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Neuroscientists believe we have about 100 to 500 trillion individual synapses firing in our adult brains. So although our desire to continually stuff our minds may be earnest, brain capacity is finite–about one to ten terabytes, and it’s estimated that the average person’s vocabulary treads water well under 100,000 words.
When I was growing up, road trips meant I was frequently captive audience to certain kinds of niche talk radio programs—which were bad enough without those commercial breaks in which the hosts proselytized for ointments, powders, or self-help devices. One product in particular haunted me: it was some kind of vocabulary building system, and there was Rush Limbaugh intoning from a script that a person’s vocabulary stops growing at the age of 25. At the time, 25 seemed like such a geriatric age that it seemed feasible and somehow appropriate that that language acquisition should cease. It also seemed to me that there was no way that at 25 there’d be any words I’d have left to master! This was at the height of my draconian spelling bee training, so a little arrogance should be forgiven.
So here I am, fully two years past the so-called vocab rigor mortis age, and I’m still learning new words! Most of them seem to be unnecessarily impenetrable (and thus more fun) synonyms for words I’ll probably keep using (e.g. “prestidigitation”). And I could fill a month’s worth of posts on how many words I spent many happy years mispronouncing or worrying I was mispronouncing–an invocation of “palimpsest” was heavy on the “limp” until I finally learned either way (i.e. “pal” or “limp”) was okay, and my favorite grammar school vocab years was always “deSULtory.” I find it either takes a good friend or a bad job interview to correct such things. But back to acquisition: any other brave flossers want to out themselves on words they’ve learned post-25? And if you’re under 25, a) how cute! and b) just kidding, please regale us with any $5 words you’ve picked up lately.
Comments (25)
Comment
i too have found myself in the post-25-year-old vocab crisis. the trouble i have is that my hold on the $5 words i’ve collected after age 25 is tenuous at best and desultory at worst.
i’ve take to writing down as many abstruse and arcane words i find during the course of reading whatever current novel holds my interest and studying the words afterwards.
however, no matter how hard i try, many of the definitions confound my attempts to recall them later.
it’s not that i haven’t kept trying to expand my vocabulary, but that my brain seems to obviate most of my attempts.
posted by dan on 10-24-2007 at 8:37 am
Don’t worry about it. If Rush said it, it’s probably wrong.
posted by Bassman on 10-24-2007 at 8:53 am
How perfect! Not knowing the magic number of 25 for vocabulary acquisition, I started, at the ripe old age of 26 to keep a list of words I happened upon that I wanted to make a part of my daily vocabulary (not just the words I know, but the words I USE).
The most recent word to make it into my weekly use list is GALLIMAUFRY - a confused jumble.
posted by Aubrey on 10-24-2007 at 9:43 am
I’m glad I read this when I did. I turn 24 in less than a month, so I better cram this year.
Defenestrate = to throw something/someone out a window.
posted by Jonathan on 10-24-2007 at 9:47 am
I’m also under 25 (*is cute*), but my current favorite word is “thigmokinetic”, which refers to animals/organisms/things that move forward until they bump into something, then change direction. I originally learned it reading about sowbugs (which are actually a crustacean), but it applies to all sorts of stuff. Like Roombas!
posted by Abby on 10-24-2007 at 9:59 am
Anyone been to wordie.org? You can make lists of your favorite words there, and each word links to a page for that word where you can link to its definition from a variety of sources or to the word lists of anyone else who’s listed that word.
Also you can see all the words people have added recently, which is always a good source of a nifty word.
(I’m a big fan of sesquipedalian–the quality of being a long word)
posted by erm on 10-24-2007 at 10:02 am
Wordsmith.org’s word of the day today is one that I will try to use as much as possible:
Lexiphanes: one who uses words pretentiously
(pronounced lex-IF-uh-neez)
PS - I am over 25 and trying to acquire new words every day.
posted by Andrej on 10-24-2007 at 10:43 am
I just turned 25, and I feel like I have so much I still haven’t learned. I love learning new words. I used to work in a high school and I did a bulletin board for every school day, with a new “interesting” word on it. Most of them were completely bizarre, and would never wind up on the student’s SAT tests, but often they got a laugh. For instance, lickspittle (A contemptuous, fawning person), or tmesis (in grammar, the separation of the parts of a compound word). Fun.
posted by Molly on 10-24-2007 at 10:57 am
pusillanimous- lacking courage or cowardly
Still my favorite!
posted by Karen on 10-24-2007 at 11:11 am
Well, I’m not yet 25, but very close, and I have been engorging myself on $5 words in preparation for the GRE. Never in my life did I think there were so many words that do not help me get my point across. Does anyone else wonder where we draw the line between becoming a more effective communicator and completely isolating ourselves from each other by ignoring the vernacular?
posted by allyson on 10-24-2007 at 12:05 pm
Good heavens!! I’m 32, with a three year old and 18 month old. I’m pretty impressed that I haven’t completely reverted back to baby-talk, let alone learn new words!
