A good friend of mine blogs about word meaning and use (see “Word Nymph“). I thought of her the other day when I realized how my definition for the phrase “window shopping” has changed over the years.
Growing up in rural Kentucky, we had to drive a minimum of 30 minutes to get to a mall. When you make that kind of time commitment, you usually buy something...so our window shopping took place in a catalog before we left.
After I moved away to college, shops and malls were much closer. I didn’t have a car then, but I could hitch a ride with a friend easily enough and window shop to my heart’s content. And I really did window shop back then, because goodness knows I didn’t have any money.
Then I moved to the Midwest and got jobs and cars and drove myself everywhere. I probably intended to window shop, but instead ended up buying lots of things I didn’t need.
When I moved to the Northeast, things changed even more. I sold my car. Walk pretty much everywhere. On every corner, there are stores for major brands and boutiques and shops. And where do I do most of my window shopping today?
Online.
It’s just so easy. I can visit any store in seconds, click around on the merchandise — select hundreds of dollars worth, if I feel like it — put it in the shopping cart, and then close out the window, buying absolutely nothing.
I get all the fun of shopping without spending any real money…
…well, that trip.
Posted in Advertising, Beauty, Blogs, Business, Family, Fashion, Friends, Home, Humor, Internet, Life, Shopping, Travel, Writing
Tagged advertising, beauty, blogs, boutique, Business, family, Fashion, friends, home, Humor, Internet, Kentucky, life, mall, mall shopping, Midwest, online shopping, online shopping cart, shopping, shops, The Word Nymph, Travel, window shopping, word meaning, words, writing
I just learned that OMG isn’t an acronym at all.
Wordvana
I learned a new word today…or, I should say, new to me:
HANGRY
As soon as I heard the word in conversation with a friend, I Googled it…and realized it was not just a word, but a phenomenon.
Hangry, simply stated, is that spirit-sucking irritability that results from being hungry. I experienced it today when I had too many errands to run and not enough time to eat.
While I am all-too familiar with the feeling, I had never had the perfect word to describe it.
Until now.
So I am no longer hangry; instead, I’m simply happy. ‘Cause the right word can do that for ya.
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Posted in Blogs, Commentary, Entertainment, Food, Humor, Life, Writing
Tagged blogs, conversation, eating, food, Google, hangry, Humor, hunger, hungry, Internet, irritability, life, perfect word, words, wordvana, writing