Nurturing a Mimetic Vocabulary

Once upon a time, a friend and I would stay up late at the diner, drinking coffee, writing, and reading. Once we decided to find new words to use, looking through the dictionary until we found something interesting. My favorite find was "vermicular"--wormlike. I haven't used it much since, but I realized how functional and colorful descriptive words can be--especially in art history where mimesis is a key component preceding any argument.

The article 18 Fancy Words for Specific Shapes is a fantastic list of largely scientific words that can easily transcend their disciplinary confines.

"Kidney beans may be reniform, but actual kidneys are fabiform."

Action verbs provide another level of interest. Poetry and literature, of course, provide a parallel universe where nouns have been verbed since at least James Joyce. Billy Collins does not write that the dog jumps through the snow--he "porpoise[s]" through it.