What is your favorite uncommon word beginning with “G”?
Post your answer in the LEAVE A COMMENT section below. I’m not the boss of you, though. Don’t write anything for all I care! Whatever word you choose, I’m sure it’ll hit that magical spot.
. . .here are my thoughts.
What is your favorite uncommon word beginning with “G”?
gigil: the feeling you get in the presence of overwhelming cuteness
I know you’ve caught yourself saying, “How cute! I just want to squeeeeeeze it!” Maybe about a baby, or perhaps a puppy. And yes, whether you remember it or not, you most certainly pronounced squeeze with at least six E’s. This squeeze-it-until-it-pops feeling is encapsulated in the Filipino word gigil. As often is the case in the English language, there fails to be a word which adequately describes an emotion, so we borrow (steal!) one. Please don’t confuse gigil with the 2003 Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez movie, Gigli. That film evokes a completely different reason for wanting to squeeze something until dead. Surely if this overwhelming desire to squeeze must be fulfilled, one would stop short of inflicting Lennie’s full Of Mice and Men treatment to the helpless object of affection. The cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) remains unknown, but is hypothesized to be associated with defects in the part of an infant’s brain controlling breathing and arousal from sleep. Might SIDS instead be due to an infant’s caretaker suffering from a combination of somnambulance and gigil?