devilot76 said:That's a really good suggestion-- learning Latin.
I studied Latin for 5 years at school Wonderful language and immensely useful when trying to figure out what words might mean!
devilot76 said:That's a really good suggestion-- learning Latin.
Well, depends whether you actually mean learn Latin itself (which can extremely complicated; I bought Latin for Dummies and I understand some stuff but I've barely scratched the surface), or just the roots, which isn't necessarily too hard. It's cool to know common Latin words and phrases in any case, like "Cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am) and state/military mottoes like "Sic semper tyrannis" (Thus always to tyrants; Virginia state motto). There's also a lot of Latin in medicine and law.devilot76 said:That's a really good suggestion-- learning Latin. Don't know any place around here that offers it though. Sounds like fun.
pulsewidth947 said:But yeah, reading is a great way to improve the vocabulary, as is staying away from bad resources like MR! Which are full of shorthand and bad grammar
I think your being too thick, cuz MR is the bestest place to have funs and reads all teh posts on all subjects of interest to us.pulsewidth947 said:reading is a great way to improve the vocabulary, as is staying away from bad resources like MR! Which are full of shorthand and bad grammar
The curiosity is just killing me: Why did you put the word "your" in quotes?Chundles said:Pick up a book and read it, this is the best way to increase "your" vocabulary.
Lacero said:I think your being too thick, cuz MR is the bestest place to have funs and reads all teh posts on all subjects of interest to us.
Lacero said:In my younger days, I actually read a hardcover Oxford Dictionary.
Re-read the thread title for a clue...Lyle said:The curiosity is just killing me: Why did you put the word "your" in quotes?
Ah, OK, I'd missed that. I thought it was "just" one of those random drive-by quotings.emw said:Re-read the thread title for a clue...
~Shard~ said:Thanks for the link, I think I just might sign up for fun!
It really depends on the person. If the person is pretentious, then likely he/she are trying to loft themself above you. If the opposite, then they are doing no more a natural thing than it is for some people to say "y'all". I use my full vocabularly as often as I can, particularly because I am always trying to increase it. Some people ask me to rephrase things, at times, but most people can get the picture just from the surrounding context. My sister is the one who instilled in me a love for my lexicon. She is also the reason I've been studying Latin for the past 6 years now. I'm lovin' it!emw said:does someone with a large vocabulary who tends to use obscure words appear to you to be knowledgeable, or just pretentious?
mac_2005 said:It is a fun service. It's where I learned the word "defenestrate."
Who knew the English language had a word for the act of jumping out a window?
Never thought I'd hear it in actual use until I recently saw a (parody?) Dennis Miller clip. Definitely a 25-cent word.
FredAkbar said:It's way cool to see a word that you've known for years and suddenly realize its etymology. For example, when I saw in Latin for Dummies that "insula" is Latin for "island" (because, of course, islands are insulated by water), I was like, "Hey, cool, so a peninsula is almost an island" (as "pen" means almost).
I was talking about increasing the vocabulary of any language you might speak (or rather read, in this case). Reading will help you with any language.Tahko said:Oh - my - god. Were you guys were talking about increasing vocabulary of your native language!?!
Yes, but the Dictionary.app still knows it...mac_2005 said:It is a fun service. It's where I learned the word "defenestrate."
Who knew the English language had a word for the act of jumping out a window?
Never thought I'd hear it in actual use until I recently saw a (parody?) Dennis Miller clip. Definitely a 25-cent word.
And, while we're on the subject. Norwegian uses 'Vindu', same word as 'Window', obviously, while Swedish (which basically is the same language as Norwegian) uses 'fönster', which I would guess comes from the French, which in it's turn comes from the latin 'fenestra' which also is the base for defenestrate, according to Apple's Dictionary.app...FredAkbar said:With defenestrate, again, it's cool seeing how languages are often linked together. In this case, it was when I was recently studying French and learned that fenêtre is French for window: it's interesting how we have a word (defenestrate) in English that comes from that root, but we don't have a word like that for window itself (or do we?), like the French do. It's like AppleSpider said, English words have so many different origins because of the language's odd history.