Words as colour

Yesterday I wrote, "I wish words were colours and then shades of meaning etc would be so much easier to spot and alter."

And then I remembered hearing about a condition called synesthesia.

"The phenomenon--its name derives from the Greek, meaning "to perceive together"--comes in many varieties. Some synesthetes hear, smell, taste or feel pain in color. Others taste shapes, and still others perceive written digits, letters and words in color. Some, who possess what researchers call "conceptual synesthesia," see abstract concepts, such as units of time or mathematical operations, as shapes projected either internally or in the space around them. And many synesthetes experience more than one form of the condition."

When asked if they would like to live without the condition most "suffers" say no, that it would be like living without an extra sense. I wish I could try it for a few minutes.