness in our conversations—so as not to overwhelm people with our word abundance, taking them hostage to our verbose verbal verbiage.

What are some of your communication challenges? What do you need to work on? What treasures do you have within you that you could reveal and release—in order to bless others today?

word art by wordle.net

Treasury of Wordage