{an extremely irregular series comprised of visual definitions}

nepenthe

noun ne·pen·the \nə-ˈpen(t)-thē\

1 : a potion used by the ancients to induce forgetfulness of pain or sorrow

2 : something capable of causing oblivion of grief or suffering

(definition courtesy of merriam-webster)

the story behind the series.

i am in the middle of one hundred names for love by diane ackerman. it is full of beautiful (& seldom used) words. naturally, it has me thinking a lot about language.

of course there are good reasons to write simply, to use simple words to convey complex ideas, to consider the language knowledge of your readers. once upon a time, i taught people how to do this. at the same time, there is something wonderful about using all the words we have available to us. it makes me sad to think of words just sitting there .. waiting .. growing dusty & unused & then simply forgotten.

since i love language, and i love to pair things, these visual definitions are my way of paying tribute to the words i love.