Indecorous

"Mr. Worthing! Rise, sir, from this semi-recumbent posture. It is most indecorous." 

These are lines spoken by the character of Lady Bracknell in scene 1 of 'The Importance of Being Earnest'.  Lady Bracknell is shocked and disturbed to find Mr. Worthing in the throes of a less than perfect marriage proposal to Gwendolyn; and Gwendolyn, perhaps, is enjoying the guilty pleasure of pushing the boundaries of social decorum.

Jasmine recently played the role of Lady Bracknell in her high school's performance of the play; so I had the occasion to read the play, and then enjoy the performance.  The scene is hilarious, but the word, "Indecorous" is a perfect reflection of Lady Bracknells character... slightly obscure, so as to mark the speaker as educated and articulate; defining fashion and style, so as to define the speaker as superficial and pretentious; and percussively stacatto, so as to hammer home the character's lack of diplomacy.

Words, like 'indecorous', are beautiful things; filled with subtle meanings, found in nostalgic contexts, and sometimes used again, like lethal weapons.  I think that everyone out there has there own arsenal of unusual words, sometimes associated with a certain memory or experience, captured forever in their conscious or sub-conscious mind.  If we could distill their thoughts, or disect their speech; we would probably find an utterly unique list of unfamiliar words befitting that person alone.  'Logical'...'Arrhythmia'...'Callipygian'...'Reckon'...'Iatrogenic'...'Identical'....

From time to time, I'll post a blog entry regarding a word that I find to be particularly lively or poignant, maybe even personal.

Etymologically yours,

Steve