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Wednesday, April 6, 2016

What is a Logophile?

I consider myself a logophile, which is very simply a lover of words. There are many other writers and bloggers who consider themselves logophiles, but what does it mean to be a lover of words? It's certainly not simple. A lover is a person having a sexual or romantic relationship with someone, often outside of marriage. Late last night this question came to me and I wondered, 'Hmm, am I having an affair with words?!' 

Is it possible to have an affair with words? 

Besides the initial meaning, being a lover can also be a person who likes or enjoys something specific. Well, very specifically I like and enjoy words, and I hope my reads do, too. This leads me to my next question; 'What is a word?' 

word is a single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing used with other words to form a sentence. If I'm being honest, it doesn't sound like I want to have an affair with words. It sounds like I would be changing my relationship status to 'it's complicated'. A word can also be a comment, password or motto, a basic unit of data in a computer, a message or even the smallest amount of something spoken or written

Going back to my question, it is possible (or possibly even necessary) to have a romantic relationship with words? Romantic means conducive to or characterized by the expression of love, which means an intense feeling of deep affectionAffection meaning a gentle feeling of fondness or liking. (As opposed to an aggressive one?) And a relationship is the way in which two or more concepts, objects or people are connected. It sounds like I'm a stalker, forcing words to have a romantic relationship with me. I'll admit, I am a little obsessed when it comes to words. So much so they I am writing a blog post about what it means to love them. (Seems I may have lost a few marbles.) I think a writer needs to be a logophile. I think you have to love words in order to be a good writer, even borderline obsessed. After all, our world revolves around words, right? 

Though, if we are having a romantic relationship with words, it's a one way highway and lonely at times. I love words, but do words love me? 

We do all the work as logophiles. We worship at our partners feet, hoping they will just reward us, treat us the way we want to be treated. We treat words so well; we explore them, cherish them, accept all of their flaws and even their curves. 

After exploring and thoroughly dissecting the definition, a logophile is a person who expresses  an intense, yet gentle feeling of fondness with the building blocks of sentences. I think it's safe to say that logophiles also need to be a little crazy. 

How about it? Would you say as a logophile, you and words are connected by an intense feeling of deep affection? 

As always, thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this blog post, take a moment and share it, tweet at me @TresaWriter, leave a comment below and share your thoughts! Happy ready and writing my friends! 

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