My husband got me an Oxford English Dictionary subscription for Christmas. It’s freaking awesome.
And as far as screen time goes, the OED is magical network of rabbit holes that’s far less depressing and far more inspiring than any social network I’ve ever come across.
I recently found a word deep in the bowels of the site that could be great to use here in the present, but it’s so archaic that Word under-squiggles it in red.
Xenodochial: given to receiving strangers, hospitable.
A word that means old-school hospitality, a word that sounds vaguely Catholic and virtuous, a word that is literally obsolete today because too many secretly insecure and publicly arrogant bullies are standing their ground instead of tidying it up for visitors—it’s just so perfect.
And because I ruminate on things that tickle my brain, this week I set that word up as the hero of this newsletter. I really hope the word finds its way back into modern speech.
It’s just a neat way of saying, “friendly.”