Somewhere, during the last couple of weeks, I saw or heard the word “ample” and it stuck in my mind.
It’s not what I’d call an uncommon word; in fact, I’m sure I used to use it and come across it relatively frequently. But, try as I might, I really couldn’t remember when I last had occasion to describe something as ample.
I spent about a quarter of a century living in Spain, not among ex-pats, but among Spanish speakers. So I was mostly either speaking in Spanish, or speaking to non-native speakers. In the latter situation, I no doubt tried to simplify my vocabulary in order to be understood, and I suspect that “ample” was one of the words that simply fell by the wayside.
I’ve had a rummage around in my files and find that I have used “ample” in only one poem, which I think I wrote in 2008. (You can read it in the post “losing the thread“.)
And I used it in one blog post in July 2013, when I wrote of “ample rain and Spanish sunshine”. I definitely think it’s a good word and I wouldn’t like to think I’d lost it completely. Now used it five times in this post, so perhaps I have reclaimed it.
