GET WORDY, y’all. This is a new segment of my blog (hooray for new segments!). Since I was an English major in college and I taught high school English for two years, I love vocabulary. In school, I looked forward to making a gazillion vocab flashcards. Honestly, I LOVE words. So, I’ve decided to call this segment GET WORDY where I feature a word of the day/week/month/year that I am currently using, want to start using, or have made up. Yes, I like to make up words, too. I’m an improviser, making stuff up is what I do.

A good friend of mine and owner of the rockstar art gallery Wootini (where I work part-time), Mike, told me about today’s word for GET WORDY.

Quick backstory: So I walked in to work one day and we had just received a new shipment of KIDROBOT figures and there were a lot of open and empty boxes, in addition to some stuff left over from a previous gallery opening. Mike said to me, “Ahhh there’s so much CRUFT back here. But don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of it tomorrow.” I said, “Cruft? What’s cruft?” Mike said, “Cruft, you know, it’s like a bunch of stuff, that’s just in the way, or lying around, or piled up. You know, cruft.”

You see, "Hoarders," they have a lot of CRUFT.

I had never heard the word before. So I looked it up. This word rules.

Today’s Word: CRUFT

Cruft in THIS sense of the word is NOT computing jargon for “code, data, or software of poor quality”. The term may also refer to debris that accumulates on computer equipment. It has been generalized to mean any accumulation of obsolete, redundant, irrelevant, or unnecessary information, especially code. (From Wikipedia)

The CRUFT I am referring to is THIS: (this definition provided by UrbanDictionary.com and my brain)

Main Entry: cr-uf-t
Pronunciation: \kerr-rough-t\
Function: adjective
Date: Probably three weeks ago.
A : (crap+stuff+sh*t)/3 = cruft

That’s right. The word is simply a combination of the words Crap + Stuff + Sh*t = cruft. How awesome is that?

Let’s use it in a sentence: “That C++ geometry test goes in the “cruft” folder,” or how about, “Hey ma! Get your cruft out of my room. I’m trying to watch reruns of Good Times.”

Have you ever seen that show “Hoarders” on A&E? All that stuff they have? Now THAT is a lot of “cruft.”

What do you think of the word? Do you have a better word for all that crap n’ stuff that just piles up? Give me your best sentence using the word CRUFT.

I love fun words like this. Bring ‘em on.

PS: Happy Black Friday. I’m working in the mall today. Wish me luck.

Word.

…literally.

GET WORDY, y’all. This is a new segment of my blog (hooray for new segments!). Since I was an English major in college and I taught high school English for two years, I love vocabulary. In school, I looked forward to making a gazillion vocab flashcards. Honestly, I LOVE words. So, I’ve decided to call this segment GET WORDY where I feature a word of the day/week/month/year that I am currently using, want to start using, or have made up. Yes, I like to make up words, too. I’m an improviser, making stuff up is what I do.

Today’s Word: Aforementioned

She's pointing to the aforementioned dude over there.

Main Entry: afore·men·tioned
Pronunciation: \-ˈmen(t)-shənd\
Function: adjective
Date: 1587
A : mentioned previously

I love this word. I LOVE the word aforementioned. I’m a dork and I try to use this word as often as humanly possible – or wherever I can feasibly fit the word into a sentence. Why? Because I feel like this word makes you seem a whole lot smarter than you really are. No, no, no, I’m not saying that you aren’t already smart. What I AM saying is not a lot of people throw the word “Aforementioned” around… and if you were to toss it out in an unexpected scenario, people might say, “Man, that guy/girl/thing is S-M-A-R-T.”

So it means mentioned previously. But what does THAT mean? Well in this case I would be referring to the AFOREMENTIONED definition of the word – meaning that I am mentioning the previously mentioned mention of the definition of the word.

Oh no, I’ve gone cross-eyed.

I don’t want to confuse you. I don’t think that I have, but in the off chance that I have, I am sorry.

So, use the word in a sentence today. As soon as you go to reference something previously talked about in the conversation, be sure to refer to it as the AFOREMENTIONED topic.

Ahhhh that’s nice.

Leave me a comment referencing something I already said. I want you to wow me.

Word.