A rose by any other name...

Words are just words...a rose could be a turnip and yes, it would smell as sweet, but clearly rose is the better word. Do you think we always use the best words? Sure, they are familiar to us and have been used for generations, but I have recent reason to suspect that some could be improved upon, with only slight variation. Examples, with context, follow:

Finkle. Early this morning, Claire was in bed with me and just as we were beginning to stir, she sat up and leaned right over, so her face was hovering mere inches above mine. "When I make a bad face, I have ONE finkle!" she proclaimed, and pointed at the wrinkling around her mouth as she screwed her face into its fiercest expression. "Look! A FINKLE!", continuing to point and mug. I mean, could there really be a more apt word for wrinkle than finkle? After all, wrinkles are a dirty trick, one that a fink of some sort would probably enjoy. Thus, "finkle" seems perfect! It sounds close enough and I knew exactly what she meant, so maybe a change wouldn't be too difficult to achieve. Please alert Webster.

I should know better, but I went ahead and asked whether I had any finkles. Claire (sweet girl) said no, until I raised my eyebrows and she excitedly declared that I had lots.

Slyclops. We read a bedtime story called I Love You Stinky Face. It's about a curiously gender-neutral child who imagines him/herself to be any number of hideous creatures in order to test his/her mother's love. (If I were a smelly skunk would you still love me...I love you Stinky Face etc) Anyway, one of the creatures is a cyclops. Claire calls it a "Slyclops". Once again, I think this word is an improvement on the real word. Those one-eyed mythical beings are surely sly, slinking about with their big, blinking one eye-ness.

So she covers one eye and asks if she looks like a slyclops. Seriously, at least 3 times a day. I always respond in the affirmative, which is great unless she was really trying to look like a pirate. Then I just disappoint.

Clearly, I think my child is a genius, but maybe other people won't when she is still using her admittedly made-up but MUCH BETTER words in 10 years because I encourage them rather than correct!