Word power

I know some very fantastic words, big words, crazy words, awe-inspiring, eye-catching, make-me-seem-smarter-than-I-am words. I honestly do, except the problem is, I don’t know where and how to use them, how to push them into sentences even when I know their meaning. When I want to use them, I never remember them. For some reason they only pop up from the strongbox of smart words at odd moments; then I just can’t seem to get rid of them. Sometimes, the words are commonplace ones, I’ve seen them a hundred times, read them in a million books, yet I never get a hang of using them like puerile, obfuscate, salubrious, sagacious, perspicacity and more.

For e.g., verisimilitude — I loved that word from the moment I heard it, yet I never get to use it. I remember dropping this word in an essay in college only to have it circled by the professor and admonished “incorrect usage”. Another word, I can never get the usage right is film noir. For some inexplicable reason I always assume that it is something along the lines of genre. I’ve been pulled up for that more than once, so now I just avoid it altogether. Then there’s schadenfreude and kaffeeklatsch; I may have used them just once in all my years of writing.

Some words sound exciting enough, that they play in your head at all times like kerfuffle, quiddity, borborygmi, and then they are words that absolutely fascinate/stump you like beetle browed, stevedore, phantasmagoria, smorgasbord.

Someday, I hope to expectorate verbal pyrotechnics and dazzle everyone with my remarkable sangfroid and equanimity.