The Language of Air invents, appropriates and repurposes words in order to re-imagine the air we move through each day. We want a crowd sourced, ever expanding living dictionary of your new words. Bring air to life again, make air words compelling, i.e. reconsider “air pollution” so our minds don’t go numb at the mention. You can draw inspiration from personal observations, cultural mythologies, scientific lexicon, slang, other languages, and imaginative word meldings to come up with new words that describe a quality of air, it’s smell, texture, experience, impact. Submit your words (more than one entry welcome), a dictionary definition in English including pronunciation, usage and possible origin in a sentence or two, to us by September 1st. The winning wordsmith will receive a $500 cash prize to be announced at a public event in October 2014; Second prize will include a gift certificate and copy of the forthcoming Language of Air Dictionary.
Send your entries to us at info@thegymtc.com
Example: Purgent (perjunt) adjective 1. Having a strong, pungent odor that feels unhealthy, or germ-ridden origins: purge from the Latin purgare, to pour out; and germ, a microorganism, especially one that causes disease.
Mathilda could not describe the quality of the air she had experienced in her elderly father’s room at Mount Holly Home for the Aged. She wanted the right word to describe the smell that felt as if it might infect her if she breathed too deeply. “The rooms air is purgent,” she said. “I tried hard not to breathe it in, for fear of coming down with some kind of airborne disease.”