Comments on: Confessions of an imperfect vocabulary

By: mysfit

mysfit — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 17:03:12 +0000

“any time I use any vocabulary worth more than 25 cents, the people I work with get that glazed blank â€œdeer in the headlightsâ€ stareâ€¦”

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. iâ€™m older than 25 and just learned the word â€œdefenestrationâ€ from these comments. i love thatâ€™s thereâ€™s a word for that exact action.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 20:48:38 +0000

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.

By: Roger

Roger — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:50:27 +0000

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

http://www.oed.com/cgi/display/wotd

By: mrs.djs

mrs.djs — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:35:57 +0000

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. ;)

By: Dennis M

Dennis M — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:16:28 +0000

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.

By: greenstrawberries

greenstrawberries — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:42:34 +0000

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.

By: zach

zach — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:14:36 +0000

the free rice site http://www.freerice.com

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 02:59:56 +0000

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!

By: Barbara

Barbara — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 02:21:59 +0000

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.

By: frogandpig

frogandpig — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:07:56 +0000

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 :(