New words and their meanings always interest me.
Daily I receive a “Word of the Day” E-mail from the Oxford University Press. It is fun when I already know the word and its meaning. I am one of those bookworms who likes to read the dictionary!
I enjoy listening to someone with an extensive vocabulary and who uses correct English. I am continually amazed at those in power positions who use poor English, all the way from the president of a college to the nightly news person. They obviously are not well educated in the rudiments of correct English.
Writers such as the late D.H. Lawrence or current writer, Amor Towles, in his wonderfully-written book ”A Gentleman in Moscow” are such pleasures to read. Towles told a compelling story of Russian Count Alexander Rostov banished to Hotel Metropol in Moscow by a Bolshevik tribunal for writing a poem deemed to encourage revolt.
Rostov nonetheless lives the fullest of lives. He and a young girl, Nina, discover the depths of their humanity. One reviewer said the book was “a masterly encapsulation of modern Russian history,” and told over four decades. Towles largely treats politics as a dark, distant, shadow. And, best of all, he used perfectly correct English. I loved every page of his story.
Here are some recent discoveries that you might want to add to your vocabulary:
• Croquis means a rough draft or a sketch.
• Nous is another word for common sense.
• Zardozi is to fashion embroidery with gold or silver thread.
• Subfusc means dull or gloomy.
• Did you know that titfer is another word for hat?
• Adamantine is unable to be broken.
• Here is one of the best new words: Honeyfuggle which means to deceive or swindle. A word that writer Mark Twain liked to use.
• Sibilance.
• Hornswoggle is to get the better of someone by deception.
• Here is a fun new word: Catchpenny which means of little value and made to sell quickly at a low price. I recall the Peoria Dry Goods store on Adams Street in Peoria. In the basement was a 9¢ table filled with plastic combs, rainbonnets, barrettes, and an eclectic assortment of small items. When downtown Peoria as a child, I always stopped there and bought this and that. Usually, then, I did not have the bus fare money so I walked home which was about five miles.
• Menage means the members of a household.
• Supercilious is a word I have already known and it means overly proud. Sometimes you meet people and wonder why they act the way they do because they have done nothing for others. The peacocks. The pretenders.
• Here is a very cool word: Vaticinate; which means to predict. Love this new word. Can we vaticinate this Winter’s weather? Can we vaticinate who will remain our good friend for a lifetime?
• Synergy means combined action. There is always synergetic energy when people work together. Much more can be accomplished with teamwork.
• Like a wing or a feather, pennate is an adjective that can be useful in descriptive narratives.
• Comestible means edible. Yes, Virginia, that fruitcake is comestible and very delicious.
• Coffret is a small box or container.
• And, to conclude, the new word mignonette which in French means dainty. A dainty lace handkerchief. A dainty ribbon. A dainty fragile flower.