I would say I started getting into words at around 15. It most fittingly happened when I wanted to study for the SAT. I think it was specifically when I got one of those generic SAT vocabulary word worksheets. It talked about root words and prefixes, and told us that we should read the newspaper and such. And then I got this insatiable desire to learn new words. I found that there was a huge, diverse cornucopia of words that mean all things from all places, words that are quirky, mellifluous, long, short, technical, simple, foreign, new, and old. I started looking through the dictionary, signing up for newsletters, and googling things like the longes words or "fun words," etc. I believe that learning new words actually opens your mind to seeing things in a different way. And it can actually be a gateway to other languages.
Also, maybe in a more paranoid way, I see it as an "insurance." If anyone has read "1984," you would see that with the language of "newspeak" the range of thinking of the general populace was severly limited. Everything that was bad was "thoughtcrime" and everything that was good related to "Big brother." We might have a similar situation, where new "buzzwords" for social issues are being created all the time and corporations and politicians try to tell us how we should think through "perception management" and public relations.
Actually, I think a weird thing is that, even though I think of myself as a logophile, I don't like reading, I'm
alliterate. One would think those two things would go hand-in-hand, but apparently not. (I should start reading more though).
Okay, I'm going off in a tangent again.
Now's your turn.
