log·o·phile
ˈlôɡəˌfīl,ˈläɡə-/
noun
a lover of words
Hi, my name is Bonnie, and I am a logophile-I love words and the nuance of an accent here-an accent there. We have been looking at language this week, and discovered that there are a million words for us to use in conveying thoughts, feelings, facts, etc. Just how many of those million words are commonly used?
The average high-school educated English speaker knows about 45,000 words (as high as 60,000 when including proper names and foreign words). David Crystal, a linguist and world-renown expert on the English language, provides these estimates of how many words people know:
a person starting school: 500-6,000;
a person without a formal education:35,000;
a high-school educated person:50,000;
a college-educated person 50-75,000.
The callmesister.com challenge is to find your own favorite word and use it this week, or take a look at these words and find one you love. I, personally, feel effervescent. I hope you do, too.
