While watching a documentary on Paul Bowles last night, I was reminded how much I truly adore language. I love interesting words, even if only in the way they sound. Or if they are just fun to say. Like Zeitgeist. Say it. It’s fun!

So, I thought it would be interesting to showcase a word a week. I want to concentrate on words I hear other people say during that week, which will hopefully help me to be a better listener. Plus, it would keep me disciplined enough to add at least one post a week to this blog. Or at least, that’s the idea at the moment.

Like I said, I was watching this great film, called Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles, and a fellow composer/author – Ned Rorem – used the word slapdash. Is that not the greatest word ever? Slapdash…let it wash over you.

The word was used to describe Bowles’ musical education, and I’m not sure if there could possibly be a more perfect word to convey what Rorem was trying to get across. He said more with slapdash than he could have said with 10 adverbs AND adjectives combined.

slap·dash
–adverb
1. in a hasty, haphazard manner: He assembled the motor slapdash.
–adjective
2. hasty and careless; offhand: a slapdash answer.
[Origin: 1670–80; slap1 (adv.) + dash1]