Word of the Week

I love words. In school, vocabulary is one of my favorite subjects and I was always fairly good at spelling. Therefore, I thought it would be fun to invent Word of the Week. I don't know if someone else has something similar, but I wouldn't be surprised. I have challenged myself, and anyone else who wants to give it a try, to find a word that is not used very often in ordinary conversation. Every week, I will post such a word with its definition, origins, a sample sentence and a translation into German. I challenge anyone who chooses to join me to pick their own language of choice, be it Spanish, Sanskrit, or Swahili. :) Sometimes I will also add a little story to go with the word if it is one that is special to me.

Word of the Week #1

Insouciant

Forms: Insouciant, Adjective. Insouciantly, Adverb. Insouciance, Noun.
Definition: Unconcerned, nonchalant, free from cares
Origin: French from in- (not) and souciant (worrying)
German Translation: unbekümmert
Sample Sentence:
The cat is the most insouciant of all creatures, it walks through life as though it hasn't a care in the world.

Insouciant and I have a long history. It has been one of my very favorite words for years, and I have had a very hard time convincing anyone that it is useful. After many arguments with my brothers about it, I finally got my revenge. We were playing the board game Cranium, there were two teams, girls against boys and the boys were just slightly ahead and the game was almost over. When I picked up their card to read their question for them, I almost groaned. It was a Word Worm lexicon with the word "insouciant". For those of you who have never played Cranium, Word Worm is a category and lexicon is a subcategory where you have to choose the correct definition of the word from the four choices given. When I saw that the word was "insouciant", I was sure that they would remember my attempts to prove its usefulness and therefore be able to name the definition easily. I was utterly shocked by their shortness of memory as the three of them started discussing which was the most likely definition. None of them gave the definition "nonchalant" a second glance and when the timerr was nearly out they settled on a different one and got it wrong. I don't remember who won that particular game, except that it was very close, but I do remember the feeling of triumph at having proved the value of the word "insouciant" and also the feeling of annoyance and chagrin at the realization that the boys paid absolutely no attention to my rantings on vocabulary. :)

Please post the link to your own Word of the Day below, or, if you do not have a blog, feel free to leave a comment with the most fun and interesting or strange and absurd word you can think of. I hope you will join me!

                     Good Luck!
                              Lieder Madchen