LUDIC

English is not a language

one can ever get ahead of--

Just too damn many words!

Like 'ludic' for example:

playful, in the sense of

spontaneous, without a

real purpose. Sooo...

how come I never came

across it in over sixty,

yes, sixty years reading

untold millions of words in

my beloved mother tongue,

the language I love,

the language I married?

Even spell-check never saw it,

or else why would it underline

Little Ludic in red, like some sort

of criminal who needs a good

sorting out, a spell in scary

word prison perhaps?

But if you try, really try,

you can find sweet Ludic

laying low, hiding quietly in the

big fat Oxford Dictionary, lord

and regent of all word books.

He lives there with his cousins:

Ludibrious and that stuffed shirt,

Ludibry, and Ludicro (no doubt

from the Italian side of the family)

and,of course, the far more

famous Ludicrous who seems to

want all the spotlight for himself...

words can be so very selfish too.

Reviews

[Chris Shaw]

Yes, this is a fun read and made me smile. Ludicrous of course I have heard of, but ludic, not so. Now you are going to have me rushing for the English dictionary to check this one out. I often ponder on my vocab. How many words I actually get to use in comparison to the vastness of the dictionary. Must be a bit like the human brain, where we only use a tenth of its capacity. Probably less in comparison to the contents of a dictionary. Food for thought. You have got me pondering and smiling in the middle of the night :) Thank you for that Nolo.

Chris

[Nolo Segundo]

Thanks Chris-- English does have one of the if not the largest vocabulary amongst the major languages.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

If ludic ends up in word prison, I will ask for visitation rights.
Thank you for the smile, Nolo.
I have been writing for over 50 years, reading longer and teaching for quite awhile and I still feel that I have so much more to learn and many new words to come across...
Ludic...an excellent word...playful...pun intended.
j.

[Nolo Segundo]

Thank you, Jacob-- I know what you feel--not just about words, but books to read, music to hear, movies to see, places to visit--but still, I think here too much is better than too little1