every time i come across an unfamiliar word (or one that i often misspell) i look it up in The Free Dictionary (which provides sound files/pronunciations for each word along with definitions, usage examples and word origins) and then i add it to my quick list ... which can be exported into Excel - cool. this list i've been building since early February. most of these words i've come across while reading books, some i find during online research of one topic or another, and others are from the translations i edit at work. i'd like to share my new words on a monthly basis. we'll see how it goes.
apostasy - documentary on Mormonism
apostate - documentary on Mormonism
asterisk - a word i use all the time but couldn't for the life of me spell
bifurcate - from a book i think
borborygmus - online research of lactose intolerance
crepitation - online research of muscle strain
envoy - wasn't sure of the spelling
ephemeral - from a book
font - ?
Gastropoda - a common Korean dish
halt - i misspell this all the time (hault for some reason)
haptic - my MP3 has this feature
hypervigilance - i just like this word, i have ever since i heard my therapist use it
idempotent - from a translated document i edtied
infinitesimal - a word i like but can never spell correctly
libidinal - ?
minuscule - a word i say a lot but rarely ever need to spell
mittelschmerz - online research of the menstrual cycle
mutable - a word found in a translation i was editing; a variable was said to be of this characteristic
negritude - from a book
passivate - a word from a translation which was discovered to actually be inactivate or deactivate
perquisite - tried to describe a "perk" to a colleague and then realized that i wasn't sure if it was a real word; was surprised to learn that it's a shorter variation of this word which i'm sure i've never heard or seen before, but use the definition all the time.
pestilence - ?
prompt - haha ... i had to check if this was the proper spelling in computer context, i.e. the C:\> prompt.
purulent - i found this when doing sinusitis research
spinnbarkeit - online research of the menstrual cycle
feel free to share comments: have you seen or heard of any of these words already and if so, in what context? any favorite of this bunch? can you pick out the onomatopoeia?
3 comments:
Mrs. Montanari called. She wants you to write a story using all of these words. Here's a suggested opening sentence: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the ephemeral age of wisdom, it was the age of foolish hypervigilance, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of apostasy, it was the season crepitating libidos, it was the season of bifurcating borborygmus, it was the spring of hopeful perquisites, it was the winter of spinnbarkeit pestilence ..."
wow ... sounds like the beginning of a great novel!
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/quiz/quiz.aspx?quizid=61
See number 6
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