I remember when I first came across this word. I was 15 sitting in English class and we were doing our vocabulary review. Yes, even back in 1995 we were preparing for the verbal assault of the SAT's. I remember envisioning a crazy cool samurai warrior princess outfitted in a sleek dark kimono-esque outfit, strapped with sharp blades and wielding an ancient and powerful samurai sword.
Unfortunately, the word is derived from an middle English word "kene" + "bow", and there are a few definitions. Contextually, you use it to describe the physical position of the person, it usually connotes a rather stand-offish and superior attitude to the person who is standing akimbo. It can also refer to being bent or I like to think mangled lying on the floor, limbs akimbo. Think of the sharp angles your body can make with your elbows and knees and voila you are now akimbo.
Nevertheless, I wanted to introduce her to my cool clique of familiar words. But Akimbo was aloof and didn't want to play with the other words. She only had one cool thing to say and she would say it and then suddenly shut up again, leaving us all confused and wondering WTF? I couldn't get the other words to be friendly either. She exuded a cool superiority but for some reason we had seen through her one-trick pony but were still mystified that she would still feel like she was better than us. In turn we were fascinated all the more for it.
To this day, Akimbo stands in the periphery of my mind. She has been invited to join in on the clowning multiple times and has quietly refused fraternizing with the other words. She'll always be there in striking distance.... ready to stab our roundabout conversations with an exclamation point. Again we will be awed by her cool factor and she will recede from the limelight leaving us thinking WTF!
