Aren’t words wonderful? Anyone remember “It Pays to Increase Your Word Power” from Reader’s Digest? Logophiles like me turned to that section as soon as we finished “Laughter, the Best Medicine.”
Sadly, as new words get added (adulting, teraflop, whataboutism, lame stream and fo’shizzle) others like glabriety (baldness) are scuttled to the wayside.
Let’s skirr (go over rapidly) those ditches and byways for picturesque words that can hold their own with such 21st century delights as “bae” and “upvote.”
THE TUESDAY PRUDE WORD OF THE WEEK
GRABBLE
verb
Origin: Dutch, late 16th century (Dutch and German aren’t the most mellifluous of languages, but they are so dang fun)
- Feel or search with the hands; grope about.
- Sprawl or tumble on all fours.
CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK
Use grabble in a sentence. Demonstrate physically if you must but be aware that onlookers may assume you are fuzzled.
The Tuesday Prude (aka Anita Klumpers) 
I used to love “Increase Your Word Power” — as well as “Laugher, the Best Medicine,” “Humor in Uniform,” “Life in These United States,” “All in a Day’s Work,” “Quotable Quotes,” etc. Infinitely more fun than grabbling on the floor after tripping over the cat.
and eventually I’d work my way to the stories of people going about every day life before discovering their incurable disease. They always died; but nobly. I didn’t care about the nobility—I just knew I had every single disease mentioned. Including jungle fever.