Pithiness

Time to talk about a word.  As I have said before, I like words.  Depending upon your point of view, I can spend or waste a lot of time looking up a word in the dictionary.  Sometimes I just want to check on a variant spelling; sometimes I am narrowing down the meaning and right there my focus is lost as my eyes flit over scores of words.  I find myself reading down a whole column before I remember I need to get back to the task at hand or my computer will go into screensaver mode and I realize I am not even within the bounds of the first letter of the word I was trying to look up in the first place.  The word for tonight is 'pithy' - 'of, like or full of pith'.  Sounds daring.  Well, what is pith.  I think of fruit having pith so it's sort of the meat of the matter or something with substance.  Pith has substance, gist or vigor.  According to the dictionary, 'pithy' means 'full of substance, meaning or force, as a pithy style.'  So, pithy stresses a deeper, more substantial meaning to what is being expressed.  While a useful word, I have also discovered pithy is also a fun word to use when playing word games.  Having been challenged for use of this word on the grounds that I had both made up the word and was trying to lead a group of students astray by deliberately mispronouncing a word which was not exactly school appropriate, I pulled out my dictionary and won the round.  Words can be lifesavers and gamesavers; nevertheless, the study of words can be a pithy experience to round the corners of life's expressions.