Meandering our way through the alphabet via the A-to-Z blogging challenge, today we’re stopping at the letter Q. I’m creating an alphabetical manifesto of things I believe and delight me based on unusual words. Today let me introduce you to another archaic word quizzity.
Quizzity is defined as “strangeness; oddity.”
Oh how my heart is set aflutter by this. A little strangeness, a little oddity, some quizzity is just what makes the world so wonderful. Just rolling those words off my tongue fills me with a bit of excitement, prickles my curiosity sensors, and invites me to put on my wondering cap.
There is quizzity everywhere. Almost every morning I awake in that land, pondering the most recent dream which has sent its secret coded message for me to decipher. For example, today I’m wondering about the me that’s filled with thousands of microscopic versions of me who apparently keep watch of things from various locations in my body. I have windows in my feet, and viewing towers in the hair shafts on my head, and the pupils in my eyes are huge viewing portals. The miniature mes are constantly accessing things, consulting with one another, and deciding what responses to send out. I woke up as they were announcing a verdict to be issued: “A hare can hear the rose is sore.” Now tell me, is that a quizzity or not?
If you think about anything, REALLY think about it, it’s easy to fall into the enchanted world of quizzity. Look at a flower and taking in the beauty of the form and color and scent, move past it and start wondering at all those assorted parts that have evolved into that particular shade of loveliness. Isn’t pollination strange; aren’t those gorgeous big fat furry bumblebees truly creatures of oddness; why do apples have seeds inside formed in the shape of a star? Where did the expression “step on a crack, break your mother’s back” come from?
I remember very clearly the first time I saw a Joseph Cornell box and thought how perfectly wonderful it was in its oddness. I remember how curious I was to both glimpse the world through the eyes that saw things that way, AND then the immediate accompanying thought that perhaps my eyes saw things in arrangements that no one else did as well. And how exciting that was!
Quizzity is what fuels curiosity for me. It engages me. How lucky are we to live in a world filled with a vastness of strange and wonderful things? Speaking of odd, one of the things I enjoy is vintage images including old advertising. Here’s one that delights my sense of strange.
I want to live in a world that appreciates quizzity, and I want my love of oddity and strangeness to help keep wonder in my brain and delight in my heart.
What about you? What strangeness has captured your attention lately? What odd word has been fascinating you? Do you love strange vintage images advertising equally strange patent medicines? Do tell – you know I love to hear.
OMG could easily spend hours with the quizzity of it all! Good thing I don’t do drugs! Another great word!
LOL.
I’ve been such a huge fan of quizzity for such a long time, and never known it until just now! Thanks so much for expanding my oddness horizons!
Don’t you love it when you discover a new word that just fits perfectly?! I always find that so inordinately delightful. Just as I find it delightful to find kindred oddness fans. 🙂
You come up with the absolute best words. Quizzity. I love that it has 2 z’s. Quizzzzity. I also love hearing about all your mes, and where you choose to see them, like viewing towers on your head and such. I have a lot of quizzity in my odd little mountain world, and I hope I don’t forget this word. Seems more and more things don’t stay in my brain the way they used to. The sad thing is, at the time I think, “oh…I will remember that for sure!” Then I don’t. At least I always know I can come back here and get them! Thanks for another great word, Deborah.
Peace
Mary
I’ve decided to view the increasing transitory nature of my memory as a good thing Mary. I imagine my brain as undergoing a nice tidying up, allowing space for new treasures. And if I’ve forgotten something and then re-discover it, I get all the pleasure of getting to fall in love with it once again.
But I do admit, I love living in the land of quizzity. In fact I think I’d like to draw a map (or two, or a thousand). You know, like the ancient ones where in the unknown areas they were wont to put “dragons live here.” What sort of magical things would we have on our maps Mary?
Hi Deborah – had to comment on Quizzity … I spend my life looking things up – or suddenly realising ‘oh is that how that came about’ … etc … Your dragons sound an excellent idea … magical things on a map … a golden thread leading over there, another here … then yet another in a knot to be unravelled leading to more treasure islands of interest …
Who knows how cold my toes are? Cheers Hilary
Ooh the deliciousness of that map and the golden threads and fabulous knots – let’s have more of that please!
Speaking of toes… knowing that I love proverbs a friend just sent me this quizzity, a Nigerian one: “Those who are carrying elephants home on their heads, need not use their toes to dig up crickets on the way.”
You find the BEST words!!
LOL – I do keep my eyes peeled for them. You never know when a treasure will show up.