No One Knows All The Words

NO ONE KNOWS ALL THE WORDS I used to have a e-book called The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate. Where is that? Do I nonetheless have…? There it's, on a shelf next to my desk tucked between a duplicate of the U.S. Army Survival Manual (my pragmatic desert island book selection) and Dictionary of Word Origins. I hate to admit it however, due to the Internet, I don’t really reference these books anymore. That makes me unhappy, however there it isâ€"the twenty first Century! Blowing a thickness of mud off the highest of it, I flip through The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literateand pick out at random: corrigendum a mistake to be corrected, especially an error in a printed e-book Hm. I actually really did pick that at random and now I feel like I really should have known that one. I imply, if not me, who, proper? fleer snicker impudently or mockingly; jeer, deride That I should have run throughout by now in an Ed Greenwood e-book, at least, no? Alas, I hope it doesn’t shock you, however I don’t know all of the phrases! Author John Grisham wrote, “There are three types of phrases: words we know, phrases we should always know, and phrases no one knows. Forget these in the third category and use restraint with those within the second.” I disagree with some of his recommendation. Don’t put aside any word, particularly just because it’s too “hard” or obscure, and even outdated. If it’s precisely the right word for that precise moment, that’s the word you need. If most or even all of your readers are despatched to the dictionary, congratulations, you’ve educated folks! I even have an editor friend who says that he’ll enable an writer to send him to the unabridged dictionary as soon as per book. If I needed to set a rule for myself, as an editor, I’d make it extra like a three-strikes rule. But I don’t really have that rule. I can tell when authors are displaying off, want to close the thesaurus and get again to stor ytelling, or are in some way disconnecting from their audiences, after which I’ll do my finest to intervene the way an excellent editor should. But ultimately I like to be sentâ€"no less than occasionallyâ€"to the unabridged dictionary, or at least my dictionary app, when a word comes along that I’ve never seen before. I’d revise John Grisham’s recommendation to read: “There are three forms of words: words nearly everyone is aware of, words more people should know, and words almost no person knows. Don’t be afraid of words within the second class and use one from the third class when it’s the one or finest word for the moment.” Yeah, I like to see new words, and recently, I’ve been saving a few good ones. I didn’t jot down where I saw all of them, so some are sadly devoid of context, however what number of of these have you learnt? cachectic referring to or having the symptoms of cachexia. cachexia weakness and losing of the physique due to extreme chronic sickne ss. Fun for pre-medication fantasy cultures, yeah? It sounds like one thing an old Hobbit would die from. Edisonade a work of fiction centered on a lone, personal inventor who gets into adventures in pursuit of or as a result of, certainly one of his innovations We need to convey this style again. I imply, we need to. Now. Kulturbolschevismus “cultural Bolshevism” or “artwork Bolshevism”â€"coined by Nazis to impugn “decadent” art. This one I received from George Orwell and his essay “Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali” and I love it. Even with its clearly awful intent and origin I intend to use it, sarcastically, for the remainder of my life. gormless missing sense, lacking in initiative, a dense particular person This I noted in the brief story “Chloroform” within the collection Carp Fishing on Valiumby Graham Parker. Is this a British thing? It may be an example of that quote often (but apparently incorrectly) attributed to George Bernard Shaw: “E ngland and America are two nations separated by a standard language.” interbellum the period “between the wars,” notably World War I and World War II How did I not know this one? Feels like I should have recognized this one. No idea where I ran throughout it. balinger A balinger, or ballinger, was a type of small, sea-going vessel. It was swift and carried out well under both sail and oars. It was probably developed in Bayonne for hunting whales. This one was in a fantasy novel I was modifying. I don’t really know boats, off-hand, and ended up having to rely on Wikipedia for that definition, but okay… now I know. ressentiment “Combine narcissism with nationalism, and also you get a deadly phenomenon that political scientists call ressentiment(French for