Has anyone realized how many adjectives there are in the English language? To me, it almost seems frivolous to have such a prodigious amount of of adjectives.

But, even as I gripe over the copious number of describing words, I vacillate between loving and despising them.

Think about it: adjectives are venerable to a writer, as they assist in variation in word-use. That, and ameliorate the vocabulary of the reader.

On the other hand, so many writers have used so many adjectives, that using a great deal of adjectives seems to be superannuated. Words and their meanings are like fashion: some stick around, while others become archaic and obsolete. Others just become defunct.

Now, it’s not inveterate for me to complain, and it may sound very infantile to moan about words. Maybe there’s a point to knowing so many words, so as to easier “choose between the lightning bug and the lightning” while writing.

But that doesn’t keep it from being exhaustively tedious to learn them all.

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A vocabulary excercise is always fun, isn't it? Here's the idea: the first post was a little rant I wrote while studying some vocabulary. There's bound to be a word in there that you've never seen before, right? Take one of those words that's foreign to your eyes, look it up, and then write a follow-up using that word in context, and throw in a few other "road less traveled" words for someone else to find, learn, and use. We have the language, why not use it?

updated Mar 1 '09 by g2LaPianistaIrlandesa