Definitely Fancy

I am fascinated with words. Endlessly fascinated, to tell you the truth. I love to know every definition and etymology. As a result, I am going to begin making semi-regular posts dedicated to this passion (?) of mine: words.

Today's word is fancy. Certain words appeal to me because of their multifacetedness. Fancy is one such word.

Fancy [fan-see] (Some but not all of the following is taken from Dictionary.com)

The most common use of this word is as an adjective.

Definition: ornamental; decorative; not plain: a cake with a fancy icing.

  
It can also be a noun.

Definition: desire; preference; whim: he took a fancy to driving in the country.

It makes a great interjection.

Definition: An exclamation of mild surprise: Fancy that!

But where this word really goes bonkers is when it is used as a verb.

Definition: to take a liking; to form a conception; to believe without being absolutely sure or certain; to breed to develop a special type of animal.

For each of the previous definitions I used one example which summed up the most common uses of the word. That is just not adequate when this word is used as a verb.

I fancy jello pudding. I would fancy some right now as a matter of fact.

I fancy myself quite the nautical expert. (That is, based on the fact that I study sailing and navigation.)

I fancy you are some kind of robot. (That is, assuming without knowledge.)

I fancy animals. (I don't know; I mean, I had never even seen this definition before. I guess it means I breed them. Like if I bought a male and a female gazelle and made such conditions as would lead to them making more gazelles. I guess that would mean I fancy them. But gosh it sounds weird.)

Isn't this a ludicrously versatile word?! And it's not even two different words which happen to be spelled and pronounced the same. Oh no. It is one and it is many. Maybe there's some kind of analogy for the Trinity in here. Or maybe that's heresy. I won't press it.

My Internal Clock (Fancies Carsten Tice)

I have a fine-tuned internal clock. When I want to take a power nap in the afternoon, I will wake up precisely 20 minutes after I lie down. When I set an alarm for the morning--regardless of what time--I will wake up 1-10 minutes before the alarm 90% of the time. So long as I have a definite idea of the time I need to be awake, I typically will be.

And then there are Mondays. On Monday mornings I am scheduled to begin work at 7:00am. It takes me fifteen minutes to eat breakfast, ten minutes to shower, five minutes to shave/brush teeth/deodorize, and ten minutes to get to work. That means I should be out of bed by 6:20am to make sure I can accomplish everything and be to work on time. I set my alarm to make sure I am up by 6:15am. However, for whatever reason (it's neither here nor there) my body has decided that I should wake up at 5:00am. No matter when I set my alarm, it seems, I will wake up at five on Mondays.

There is a definite benefit here, however, and I believe it is partly to blame. If I had nothing better to do with my morning I would definitely try to go back to bed; but waiting at my place of work is a groggy, loopy, eccentric and fantastic* individual named Carsten Tice who is counting down the minutes until the end of her** grave shift, and as soon as I am awake enough to produce a coherent thought it comes to mind that I could either a) attempt to go back to sleep or b) go to work early and be entertained, encouraged, and overall made a better person. Clearly the latter wins out. Plus it's an excuse to have doughnuts and hot chocolate for breakfast. There is no negative here.

This blog could alternatively have been titled, "How I Spent My Morning (Minus the Doughnuts)."



*I realize that my choice of this word is precarious. To call a person fantastic does carry a certain weight, but based on these synonyms I believe I am fully justified. 95% of the words in that link accurately describe Carsten Tice. Ignore all words with negative human connotations (e.g. artificial, massive, and grotesque).

**For those who have never come in contact with the name, Carstens can be found in both the male and female variety (much like gazelles and other animals). This particular one is female.