Words inspire me.
Not just their meanings – although they do – but the words themselves: how they feel in the mouth, the trickery of tongue and teeth, the shape of the letters and the art of their synergy. Sometimes words feel like biting into something with that perfect texture; words like avuncular, pulchritude, unctuous, premonition, bifurcate, rivulet, and auspicious all have great mouthfeel to me. And some words, at least to me, don’t quite look like they should be pronounced the way they are spelled, or vice-versa. Examples of this are words like disintegrate and rapport, scintillate and spatula. But this seeming anachronism isn’t annoying or bothersome to me. Instead, it’s yet another quality of words I find interesting and engaging and even whimsical.
There are also words that I find myself being SO GLAD they exist. How great is it that there are words like evanesce, defenestrate, callipygian, and onomatopoeia? Evanesce is a verb meaning “to disappear into a fog.” Defenestrate is a verb meaning “to throw out of a window.” One who is callipygian is someone having a shapely back-side. And onomatopoeias are words formed by the sound associated with what is being named; these are words like buzz, cuckoo, sizzle, etc.
All of these words and qualities of words inspire me. I am inspired to use them, and to learn how to use them correctly. I am inspired to learn more words and to use them too. The height of inspiration, for me, however, is found when having new words allows me to express something new that I was never able to articulate before because I didn’t know that there was a word for what I thought or believed or felt. I am ultimately inspired when I learn something about myself that I didn’t know was there; when I no longer feel what I thought I was supposed to because there is new knowledge that accompanies new words. Every once in a while – and not often enough – the whole world I see changes because a new word unlocked an entirely new set of thoughts and combinations of reality that create such a beautiful cognitive dissonance that I am unavoidably required to move – physically, spiritually, intellectually, emotionally. These moments of graceful collision are precious to me. They remind me of my continuous growth and personal evolution. They allow me to access parts of me with which I had lost connection, parts about which I had forgotten, and parts of me I didn’t even know were there. All because I had a new thought. And I had a new thought because I had the words to do so.
I am moved, stimulated, roused, stirred, prompted, motivated and sparked…I am inspired.
From Left to Write 
Steve – I adore this post. All of the words you have listed have been among my favorites since I discovered the mystery of their definitions. And, for that matter, so have you.
Thanks, Jami, So glad you liked it!