Worthless -- in a fascinating sort of way....

In case you haven't noticed, I added a little feature to the sidebar that links to the "Worthless Word of the Day" (wwtd) site -- something I stumbled across while looking up some such term. After reading a few of the entries I was hooked -- and decided it was worth included such worthless material on the blog. Today's top two in the box (if they are still visible) are "logofascinated" and "arghness". One of the unplanned consequences of the way that box is situated is that what is visible at first is just enough information to permit a few seconds of "guessing" what the term might mean -- and then clicking to find out just how wrong you are. When I first saw "logofascinated" for example, I thought this was some creation of the folks in the advertising world who come up with things like "cool hunters" and "tipping points". But as it turns out there are two surprises -- the term means exactly what it says (fascinated by words) and its referenced use was from 1642! Fascinating.... And when I first saw "arghness" I was certain this is a term generated by some Simpsons fan to reflect a condition associated with young Bart's common reaction to just about anything. Here again, however, a bit of a surprise -- the word means cowardice, and truly is obscure -- and worthless.... I guess my interest in such things reflects a logofascination.... Worthless Words of the Day