Jos Biggs Likes words, read on !! I like words. They are my little friends, crowding around me all the time like puppies at feeding time, ready to spring into service immediately they are summonsed. Sometimes one or two of them might go off on a little jaunt of their own, but they always come back again, eager to please, and with apologies for absence. If I happen to encounter a new word I will welcome it into the House of my Vocabulary with open arms and a cup of tea. However, the House of my Vocabulary is not a flat smooth surface carpeted throughout in best Axminster. It’s more like the surface of the Arctic - it looks all smooth, but there are hidden dips and hollows, where words can get obscured from mental sight. If this happens I have to send out a search party to look for them and bring them back into the safe haven of Frequent Usage. They know this, and will wait patiently, occasionally jumping up and down and waving, hoping that they will be seen and rescued. Anyone who has watched a programme about the Arctic will know that chasms, although they may not be wide, are virtually bottomless, and anything that falls into one is not going to get out again. New words, however, don’t know this, and don’t appreciate the danger, particularly the danger of Chasms. So I have to make sure that new words don’t stray away from safety and fall into a chasm, never to resurface. However, despite my best efforts sometimes the stay of a new word is pitifully short - it falls into the Chasm of Forgetfulness. My House of Vocabulary doesn’t come with a map, so new words can easily become lost. It’s no good telling them to stick with their friends, and they’ll be alright - they’re new, they haven’t got any friends yet! I’ve found that the best thing to do is to introduce them immediately to other words; I pair them up with experienced, older words, ones that know their way around. Two such words came knocking at the door of my House of Vocabulary recently - Overmorrow and Ereyesterday. I took to them immediately, and introduced them to appropriate explanatory friends. Overmorrow I introduced to the Day After the Day After Tomorrow, and Ereyesterday I paired up with the Day Before the Day Before Yesterday. I like them. I’m sure we will get along famously.