Since I’m turning thirty in early September and starting to feel a new-found urgency coupled with a blasé acceptance of life’s fast and furious pace, I wonder about the things in life I still need. Desire is one thing. I don’t try to control desire, only moderate it. Even though I think I’ve whittled down my desires to basics: love, food, travel, books, coffee, and free time, there are whole new desires emerging on an hourly basis, some of them run-of-the-mill, others frankly embarrassing.
But needs are different. You often can’t admit to them or you take them for granted or you don’t want to talk about them, like the fact I need to go to the dentist to get those cavities taken care of or I need new shoes but I don’t want to spend the money on them, money that I don’t have anyway and money that I’ll never make because I have writer’s ambitions and I prefer working in bookstores.
Which brings me to this: “thesaurus” comes from the Greek word “treasury”. A storeroom. Treasure-house. Contrary to my conviction as a child that it meant dinosaur made out of words. In short, I “need” a new thesaurus.
Come autumn, after 40 years of tinkering, Oxford will be releasing their brand-new thesaurus. Which apparently will be extra-awesome because the main editor is Scottish.
Now, since the big 30 is right around the corner and I still have lots of writing to do, I can’t think of anything more indispensable. I can’t think of a better present for me or for anyone else. But mostly for me.
Speaking of synonyms, this got me to thinking about what word I use variants of the most when I write. Most of the time, people I’m writing about are walking, so “walk” is the word I use the most. And walk has so many interesting synonyms, all of which seem to indicate different degrees of lethargy and/or sexiness in how the person walks: “lope,” “amble,” “saunter,” “trudge, ” “meander,” “stroll,” “strut,” “traipse,” “pace,” “prance,”etc., etc.
If you write, or you’re prone to highly-varied speech patterns, what word do you use variants of the most? What are your favorite synonyms?