resentment): the conviction that one’s nation or civilization has a historical right to greatness regardless of its lowly status, which might solely be explained by the malevolence of an inside or external foe.” That definition comes from the brilliant should-learn The Better Angels of Our Natureby Steven Pinker. There’sa word for our occasions, eh? marmoreal manufactured from or likened to marble I ran throughout this magnificence in an edit, used to describe a girl’s shoulder. Yeah. If you’re going to send me to the dictionary, be that good. ogive 1 Architecture a pointed or Gothic arch. •one of many diagonal groins or ribs of a vault. • a factor having the profile of an ogive, particularly the top of a projectile or the nostril cone of a rocket. 2 Statistics a cumulative frequency graph. This one was within the science fiction novel Wine of the Dreamersby John D. MacDonald, in which it does certainly describe the form of a rocket’s nose cone: It ripped up via the tent, slowly gaining speed, profiling the tent to its ogive nose, tearing the tent from the towers, slipping by way of it, igniting it with the fierce tail flame. And if any two authors belong in the identical common cate gory it’s the Johns D. MacDonald and Grishamâ€"so much for the latter’s advice. chignon a knot or coil of hair arranged on the back of a woman’s head. This one was in a story by a scholar in one of my Pulp Fiction Workshops, which goes to indicate how good individuals who take these programs are. I suppose I remember it in an episode of Cheers, too, in reference to Lilith Sternen-Crane’s trademark tight hairdo. I guess I’m just not up on all the fancy ladies’ hairdos, but the point is: I write and edit fiction. I actually have to be “up on” somewhat bit (a minimum of) of every little thing! theogony noun (plural theogonies) the genealogy of a gaggle or system of gods. This one (the plural, really: theogonies) caught in my family tree while I was reading an article on Byron in the Weekly Standard. See? Even people who find themselves smart enough to learn articles on Byron from the Weekly Standarddon’t know allthe words. casuistic the adjective type of casuist; an i ndividual who makes use of clever however unsound reasoning, especially in relation to moral questions; a sophist. • a person who resolves moral issues by the appliance of theoretical guidelines to particular cases. You had to know there would be one other one from George Orwell, or in this case, from an article aboutGeorge Orwell. heteroglossia noun: the presence of two or more voices or expressed viewpoints in a text or different creative work. Remember what I said concerning the perfect word for this particular sentence? This one I discovered in the article: “Of Philip K. Dick, Reflexivity, and Shifting Realities: Organising (Writing) in Our Post-Industrial Society” by Christian De Cock. oleaginous adjective 1 wealthy in, covered with, or producing oil; oily or greasy. 2 exaggeratedly and distastefully complimentary; obsequious: candidates made the same old oleaginous speeches in the debate. Why wouldn’t I run throughout a word I’ve by no means see before in an article known as “The New Reading Environment: Each this isn't to sayor in other wordsa boring sword wielded towards willful misunderstanding”? So heyâ€"to begin with, don’t really feel dangerous if you’re reading something, not just some scholarly work but any old corny Nineteen Fifties sci-fi novel, and there’s a word that perplexes you. Look it up. Learn. Maybe undertake it on your own personal lexicon. And second, don’t be afraid to sometimes challenge different folks to do the identical. After all, no one knows all of the words, however why not share within the joy of discovery that language could be? And then there’s taking it to the next degree, and that’s introducing new phrases your self. Here’s one I’ve really been trying to have added to the English language myself: defuncto adjective; the remaining example of a bunch of issues that's somehow faulty or undesirable: “Oh nice, I’m caught with the defuncto chair.” My spouse made up that one. Use it, pleaseâ €"unfold the word! In this case, actually. â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans Fill in your details beneath or click an icon to log in: You are commenting utilizing your WordPress.com account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting using your Google account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting using your Twitter account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting utilizing your Facebook account. (Log Out/ Change) Connecting to %s Notify me of recent feedback by way of e-mail. 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