Welcome to the website woven for wordaholics, logolepts, and verbivores. Carnivores eat meat; herbivores eat plants and vegetables; verbivores devour words. If you are heels over head (as well as head over heels) in love with words, tarry here a while to graze or, perhaps, feast on the English language. Ours is the only language in which you drive in a parkway and park in a driveway and your nose can run and your feet can smell.

The Irish are known not only for St. Patrick’s Day (coming up March 17), but also for the lyricism and sentiments of their toasts, often called “blessings.” Across the Irish countryside and throughout Irish folklore, countless toasts and blessings sing of life and hope. On the breastplate of St. Patrick himself appears: “May you be blessed with the strength of heaven, the light of the sun and the radiance of the moon, the splendor of life and the speed of lightning, the swiftness of the wind and the depth of the sea, the stability of the earth, and the firmness of rock.”

Long ago, people would place slices of spiced toast into their tankards of ale to improve the favor and remove the impurities. The drink itself became a “toast,” as did the gesture of drinking to another’s good health and long life:

• I drink to the enemy of your enemy.

• May I see you gray and combing your grandchildren’s hair.

• I drink to your coffin. May it be built from the wood of a 100-year-old oak that I shall plant tomorrow.

• May the good Lord take a liking to you, but not too soon!

• May God grant you many years to live. For sure He must be knowing the earth has angels far too few and heaven is overflowing.

• May you live to be a 100 years, with one extra to repent.

• May you live to be a 100 and shot by a jealous husband.

“May the hinges of our friendship never grow rusty,” sings one Irish blessing. From their well wishes, the Irish so obviously cherish friendship and love:

• There are good ships,

And there are wood ships,

The ships that sail the sea.

But the best ships, are friendships,

And may they always be.

• To an Irish bachelor: May you have nicer legs than your own under the table before the new spuds are up.

• May the roof above you be well-thatched and those gathered beneath it well-matched. May the roof above you never fall in, and those gathered beneath it never fall out.

On Christmas Eve, the traditional Irish leave their door unlocked and burn a candle in their window. Their blessing states: “May peace and plenty be the first to lift the latch off your door and happiness be guided to your home by the candle of Christmas.” For the New Year the Irish say, “May your right hand always be stretched out in friendship and never in want.”

If you are lucky enough to be Irish, you are lucky enough. If you are lucky enough to be toasted or blessed by the Irish, you might be favored so:

• May misfortune follow you the rest of your life, and never catch up. May you have food and raiment, a soft pillow for your head. May you be 40 years in heaven before the devil knows you’re dead.

• May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past.

• May those that love us love us, and those that don’t love us may God turn their hearts. And if He doesn’t turn their hearts, may He turn their ankles, so we’ll know them by their limping.

• May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you are going too far.

And most famously and luminously of all:

• May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. And the sun shine warm on your face, the rain fall soft upon your fields, and until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Please send your questions and comments about language to richard.lederer@utsandiego.com