Letters swam before my eyes, turning familiar words into a jumble of consonants and vowels. I needed to take a break. I decided to check out http://www.hippocampusmagazine.com/, an online literary journal spotlighting Creative Nonfiction that my friend Donna Talarico started just this past May. I was reading some of the stories from the June issue, hoping to turn those jumbles back into something I could comprehend. I'm glad I did. In Michael Andreoni's "Sell Me," I came across a word I didn't know: caryatid.
When I looked it up, I hesitated a moment. Hesitated as you might when you read it's definition below.
I mean, yay for the picture (a little visual aid is always nice), but, still. It's an architectural term, a word used primarily in a particular field of study. Insert brief moment of panic here. I wondered whether I could write a piece about architecture. I remembered, then, that Mr. Andreoni had used the word in a piece about the Michigan (and, similarly, the U.S.) economy. This word is exactly why I created this blog.
The assignment is the same. Write a piece in whatever genre you choose using the word of the week in a way that the context defines the word. If this goes well, it will open a world of possibilities for other words often used only by professionals in their field.
Good Luck!
