Seething Bile

Sometimes I love the explanations I come up with. I had used 'vitriolic' in a sentence and was asked what that meant. I said, "If 'seething' and 'bile' had a child, it would be 'vitriolic'."  (I would have called this post "Vitriol", but I used that one like 2 years ago.)

I think that one of the reasons my vocabulary is so rich is that I think of words as combinations of other words. It's like a thesaurus, but with a twist. If I need to express a feeling, but I don't have the exact word I need, I can think of the components, mix them together, and they become the word that encompasses all those qualities.

Of course, you need to learn these words in the first place, and nothing is better than exposure. Even if it's something as crazy as thumbing through a dictionary or using those online flashcards, it is worthwhile. "Seething bile" is an excellent phrase; it totally is worthy on its own merit. But if you are writing something that has a certain rhythm and the phrase doesn't fit well, "vitriol" might fit better.

It's a great example of high-level writing. Stuff like "awkward phrases" may not matter to some people, but they affect the audience. Having synonyms in your pocket, even for phrases that are not terribly common, is always a good thing. You may be able to make an effective sentence significantly more potent by having it slide off the tongue right when you want it to. Getting everything to line up perfect is not easy. (Sometimes it seems impossible.) But the more ways you can say something, the more ways you can rearrange words, the more tools you have in your chest, the more likely it will be easier for you.