Wordkeeper 2.0 — My new favorite word

For a long time, my favorite word was “coruscating.” You may have read my 18 year old blog post defending that word from the ignorant erosion of its meaning in modern discourse, an erosion which I’m sorry to report is only slowed down by the word in its in-valid meaning falling out of fashion.

About a week ago, I realized I had dedicated about 20 years of my life to that word, which is a lot, and there were several other words worthy of some attention. (My first favorite word, from about age 16 to age 27 or so, was “quixotic.” In the hectic, demanding middle portion of my life, my favorite word was “serendipity.” And then “coruscating.”)

My new favorite word is neuroplasticity. I learned that word nine years ago when I did a 6-month stint as a salesperson (with the lofty and totally unconvincing title of “Brain Coach”) with a sadly now defunct retailer called Marbles the Brain Store. I had heard the word before, but I took a company training in order to “qualify” as a Brain Coach that included a fairly deep dive into the marvels of neuroplasticity the “thing.”

But just for a moment, consider neuroplasticity the word-qua-word. My standards for favorite word nowadays are impossibly high, and this word breezes right past them. For one thing, it has the following words embedded within it:
* neu — the German for “new”
* euro — OK…