i love words, love the sometimes almost imperceptible difference b/n words that are practically synonymous.
growing up, my father was always an avid reader, and i think he enjoyed reading to me when i was a kid. it's a trait that i adopted--cuz how many little boys don't wanna be just like their dads?--and although i read less now than i did when i was younger, i retain that joy of learning a new word that happened so often.
i was thinking about those memories earlier today.
and this, of course, put me in mind of a poll... :>
are there any words that you recall learning that mean something special to you? by that: i mean a word that was completely unfamiliar to you until that moment, where the learning of it was itself somehow significant to you.
ed
p.s.: as usual, my answers later, yadda yadda yadda...
silverwhisper posted on Nov 08, 2007
| views: 379
Comments
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rightwingwizard said on Nov 08, 2007....
I'm not a 'word' person per se, I am more interested in wordcrafting or wordsmithing. The manner in which we put words together in order to create an image of our thoughts. We after all are creatures dependent upon images, not words. Words are merely tools with which we fashion (or perhaps better put, project) images.Just think about one off the greatest wordsmiths of the english language amd the title he chose for one of his most fanciful plays. "Once Upon a Midsummer Night's Dream" Without ever reading or seeing the play our minds begin to form images of fanciful things. The words in and of themselves are plain and simple, the image however, is powerful in the extreme.rww -
queenparanoia said on Nov 08, 2007....
well english is not my first language so there so many words out there that i may run out space... but my trick is i read the sentence around that word so i may understand it better... and there's always a dictionary right?? =) -
quietone said on Nov 08, 2007....
ed ~ well to be honest, you are the reason I had to go out and get a pocket dictionary so I could understand what you were talking about using those "words" you use! LOLbut my first word that I recall as a younger person was "firmament" - this word has stuck with me since the day I first looked it up..I used to just open the dictionary and point to a word and that would be my word for the day...ha, this is the only one I remember.. -
uniquely-ironic said on Nov 08, 2007....
I'm a big reader too, but I don't really recall ever having a word moment. There are words I think are very descriptive of very specific emotions, such as pathos, angst, and visceral that are not used in common conversation that I feel it's tragic that we don't use them anymore. -
skald said on Nov 08, 2007....
Sure when you speak three languages there are always such moments and the learning still goes on. I hear a word and it sticks in my mind. I hear a song and it does it too. Even a word like Aristocrat, that was with me for a long time when I learned it in English many years ago. We have such a different name for it so do the Germans. -
CreativeWoman said on Nov 08, 2007....
I can't think of a word moment either. I do love rhyming words and wordplay. Reading has been important to me from a young age too.
CW
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the_infernal_optimist said on Nov 08, 2007....
I remember learning "valley" (yeah, what a toughie :-p) as a little kid with a big picture book of places. The word was almost as pretty to me as the place depicted. It was just fascinating to me to be able to pour the beauty of that picture into a word, to have a name for it that I could use to show other people.
A few other words from later on stick out without clear memories attached to them.
~Infernal
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PassionTraveler said on Nov 08, 2007....
- Vice Versa
- Serendipity
PT
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beyondtheveil said on Nov 08, 2007....
Ed- Perhaps I'll think of a super special word with significant meaning later, but just can't right now. I do remember that words on first contact I didn't know how to pronounce stick to me like glue, such as facade and hyperbole. -
Eilan said on Nov 08, 2007....
Back in the day, I was one word away from going to the National Spelling Bee in Washington. I'm not going to mention the word that cost me that opportunity here. It's a fairly common-ish word, but it was unfamiliar to me when I was 12.
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wombat said on Nov 08, 2007....
When I was in second grade, I could read well enough to help the other kids--and I was the teacher's pet. When I couldn't figure out the word "sign" she had me use a dictionary and look it up--then follow the pronounciation until I figured out that the "g" was silent. I was severely ticked off!The only other one I can think of is one I learned when I described someone--and then said, "There should be a word for that." A friend told me that there was one--"hedonist." -
Lioness said on Nov 09, 2007....
I always saw to it that I learned the meaning of one unfamiliar word a day. But that was pre-memory lapse days. haha.. Latin terms adapted in the English language always impressed me.
Lately, I learned nifty (from you).
