It runs in the family.

I'm a Word Nerd.

I'm not embarrassed to admit it. I love words. I love when they're cleverly strung together to evoke emotion or create a distinct visual image. I love the sentence:

He looked as if he'd stayed inside all day eating cheese sandwiches.

And I love how some words just sound:

accoutrements
marsupial
blight

It's weird. I know. It's why I write this blog. For me, blogging isn't about entertaining an ego (mine) or fulfilling some self-centered urge to share each and every mundane detail of my life with the world. (Hel-lo, Facebook!)

For me, it's a way to express my thoughts in words. A creative outlet where I can stimulate my brain and embrace my Word Nerdiness.

Being a Word Nerd runs in my family. My dad, an English major and talented writer, is our Word Nerd patriarch. He once wrote an article for his Porsche club newsletter addressing the car manufacturer's highly controversial foray into sport utility production. It was called:

Cayenne. Friend or Faux

My brothers, both extremely clever and dry witted, turn what could be mundane emails into mini masterpieces. Whenever I see them in my inbox, I salaciously pounce on their messages, eager to devour their every word.

One email that still ranks the highest in my Word Nerd Hall of Fame is my older brother's account of suffering a terrible bike accident where he took handlebars to the groin. Obviously the incident itself was horrifying: There was blood. He was in excruciating pain. Paramedics were called.

But his description of the doctor viewing his ultrasound, shaking his head and saying, "there's nothing remarkable to see here," was just too much. It was cleverly written and riotously funny.

I hope to pass this love of the English language down to my children. And it appears that one of them is showing some promise:

Word Nerd in training

Being a Word Nerd is largely misunderstood. Some think being one means you're quick to look down your nose at someone who regularly splits infinitives or leaves participles dangling willy-nilly.

Word Nerds have a rep of being judgemental and quick to label those who toss around double negatives as being 'uncivilized.'

I suppose some are.

But I freely admit that I'm not the end-all-be-all expert grammarian. In fact, I'm far from it. I regularly have to consult my dictionary, style book and Google. Just yesterday, I had to double-check when to use ensure vs. assure. And spelling? Lord help me. If it weren't for spellcheck, my writing would be gawd awful.

Being a Word Nerd for me is about passion, not pomposity. It's simply a love affair with words. How they look on the page and how they roll off the tongue.

And to see little Crowbar, devouring that bug book the other day... Well, I got a little misty.

I guess that's what Word Nerds do.