My favorite $5 word is prevaricate. The act of intentionally lying. I had to look it up as a kid, because my grandmother accused me of it!
posted by Julie on 10-24-2007 at 1:34 pm
” Does anyone else wonder where we draw the line between becoming a more effective communicator and completely isolating ourselves from each other by ignoring the vernacular? ”
This is exactly what I was thinking. I enjoy learning new words, but any time I use any vocabulary worth more than 25 cents, the people I work with get that glazed blank “deer in the headlights” stare… Why use vocabulary that most of the people I come into contact with on a daily basis will not understand?
posted by Carol on 10-24-2007 at 1:56 pm
If you want a great exercise in learning new vocabulary, take a medical terminology or anatomy class. I’m 32 and I learn a couple dozen new words a week. One of my favorites is “hematopoiesis”: the production of blood components.
posted by Seth on 10-24-2007 at 2:43 pm
A friend recently got me hooked on FreeRice, which is an online vocabulary test combined with a charitable donation. For every word you get right, ten grains of rice go to the UN World Food Program.
The words get harder as you go. You can continue after errors, but each error drops the difficulty of your next word. It’s maddening but somehow addictive.
I can’t include a link here, but it’s easy to find.
posted by Coeli on 10-24-2007 at 2:49 pm
I also learned the word “defenestration” after the age of 25. I was reading a book about dead rock stars and the method or manner of their demise and came across it. Not knowing what it meant a looked it up. I remember thinking at the time that it seemed weird there actually needed to be a word for this. Then a week later I saw the word in a Life In Hell cartoon.
posted by Ralph on 10-24-2007 at 3:29 pm
When I was about 12, I had a cat that was a mostly outdoor cat. Her fur ended up getting really clumpy, and made a really big mat. My mom and I took turns snipping at it so that the cat could be free of it. Well, one day when my mom was out with my dad, I got the whole thing off. It looked like a really disgusting toupee. I decided to be a really big smart***, and I wrapped it up in paper and left a note on top for my mom.
I looked up words that started with “fur” in the dictionary, and found furfuraceous. The note read, “A furfuraceous gift for a mom who’s not.” She opened the package and screamed while throwing it across the room, to the sound of my dad’s laughter.
Furfuraceous is my favorite word, only because of that one memory. It means: Covered with or resembling particles of dandruff. And that cat fur mat most certainly was :(
posted by frogandpig on 10-24-2007 at 6:07 pm
Gee, you could have fooled me! I’m 66, and am always on the lookout for new words. I didn’t take up the serious study of Spanish and German until my forties, and my vocabulary was quite extensive in both languages. I decided to concentrate on Spanish, and am delighted to say that all my AP Spanish students passed the test.
posted by Barbara on 10-24-2007 at 8:21 pm
I just learned yesterday that the correct spelling is consensual… not consentual (look it up if you don’t believe me)
I’m 43… still learning!
posted by Jennifer on 10-24-2007 at 8:59 pm
the free rice site www.freerice.com
posted by zach on 10-24-2007 at 10:14 pm
Actually, Jennifer, both are correct. At least that’s what Dictionary.com said. But I would have said that consensual was wrong (It looks like should have something to do with sensuality or something), so there you are! You should learn something new everyday.
posted by greenstrawberries on 10-25-2007 at 2:42 am
I think Russ Limbaugh stopped learning lots of things long before the age of 25
For my own vocabulary growth at age 64, I subscribe to A Word A Day at Wordsmith.org, and I read a lot.
Teaching English language and literature for 34 years didn’t hurt either.
posted by Dennis M on 10-25-2007 at 4:16 am
Just checked out freerice.com. Very fun and highly addictive.
I don’t use my “big, fancy words” when speaking out loud too often. They are my little treasures, I keep them for myself. ;)
posted by mrs.djs on 10-25-2007 at 9:35 am
Hey, just tried out freerice and it *is* fun. I didn’t see any reference to my favorite philological site - the Oxford English Dictionary’s word-of-the-day. Check it out at
www.oed.com/cgi/display/wotd
posted by Roger on 10-26-2007 at 8:50 am
Two of my more “high-falutin’” type words are “albeit” and “ostensibly”. I’ve found more and more ways to work them into statements lately, albeit (hey, there it is! :-) ) for some reason, they tend to work better in the written word than spoken. I will say this, though — when spoken, they are words that will identify you as somewhat erudite, a characteristic for which I will NEVER apologize.
posted by Mike on 10-26-2007 at 2:48 pm
“any time I use any vocabulary worth more than 25 cents, the people I work with get that glazed blank “deer in the headlights” stare…”
i know what you mean Carol, and i’m always surprised what words people are stumped by:
both eclectic and delectable i’ve had to define to friends of mine (one majored in english in college);
“Why use vocabulary that most of the people I come into contact with on a daily basis will not understand?”
just because people i meet every day don’t always understand the words, that’s no reason to narrow your horizons (or their’s for that matter). as mrs djs says above, words can be little treasures. i’m older than 25 and just learned the word “defenestration” from these comments. i love that’s there’s a word for that exact action.
posted by mysfit on 12-24-2007 at 11:03 am