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Fallyn said on Nov 09, 2007....
i remember learning the word imagination.
i knew what it meant from speaking it.....
but then the first time i read it.....the colors. *sigh, laughing*
here we go again....yeah, it was the colors. the letters had their own colors, and then reading it in context.....it just completely.....i can't even explain it.
welll.....imagination is a word that is so beautiful.
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sheltercrow said on Nov 09, 2007....
Words are an interesting window on the imagination. Even a modicum of understanding can have a epiphany like effect on both the writer and reader to amalgamate understanding of what, on the surface, appeared as an impossible realization.
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Fallyn said on Nov 09, 2007....
shelter....that was.......
*laughing* at a loss for words. .....in this post...of all places.
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silverwhisper said on Nov 09, 2007....
rww: shakespeare was a wordsmith on a level all his own, no question. hell, look at his sonnets, for that matter!
queen: hey, happens all the time in language, doesn't it? even in one's own native tongue, i find.
quietone: whoa--seriously? er...sorry? :D mm...firmament is a really good one. it's one of those words that has a weight to it like few we see these days. :>
u-i: i regret those things too, so i'm going to make a renewed commitment to doing so. :>
skald: isn't it incredible where we hear new words sometimes--like the song you mentioned? i think that's really nifty, myself. :>
CW: i'm a huge fan of reading--but i guess i already mentioned that. :>
infernal: oo, i like that memory! that's really nifty. :D
PT: i like both, esp serendipity. it's a funny word to say if you ask me, but i like it for a number of reasons, not the least of which is its meaning. :>
beyond: ah yes, word pronunciations--it's a tricky thing in english, considering how we shamelessly steal words, isn't it?
eilan: heh...in 7th grade i was in a spelling bee and was tripped up on "pageant"--for some reason, it was a word that i'd never encountered in written form.
wombat: man, that story about your teacher would have really irritated me, too! and i do have a fondness for that word... :>
lioness: [blink] really? you hadn't encountered the word "nifty"? that's kinda funny...it's kinda dated, to be honest. some days, i find words that are no longer "cool" and try to bring 'em back. :D
fallyn: that's so cool! my wife told me once that she imagined a color that she couldn't describe. i think that was my first insight into what it might be like to be blind.
sheltercrow: i completely agree that words and usage thereof are revealing. i tried explaining once to someone that sometimes, a question asked says more about the questioner than any answer by the respondent.
ed -
Fallyn said on Nov 09, 2007....
the only color i can't name is a color between pink and yellow...not peach......but well...there i just described it....... :P so i guess it isn't indescribable..... -
sheltercrow said on Nov 09, 2007....
LOL -
Fallyn said on Nov 09, 2007....
but it STILL doesn't have a name.
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silverwhisper said on Nov 09, 2007....
fallyn: i say you should name the color floyd!
ed -
Fallyn said on Nov 09, 2007....
*laughing* nope.....pink floyd is a VERY shocking HOT color of pink.....not the right color at ALL for that. -
Eilan said on Nov 09, 2007....
ed: My husband has a funny story about his mother and the same word that tripped me up in the spelling bee! She'd never encountered it, either (at least in written form) and she butchered the pronunciation. -
silverwhisper said on Nov 10, 2007....
fallyn: :D
eilan: you do realize, i'm dying of curiosity over here?!
[trout-smack!]
ed -
Lioness said on Nov 11, 2007....
yes ed, I got curious the first time and looked it up in the dictionary. Cool word. -
silverwhisper said on Nov 12, 2007....
heh...i forget sometimes that colloquialisms and slang aren't part of formal english. :>
ed -
depressed said on Nov 15, 2007....
I know this sounds bad, the word for me is dildo.When I was a preteen, my friend used to use the word dildo a lot. Neither of us knew what it meant. One day, I called a boy a “dildo” out loud in front of the school coach. The coach gave me a look but didn’t say anything to me. A few years later when I learned what a dildo was I felt really stupid and always wondered if the coach thought I was a bad girl. -
Fallyn said on Nov 15, 2007....
*laughing* ......that was cool though. -
silverwhisper said on Nov 16, 2007....
depressed: OK, that was really, really funny! :D
ed -
depressed said on Nov 16, 2007....
It is funny .....now -
silverwhisper said on Nov 17, 2007....
well, yeah--obviously not then!
ed
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