I had an interesting chat with my hairdresser yesterday after he told me about a conversation he had had with his twenty-year-old daughter. She apparently made the statement that “love has become devalued” today. Asked what she meant, she said, “Well think about it. We say we love our lovers, we love God, we love our country. But we also love movies, ice cream and new shoes. Love doesn’t mean anything any more.”

That sounds like a cynical comment from one so young, and it’s not quite accurate. It’s not love that has lost its meaning, but the word love. That’s because we use it indiscriminately, perhaps because we’re too lazy to think of an alternative. And love is just one of many fine words we’ve treated this way. What about amazing, awesome, unique, utilize, brilliant, totally?

I believe there is a place for slang and colloquial expressions, and I enjoy using them. But I also enjoy learning new words that improve the way I express myself. Just now, for example, my spellchecker told me I had misspelled colloquial, and when I looked in my dictionary to find the correct spelling I also noticed clamour, chicanery and contextual. These are interesting, useful words with specific meanings, and I’ll make a game of working them into a conversation soon.

What are your favourite words? Share them with us by leaving a comment, and consider adding other readers’ favourites to your own lexicon. I’d love be intrigued to hear your choices.