Lapel...And, Yet

Kids have all sorts of favorite things. Favorite toy, favorite color, favorite animal, food, game, etc. I had all these (stuffed bunny, blue, cats, PB&Js, Candy Land), but I also had a favorite word. I have no idea where I first heard it, or how I glommed onto it. I’m pretty sure I didn’t know what it meant, until my mother pointed one out.

Everyone, my favorite word as a kid was...lapel.

I know, I know, so weird. But something about that word just fascinated me. I loved saying it. Luh-pelllllll. Sometimes I’d wiggle my eyebrows as I rolled those ells a little long. I remember my mother’s tan corduroy blazer that had lllluh-pellls. And I remember her telling me that’s what those funny flaps of cloth were called. My fondness for the word became a running joke that lasted well into my adult life. When I modelled my new coat for her a year or so before her death, she said “I llllike the luh-pellllls.” 

Over the years I’ve run across some other words that I think are pretty cool: 

• Lucubrate - to write or study, especially late at night
• Defenestrate - to throw out of a window, preferably a high one
• Exsanguinate - to drain of blood

Whenever my college friends annoyed me, I’d good-naturedly threaten to defenestrate them after I exsanguinated them. My roommate’s then-boyfriend was one of my favorite targets. His peak moment came when he turned to his roommate and said “I’m gonna exsenestrate and defenguanate you!” I laughed for days.

Sometimes even the smallest words have huge power. I forget the exact context, but a colleague said she didn’t like it when someone used the word “but” in a sentence. Such as “I’m sorry to bother you, but…” She felt that the “but” negated the apologetic tone. As if the speaker was “I’m sorry about interrupting you...I’m going to do so anyway.” 

She preferred the word “and.” “I’m sorry to interrupt you, and I have a question.” “Forgive me for intruding, and there’s someone here to see you.” I admit it feels a little awkward at first (at least it did to me), but the tone of those comments totally changes with that one little word. 

Another tiny little word is “yet.” “Yet” can be used to reframe how we think about almost everything. “I don’t speak Spanish” turns into “I don’t speak Spanish yet.” “I can’t play the guitar” becomes “I can’t play the guitar yet.” “I haven’t kissed Johnny Depp” is “I haven’t kissed Johnny Depp yet” (hey, I can dream, right?). I particularly love this concept because it makes pronouncements like this more optimistic and less dead-end. It reminds me that it’s still not too late to do whatever it is. 

SIDE NOTE: I am hugely entertained that spellcheck flagged “lucubrate” and suggested I use the word “explain” instead. Never!