From: A Word A Day
godwottery (god-WOT-uhr-ee) noun
1. Gardening marked by an affected and elaborate style.
2. Affected use of archaic language.
[From the line "A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!" in a poem by Thomas Edward Brown (1830-1897).]
I confess that I may sometimes be accused of godwottery... I happen to love archaic language. I revel in the specificity of certain words and in outdated (or no-longer-applicable) connotations. I very much enjoy learning words which were created for a specific purpose, to connotate a state or a thing that might otherwise have been overlooked or forgotten -- particularly, of course, if it also could suggest a particular feeling or moment in time. (More on the word "cenotaph" later...)
Sometimes the language that I love and use is not actually archaic, simply falling out of favor or fashion. I feel that I have a certain responsibility both to use the extensive vocabulary I inherited (and, admittedly, cultivated) and am also sad to watch words fall into some forgotten abyss. We have a living language, and part of life is death, but I grow so attached to some words...and even more attached to concepts which reflect a certain time or place.
English is fascinating for its breadth and flexibility. I enjoy the random and unexpected results when things grow wild. This is not to say there's anything wrong with a godwottery garden, just think of it when you next see an abundance of topiary and gnomes.
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4 comments:
So where do you stand in the whole descriptivist versus proscriptionist debate?
I'd have to say I'm a descriptivist... although I do think some things are just plain wrong and can sound prescriptivist, but that's primarily because they're clunky or a dumbing down of English. Examples abound from the evening news or when an abbreviation created for brevity in headlines becomes common usage. Examples abound, but right now I can't think of any. Hm. I confess a slight bit more of a prescriptive bent when it comes to pronunciation -- except when it comes to my own name.
he he he I meant to say "prescriptivist' honest I did. I get real proscriptionist with busglish & bureaucratese- i.e. 'incentivize'
that's all right. You are a lawyer. You're supposed to care about these things. Me? I'm a writer. I can be all descriptivist all the time. I'm forgiven.
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