Words of the day

A few years ago, I actively prepared a "word of the day" to share with my friends. If I heard an interesting word in use that day, or read a word with a certain allure, I would proclaim it to be my "word of the day." Whether anyone started using a word as a result of my "word of the day" I am unsure. The endeavour was worth it for my personal edification. I became attuned to seeking out new and interesting words.

Today I come to you with two words of the day (there's an interesting plural "words of the day"!). These are words on my mind today, but I didn't hear them first today. The words are:

• Dirigible ^1: An airship, and;
• Snafu ^2: A chaotic situation (although I have heard it used in the context of referring to a general roadblock).

I encountered the word "dirigible" in a direct message with someone either during or after watching Kiki's Delivery Service, an excellent production by Studio Ghibli. When I read the message in which "dirigible" was used, I thought that it was an interesting word. The ratio of "i" letters to other letters in the word is high. For every two non-"i" characters, there is an "i". Intriguing, indeed!

I like the word "snafu," too. It came to mind when discussing an unrelated but lexicographically -- there's another interesting word! -- similar word yesterday. It also reminds me of the "snarfed" term on the Plan 9 operating system ^3. "snarfed" is the Plan 9 lingo for "copy". It would be interesting if "snarf" caught on. Example usage: "I'll snarf and paste your code."

Should "snarfed" also be a word of the day? Perhaps! It shall be. Thus, I have three words of the day: dirigible, snafu, and snarfed (colloquial, technical). I used to have the odd day where there could be multiple words of the day, but sometimes I would save interesting ones for the next day. Today I am too excited about the three aforementioned words.

Tagged in writing, words.