• This topic has 27 replies, 18 voices, and was last updated 2 years ago by toby1.
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  • Anyone else find the forum a great way of expanding their dictionary?
  • Poopscoop
    Full Member

    My word of the day is “apposite”.

    “highly pertinent or appropriate”

    Now, after looking it up I can see it likely stems from “apt” but I didn’t know that till I cheated.

    I’m sure it’s known by most on here but not by me.

    Reminds me of when I started reading books by choice rather than being “forced” to for education purposes. I kept a dictionary close at hand as I hated not knowing the meaning of a word. Wish I was so diligent at School.😉

    kelvin
    Full Member

    Reminds me of when I started reading books by choice rather than being “forced” to for education purposes.

    Did you find that you mispronounced all the words you didn’t hear at home or school though? I did. It’s a sure sign that you’ve learned from self led reading, not expensive schooling. Even with modern tech to hand to help, I still get friends from more privileged backgrounds laughing at my attempts. Teaching kids language skills early (ancient and modern) pays off big time when it comes to using our own mongrel of a language.

    ernielynch
    Full Member

    I am constantly checking the meaning of words before posting. I’m just grateful that I don’t need to know how to pronounce them.

    kelvin
    Full Member

    grateful that I don’t need to know how to pronounce them

    Amen brother!

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    I recently bought a new thesaurus but all the pages are blank. Not only is it terrible but its also terrible.

    Riksbar
    Full Member

    Surely you mean expanding your lexicon?

    kelvin
    Full Member

    Not only is it terrible but its also terrible.

    > insert best emoji for a groan here <

    mefty
    Free Member

    No.

    Poopscoop
    Full Member

    kelvin

    Did you find that you mispronounced all the words you didn’t hear at home or school though?

    Hello teach.

    Yes indeed and I still find myself second guessing.

    I’m still not confident in saying “hyperbole” in the wild for fear of stumbling over the last part of the word due to overthinking it.

    Poopscoop
    Full Member

    Riksbar
    Full Member
    Surely you mean expanding your lexicon?

    God damn it,I knew I could have used a better word!

    kelvin
    Full Member

    I’m still not confident in saying “hyperbole”

    I said “I did”, I should have said “I do”. If we’d had Greek/Latin drummed into us we wouldn’t think twice about it. Perhaps.

    Poopscoop
    Full Member

    Lords sake, don’t get us into grammar.

    I’d be terrified to post anything on here.

    (I’m willing to bet I’ve made one error at least in the above. Possibly more in this bracketed comment too.)

    binners
    Full Member

    As a crayon-based colourer-inner I’m semi-literate. There’s only one dictionary I need…

    mattyfez
    Full Member

    I’d say so, for sure.

    Every day is a school day as they say. Typos are typos but it’s always interesting to see big words like ‘Audi’ and ’29er’.

    Edukator
    Free Member

    Yup, STW is my only contact with street English. My wife keeps up with the Guardian and I’m always one step ahead with the latest buzz words and expressions thanks to STW. However some of it I’m happy to remain ignorant about, for example:

    To add, get rid of any QnapCloud accounts and disable UPnP on your NAS

    The first place I saw ‘Brexit’ was STW.

    nickjb
    Free Member

    Yes, its perfectly cromulent to embiggen your lexicon

    tthew
    Full Member

    Yes, I find it really really, really, really really

    really

    good.

    (Homer Simpson, c. 1995)

    thegeneralist
    Free Member

    Not only is it terrible but its also terrible.

    Chateau!

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    Most of the best words are **** out….

    kelvin
    Full Member

    theotherjonv
    Full Member

    Yes but – there is a fine line between expanding the lexicon, and being able to write and communicate in general in plain english. It’s something I’m very careful to do at work in particular; I have an extremely well educated workforce but many do not have English as a first language.

    I think people like to use complex language as a means of demonstrating ‘intelligence’ and it’s not the same thing; in fact if your language prevents you being understood you’re not using your intelligence to impart knowledge.

    There’s a few posters on here who do this and I can’t be bothered to read their posts with a dictionary next to me, so I miss their points entirely. Talk to your audience, get your point across.

    stevious
    Full Member

    We tried to sneak a book of synonyms past the librarian but they saw us.

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    I think people like to use complex language as a means of demonstrating ‘intelligence’ and it’s not the same thing;

    Take note, prime minister

    nickjb
    Free Member

    …being able to write and communicate in general in plain english. It’s something I’m very careful to do at work in particular; I have an extremely well educated workforce but many do not have English as a first language.

    My wife proof reads papers for non English speakers and they occasionally use words that she has to look up. It often turns out it is the perfect word to describe the thing or situation but no native English speaker would use it.

    toby1
    Full Member

    Most people I work with have PhD’s these days, every flipping day is a school day, most recent example ‘sysphian’. Favourite prior to that was axiomatically, or orthogonal.

    tlr
    Full Member

    *Sisyphean

    (Sorry).

    dangeourbrain
    Free Member

    I think people like to use complex language as a means of demonstrating ‘intelligence’ and it’s not the same thing;

    Take note, prime minister

    Of all the things he guilty of that’s not one. He doesn’t use archaic, abstruse language to look intelligent, he does it precisely because it obfuscates.

    toby1
    Full Member

    *Sisyphean

    (Sorry).

    No need to be, I heard it, looked it up, but didn’t commit the spelling to memory completely as I’m not sure I’d ever use it personally 🙂

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