Tag Archives: Language

New (to me) Words

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I’ve always enjoyed Word Lily’s feature of the new words she’s discovered in her reading. Lately I’ve been reading some books that have been stretching my vocabulary, so I thought I’d let you know the words that I had to look up. All definitions are from the Oxford Dictionaries Online.

cretinous (found in Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich) – the adjectival form of cretin, “a stupid person.” Now that I think of it, I have heard it used as a noun, but the adjective is new to me.

supernal (found in Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich) - “of or relating to the sky or the heavens; celestial.” Doesn’t have the same ring to it as “celestial” does, does it?

raconteur (found in What Good is God? by Phillip Yancey ) – “a person who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way.” I like the French spelling, and wish I was a raconteur.

pyrrhic (found in To Change The World by James Davison Hunter) – “(of a victory) won at too great a cost to have been worthwhile for the victor.” This seems like a useful word.

bromide (found in To Change The World by James Davison Hunter) – “a trite and marginal idea or remark, typically intended to sooth or placate.” I definitely get that.

paramour (found in A Short History of a Small Place by T. R. Pearson) – “a lover, especially the illicit partner of a married person.” I could figure out the meaning in context, but I was curious about it as it’s obviously not a word we use much today.

What words have you learned lately? Bonus points if you can use any of them in your comment!

Smallness of Purposelessness

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“Because a man without a sense of purpose, even one whose bank accounts are stuffed with money, is always a small man.” – Under the Dome by Stephen King, p. 404

“…If you live your life trying to please a man by how you look and being concerned over what he things about you, you’ll never please God.” – Lakita Garth’s father, quoted in Girls Gone Mild by Wendy Shalit, p. 62

“Most spurned lovers would not pursue the unfaithful spouse, but God pursues you.” – How People Change by Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp, p. 142

“Whatever your views on the sexual revolution, surely we can all agree that it’s sad when male teachers instruct 14-year-old girls that romance is ‘hopeless,’ or when it’s conventional wisdom that sexually inactive girls are ‘ugly.’  Where are these messages coming from?  Where aren’t they coming from would be an easier answer.” – Girls Gone Mild by Wendy Shalit, p. 22

“Run mad as often as you choose, but do not faint.” – Mansfield Park

“The prevailing view is that if you think sexuality should be private or special, then you must be ashamed of it.  You’re a prude.” – Girls Gone Mild by Wendy Shalit, p. 26

Emile: “Wait a minute… you read?”
Remy: “Well… not excessively.”
Emile: “Aw, man! Does Dad know?”
Remy: “You could fill a book — a lot of books — with things Dad doesn’t know. And they have, which is why I read.” – Ratatouille

A week before her wedding: “…I look forward to next week, and I am really excited that I can look my husband in the face and say, You know what, I loved you before I even knew you.  I saved myself just for you.” – Lakita Garth, quoted in Girls Gone Mild by Wendy Shalit, p. 63

“English’s drive to exploit the new and the alien, its zeal in robbing words from other languages, its incapacity to feel qualms over the matter, its museum-size over-abundance of vocabulary, its shoulder-shrug approach to spelling, its don’t-worry-be-happy concern for grammar–the result was a language whose colour and wealth Henry loved.” – Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel, p. 23

Retelling a discussion about itemizing for taxation: ” ‘Is that all?  How about your wife?’ he says.  ’By mighty,’ I says to him, ‘she says I don’t own her and I don’t aim to pay no taxes on her,’ and I didn’t.” – Mr. Edwards in The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“If doing away with ‘repression’ was supposed to be liberating, why are things now so bad?  It is bad enough that we cannot seem to protect children, but the attractive, intelligent women surfing for tadpoles and grown men trading intimacy for inflated megapixels do not exactly seem to be thriving, either.” - Girls Gone Mild by Wendy Shalit, p. 16-17

If Only I Grew Up Speaking Spanish

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I’m a good speller. I read a lot, so I almost always know when a word looks right. However, there are a few words that still cause me problems! Ironically, blogger’s spell check isn’t working on this post!

Do you struggle with any of these?

1. License – this one always gets me. I want to spell it “lisense” or “licencse.” All of them look wrong, so how do you remember which one is right?

2. Glimpse – there should be a limit on how many consonants are in a row.

3. Vegetable – if I ever have to write this word, I simply write “veggies.”

4. Judgment – I didn’t realize there was no “e” in the middle for the longest time.

5. Casserole – I didn’t realize there WAS an “e” in the middle for the longest time. I have several misspelled recipe cards to prove it.

6. Flyer – I always forget if it is “flyer” or “flier” and have to double check before I save a file at work. I really don’t want to misspell it and have to forward the document to my boss or someone else!

7. Dissension – this one blew me away. I was memorizing 1 Timothy 2 for class, and I had this word spelled correctly. I thought it was misspelled, however, and had to double check. I was sure that it was “dissention.”

8. Separate – why does this have two a’s?

9. Conscience – this word is just a mess. I have to consciously think about how to spell it every time.

10. Misspell – how can the word “misspell” be so easy to misspell?

What words do you have trouble with?