Thursday, July 8, 2010

word of the day: smut

In a slightly gin-enhanced conversation by a stack of books outside a bookstore, the word "smut" came up (referencing a suggestively shaped peach in a black and white photo), and I find, days later, I'm still enjoying saying the word.  Come on, everyone say it - the people in the next cubicle over may peek over the wall just to see what you're up to.  If you say it with derision - what smut! - it has an angle of Germanic asp to it.  But if you say instead, mmmm, smut, with a bit of a husky quiver to it, you can probably make that coworker blush.  Then there was the way I said it, well, golly gee! smut! Whee!

And this is just one word, spoken one way or another, embued with various approaches to sex, society, art, judgements, etc.  The power of language, particularly the music of it, never ceases to amaze.

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