Bailiwick

Bailiwick – which originally meant the district of a bailiff — and now means one’s particular area of activity, authority, interest, etc., or a special domain.

I love the sound of the word (which I thought was Irish), and it means different things at different times of the day, depending if I am at home or at work, working at work or on the phone with a client: I have many bailiwicks and I can have as many as I want as a bailiwick is (largely) in the eye of the beholder: Flowers are my bailiwick, trusts and estates are my bailiwick, my house is my bailiwick, reading is my bailiwick: it encompasses knowledge, legal authority, practical authority, or even a willingness to learn (as in “I would like to make [insert field of knowledge or activity] my bailiwick”).

After hours of gardening in the hot sun, I like to think of bailiwick as a changeling on its way to becoming a verb: You better bailiwick on out of here if you know what’s good for you, varmint.

Now, go find your own bailiwick — this one’s mine.

Janet Rae Montgomery