Wordsmith

I have a confession to make. There is a reason why this word appears in my list of words. It’s not that I can find out much about the etymology of the word, nor is it because it’s particularly fascinating. More of which later.

The word is of dubious origin – another piece of dead-end research for any interesting titbits on the history or first usage of it!

Now for the big secret. I hate the word! There, that feels better. Before I continue, I must say that Anu Garg’s excellent Wordsmith.org is worth a look and that I have no unpleasant feelings towards it or him – I just hate the word.

Why can nobody be happy being a journalist, a writer, a poet, a playwright or a diarist? These are just a few words that sprang to mind when thinking of words and people who work with them. Not for the wordsmith, oh no – he has to invent another word that sounds more pompous. Gunsmiths and blacksmiths create things. A wordsmith simply takes words which already exist and arranges them in an order he likes.

The dictionary definition tends to be “a word expert” – I couldn’t agree less.  We already have lexicographers and etymologists for that. Geoffrey Chaucer would have called himself a poet or an author and let’s face it – if it was good enough for him…

I like words and having fun with them, so I write this blog. I’m not a wordsmith – I’m a blogger. You see how easy and painless it is to get the the right word?