Sunday, May 1, 2011

Some Interesting Vocab Words

Every day, I receive two of those "Word of the Day" email newsletters, one from Dictionary.com and the other from Wordsmith. I've let them pile on in my inbox (I now have 161 vocab words waiting to be memorized and used). Since I actually want to remember the words, I usually move the email away from the inbox to my "Vocabulary" label once--and only after--I've incorporated the word into my writing. This system hasn't been working recently, though, due to the fact that I haven't visited my story on Google Docs since March.
My procrastination habits aside, I have seen many interesting words. (For those wondering, this is also a cheap way to skew my system: list a bunch of words.) Below are some examples:
  • Oppugn. I was attracted to this word mainly because of the interesting spelling. This word means "to assault with criticism" or "to debate".
  • Vociferate. This means "to cry out". 
  • Bumf: a dull-sounding word for a dull subject matter. If printed matter is bumf, it is unwanted or uninteresting. Examples include sales receipts for Wal-Mart, paperwork, and junk mail from McDonald's.
  • Verisimilitude. This is something that appears to be true, of the quality of appearing to be true. One way to remember this is to remember that the truth potion in Harry Potter starts with "veri", and "simi" is like "simulate".
  • Bedaub (for some reason I always see this word as "debaud"). Anyway, this word means "to smudge over" or "to overdecorate".
  • If something is prolix, it is unnecessarily long, especially in the context of writing. Likewise, a person is prolix if they speak or write wordily. 
  • "Balderdash" sounds like a nonsense word from "Jabberwocky". Turns out, balderdash does mean nonsense. An archaic meaning is "a muddled mixture of liquids".
 Try and use some of these words sometime! You will become prolix, your writing will no longer be called bumf, though you might be labeled balderdash.

2 comments:

  1. Well, I updated. _Within_ a week, like I promised.

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  2. Whoa...I gotta say. Wow. I already knew the word balderdash, but bumf is cool! I should use that sometime.
    BTW, nice system.

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