if you haven’t noticed, I really like words. And one of my favorite words ever is just not usable in a historical.

Metastasize.

It’s a beauty of a word. There isn’t another word out there that can quite capture the sheer virulence of metastasization. It’s a word that carries with it all the fright of uncontrollable growth along with the impotent fury of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. It’s a really loaded word.

Similar in meaning, yet opposite in form, are two other truly beautiful words: Event horizon and critical mass. Both, of course, have that delicious feel of a point of no return. But they’re opposite in a sense. Once you pass the event horizon, your choices are limited. Light can’t escape; how could you? Critical mass is almost the opposite: Until you reach that critical mass, you’re inert, unable to undergo a chain reaction that fundamentally changes the nature of things.

In some ways, it almost aches to not be able to use these words. But it’s a challenge, too.

So which words do you miss, if you write historicals? And likewise, if you write contemporaries, are there any words from historicals that you miss? Do you ever wish that your modern character could say, in a fit of rage:

Damnation seize every limb of your body! What, you bloody hell-kite! you blazing imp of melted pitch! dare you stand there, and wag your devil’s-jaw at me? Flaming oil and sulphur be my lot in Satan’s arse, if I don’t teach you better manners, whoreson!

~ divider ~