Word to use today: smattering.
I've chosen this word out of pure love. The history of smattering isn't certain, although there's a Middle High German word smetern, which means to gossip (smatter can mean TO CHATTER, as well as, more often, A SMALL AMOUNT).
Why do I love the word so much? It's partly the sound. It's so relishingly satisfying to say: smattering, smattering! - and it's partly the way the word seems in a strange way to echo its meaning. I think it gets mixed up in my mind with splattering, and to me a smattering always seems to be a scattered amount, speckling the whole sentence.
Messy, but utterly gorgeous!
I agree. I also like it and it also goes in my mind with things like 'skittering' of which I'm very fond! Though given its derivation from chatter, etc perhaps it also ought to be connected with 'wittering'...as in 'wittering on about something!'
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