Since today’s news is mostly about an event in Washington I would prefer to ignore — in fact, I’d prefer that it weren’t happening at all, but that’s out of my control — I went looking for things to occupy my mind, and wandered into the “Word of the Day” column.

And today’s word is about as useful to most people — other than the odd ichthyologist — as an extra toe. But here it is anyway:

“Anadromous”

Well, it refers to fish . . . and specifically those, like salmon, that swim upstream to spawn, living parts of the year in both fresh and salt water. (The “ichthyologist” reference probably gave it away.)

Now, if you’re still wondering how to pronounce it — just on the off-chance you might be able to work it into a conversation about, say, the effect of the war in Ukraine on the supply of anadromous fish in the northwestern United States — the accent is on the second syllable:

A – na’ – dro – mous.

Other than that, it’s probably one of those words you can safely file away and forget. Personally, I prefer more mellifluous words, like “euphonious,” “serendipity,” “pulchritudinous,” or . . . well . . . “mellifluous.” And a long-time favorite: “onomatopoeia.”

Of course, there’s always “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” which isn’t a real word, but it’s fun to say. And it supposedly makes you sound precocious.

Then, of course, there are words from other languages. Compiling a list of those could take days, so I’ll just throw in one favorite word from the only other language (besides English) that I actually speak at all, which is Russian. (It’s a genetic thing.)

And the winner is (hopefully transliterated with some measure of accuracy):

Человеконенавистничество. (In the English alphabet, that would be: Chelovekonenavistnichestvo).

That’s ten syllables meaning — if anyone really cares — “misanthropy.” Another cool English word, by the way . . . though describing a decidedly uncool attitude.

Yup — that’s the attitude, all right.

*. *. *

Well, I’ve managed to kill a couple of hours, and now it’s time to start thinking about tonight’s dinner. For some reason, I seem to have a taste for something anadromous, like salmon. . . . which is what started this whole silly journey in the first place.

I never will understand the workings of my mind.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/20/25