Gems.
I don’t know why I felt compelled to look up the word “transient” when I came across it in an online article I was reading earlier tonight. I know its meaning. Curiosity is obviously what drove me to do it - being someone who obsesses over expression and shades of meaning, I wanted to see what the exact given definition is. But I don’t understand why I felt compelled to look it up now, after having seen the word a thousand times in a thousand contexts, or why it was this word that I felt compelled to look up.
Be the case as it may be, I queried dict.org (which is highly recommended) for transient. No surprises there; I was sure I know what the word means and indeed I do. Among the explanations, however, I found this:
Usage: Transient represents a thing as brief at the best; transitory, as liable at any moment to pass away. Fleeting goes further, and represents it as in the act of taking its flight. Life is transient; its joys are transitory; its hours are fleeting. [1913 Webster]
That is so beautiful.
Words. Language. I cannot express the awe or the fascination.