Thing Not To Do Today: be garrulous.

Garrulous means talking a lot, but it's more than that. There's something a bit aggressive and unsavoury about someone who's garrulous.

Someone garrulous isn't just a chatterer or a twitterer: a garrulous person is one whose opinions are forced (at length) upon others. I was going to say upon anyone who'll listen, but there's nothing optional about listening to a garrulous person: for him (or her) all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely audience.

Yes, a person may be cheerfully garrulous, but that's a sign he (or, let's be fair, she) is confident they'll not be interrupted.

The Ancient Mariner:



was garrulous. So, as it happens, was his creator Coleridge. There's a story told of a man who, buttonholed by Coleridge, cut the buttonhole from his coat, went about his business, and came back an hour later to find Coleridge still talking to the air.

On the other hand, here is someone garrulous but still gorgeous in every respect:



He's Garrulus glandarius. This picture is of an English jay (the original jay, after whom all the other jays in the world are named), but there are thirty three sub-species.

The jay does make quite a lot of noise from time to time, and he is a superb and probably rather annoying mimic of other birds.

I can't say he bother me too often with his opinions, though.

Thing Not To Do Today: be garrulous. This word arrived in English in the 1600s and comes from the Latin word garrīre, to chatter.