Wordsmithing
Jan 8th, 2007 by Accidental Thinker
Don’t you hate it, really hate it, when you can’t think of a word that is right on the tip of your tongue? And the blasted thesaurus was no help, because I couldn’t hit on a word that was quite close enough to lead me to the word I was really trying to find. The closest I could manage was “selfless,” but that doesn’t have the right nuance of “no strings attached” or “nothing expected in return.” Plus my word needed to be more descriptive of the thing being bestowed, rather than the person bestowing it. And I knew that it started with “un-.” But how do you explain all this to Roget’s?
The word my brain was seeking, by the way, was “unconditional.” Now I can sleep tonight.
Yes I do hate that! If only we had a mirror that allowed us to see those words on the tip of our tongue…lol! Glad you thought of it, though. 🙂
It seems as if sometimes if you know the right words to plug into the thesaurus, you don’t need it.
I hate not being able to think of a word. And it happens too often.
I think it’s all those passwords I have to remember. They clog up my thinking ability.
Cas
That is so frustrating. I’m so glad you figured it out.
I know EXACTLY what you are talking about – it’s maddening. You don’t think it’s Moniqueheimers …. do you? ;0)
Monique ~ Take heart… I do it all the… (what was that word) I was going to put here? Oh yea… I do it all the TIME! ~ jb///
OK, I was going to make a crack about how you could think of “wordsmithing” as a word but not “unconditional”, but then I did some sleuthing and realized you made it up!! According to dictionary.com, “wordsmith” is a NOUN and you have hijacked it as a VERB! The shame!! The horror!! Call the grammar police!! 🙂
Ah.. I know this feeling all too well. I would be lost without both my dictionary and my thesaurus. But sometimes the word I want remains elusive .. at least until I go to bed.. then it undoubtedly pops into my head. 🙂