The H Words

My lovely galpal Jolie over at average everyday sane/psycho supergoddess (see link at right; I'm on a 'puter that won't let me do all of that linky bells-and-whistles stuff) recently put up a post that was part of a 'meme,' which is one of those techy terms that I just don't understand and am, quite honestly, am too lazy to look up in the dictionary. Suffice it to say that Jolie posted a list of ten words that start with the letter 'C.' Those who read the post and wanted to do their own list of ten words starting with a particular letter were to wait for an assignment from Jolie. I went ahead and, because I never learned to follow directions, chose my own letter: H. Sorry, Joles! Hope you understand.

The words I've chosen...

HOITY-TOITY This is such a fabulously expressive word, one that really expresses annoyance with snobbery while also offering up a nice rhyming sound that just flows off the tongue.

HEIRESS I don't like heiresses, but I love words that begin with a silent letter.

HINKY I wasn't sure if this was a word or not, but I knew that I'd heard it used before. I looked it up and it means 'nervous and suspicious.' I'll use it in a sentence: When Elliott Yamin croons directly into the camera, I sometimes feel a wee bit hinky.

HIMBO A close cousin of bohunk, and a word that conjures up images of, well, hot men. There's nothing wrong with that.

HARRUMPH My mother likes to harrumph loudly when people are pissing her off, whether it be behind the counter of the chiropractor's office where she works, in line at Target, or to her young son as he peruses a nudie magazine. (Yes, this really happened to me.) My mother also doesn't really like people.

HUSSY Hands down, the best word for describing a loose woman. ('Jezebel' comes in a close second.) It's clean, acceptable, and funny to hear. Sidebar: I always felt so bad for the actress Olivia Hussey. I mean, great word...but not one I'd want as my last name.

HUBBUB This one is allllmost a palindrome, one of my favorite types of words. But I like it most because I can never read or hear it without thinking of the genius scene in 'Waiting for Guffman' when Catherine O'Hara, as an extra in the musical, is trying to make background noise by loudly saying, 'Hubbub! Hubbub!'

HIPPO Doesn't this term just scream 'FAT!!!'? Women with those child-bearin' waists are often referred to as hippy; these massive, rotund animals don't so much have hips as they do one big round ball of fat in their midsection. Baby hippos are even more adorable. And my favorite character in the Richard Scarry books of my youth was Hilda Hippo. Hilda! What a name...

HARRIDAN The dictionary defines this as 'a woman who is regarded as scolding and vicious.' I have a tendency to drift towards those kinds of women in my life...but they're not harridans. They're just misunderstood! (BTW, Shelby is NOT a harridan, peeps. Please.) Harridans are best-known for screeching. They don't talk. They screech.

HOOTENANNY Yes! Yes! YESSSSS!!! Oh, this word...it's just, just...just so wondrous. It really should be used more often in daily conversation. I'll make a note to try and do that. Maybe I'll start referring to blowouts as hootenannies every once in a while, just to mix things up a bit.