Dang, I Love English

I'm at a loss for what to post this morning.  It's Tuesday. It's the first of February.  Not sure where the hell the month of January went.  Woosh.  But here we are at a whole 'nother month.  

A whole 'nother.  Do you say it that way, too?  A whole other just sounds wrong.  Another with the word 'whole' in the middle.  :shrug:  Maybe it should be written as a-whole-nother.  LOL, that sounds like a-hole nother, so maybe I'll just keep on the way I've been writing it.

I also say 'I could care less', which apparently irritates people to no end.  But I've said it that way my whole life and now 'I couldn't care less' sounds wrong.  I look at it this way:  I don't care much, but if you keep on the way you're going, I could care less.  So if the way I say it bothers you, get over it.  K?

And why do people have a problem with the word MOIST?  I don't get it.

Language is a funny thing.  

Once, I got a note from someone who'd read one of my books, asking where I'd gotten a certain phrase I used.  I don't remember what the phrase was, but whatever it was, it was part of my vernacular for as far back as I could remember.  So that's what I told her.  

Proof that the internet is forever... I remembered who the person was from the above and that we'd talked in chat messages, so I scrolled back through all of our messages and there it was.  Back in 2015, she'd asked about the phrase 'to touch off'.  As in 'her attitude really touched him off' or something.  Set him off, riled him up, mad him angry, etc.  

See?  There are so many different ways to say a thing.  That's part of what I love about the English language.  It's also part of what I hate about it, especially during editing.  Which is where I'm at right now.  Edit-brain.  It's deep and it's real, baby.  Finding the exact right way to say a thing so that it conveys exactly what you mean and provides the reader with the experience you're hoping to provide.  'She had dark hair.' ... 'She had ebony hair.' ... 'Her hair was as black as the night.' ...  'The way the sun shone off her hair made him think of a raven's wing.'  Dang, I love English.

English also gives us a way to say something entirely new and have people still understand what we're talking about.  Take the word 'writerly'.  It's not a word.  I made it up years ago.  (Other people have probably used it, too, but I was the first one I heard it from, so for me, it's my word.)  But when I say something like 'I'm working on writerly stuff today', you know what I mean in a very general way.  I'm working on stuff related to writing which may or may not include writing itself.  Editing, publishing, research, marketing, etc.  And writing.  It's all writerly.  

And it gives us a chance to play with words.  Sandwiches... Sammiches.  Spaghetti... Sketty or Skitty or Pasgetty.  People still know what you're talking about, even if it's not exactly correct. 

Since I don't know any other languages, maybe you do that with those, too.  All I know is English and all the things you can do with it.  Combining those 26 letters into all those words and phrases to make sentences and paragraphs, pages and chapters, turning it all into a story.  Awesome stuff there, people.

Do you have any favorite words and phrases you use that not everyone else uses?  Do you make up words?