I like to think of myself as an Italian cosmetic surgeon for words. Let’s say a word walks into my office and says, “Doctor, I’ve been a noun all of my life. People look at me and think of me as nothing more than a thing. But inside, I feel like I’m a poet. I see things and I want to describe them. Can you help me be an adjective?” Then I say, “You’va come to the right a-place. I’m-a gonna affix you.”
Okay. I know what you are thinking: when did she learn Italian? Well, I was there for three weeks two years ago. Plenty of time to learn the basics.
Prefixes and suffixes are the two most familiar affixes in English, but they shouldn’t be used willy-nilly. You must also know when not to use them. So let’s start with that.
Let’s suppose you have some chocolate and someone in your family discovers where you have hidden it. You have hidden it because you want to protect that person from avarice. We all know that avarice means “an insatiable desire for gain,” and if that family member were to have access to your chocolate, that insatiable desire would cause him or her to gain weight. You hide your chocolate, not because you are greedy, but because you don’t want that person to get any fluffier, and you don’t want to be forced to attach the suffix “-icious” to avarice and call that person avaricious. In this case, you have saved your loved one from being called an ugly name, and equally if not more importantly, you have saved your chocolate.
In our second scenario, your loved one has gone to the store for milk. You are almost out and that makes you anxious because you need it for your next cup of coffee. To deal with the anxiety, you remove your chocolate from the new hiding place in the bottom pull-out drawer in the pantry, take it out of the empty coffee can, which your loved one never opens because he doesn’t like coffee, and savor it with your coffee and the last of the milk. In your chocolate euphoria, you search your mind for a word to describe what you are feeling, and there is “-icious,” whispering to you that it means “full of.” You savor the word; you are chocolicious. You are full of it.
year-struck 
I love what you do to chocolate.
Thanks, Kate. I think you love chocolate as I do.
That was a great read…I am so full of it!!! I have nominated you for the 7 x 7 Link Award. See my blog for details.
Thank you so much for the award and thank you for reading.
My absolute pleasure. I have just reread my comment above and realise that it does not read well. What was I thinking? I am so full of it=chocolicious. I am a terrible person.
Chocolate covers a multitude of sins.
Oh my, icious means full of? I’ve been told(quite often) that I am full of S**t.
Hey, s**ticious does, kind of have a ring to it..
Thanks to you, I’ve coined a new phrase. Think of me when you hear it..
‘Oh man, you are so s**ticious’..yeah, I like it..lol
Loved your post as usual.
You coined that word, not me. 🙂
I bet you are a lot of fun.
We were in Italy two years ago for three weeks, too. I’m trying to remember if we happened across any Americans using words like avarice and nodgecomb.
Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Amalfi coast, Rome? I was wearing sunglasses.
You always make me laugh!
My home is chocolate-less at the moment so reading your post has left me fighting the urge to go out in search of some. I wonder what icious that is.
That sounds serious. And sad. I hope you have some chocolate soon.
It sounds extremely seriousicious if you ask me.
you, my friend, are humoriciously entertaining … your mind is weird and funny, and you can’t help but like that about a person, especially when they can back up their story with cold, hard facts … yes, you certainly are full of it … smile
Thank you for your kind words. Glad you liked it.
You’re full of it, all right! But that’s why we come here every day. I agree, you are humoricious. And greatwritericious.
Thanks so much. It makes me happy to hear that.
Oh, yes, my darling–you *are* full of it! Loved this one! Word-coinage, especially in a self-beneficial setting, is just such tremendous fun that it’s a wonderful bonus knowing that in good hands like yours it can save lives and waistlines.
My husband will thank me later. So glad you liked it.
I would call you full of p*ss and vinegar, you silly girl! I find this post digilicious, fabulicious, and gigglicious, just like its author.
I’m glad you liked the post. You are quite the word maker yourself – I especially like your word, fabulicous. I might borrow that from you sometime when you’re not using it.
Oh, my! Your wonderfulicious post followed by all these comments has been a great start to the day. Thank you! 🙂
Sometimes the comments are the best part.
Italy. Chocolate. Words. Scrumptious. All of them. Thanks for the bite.
You’re welcome. There’s always room for chocolate.