Booking Through Thursday
April 17, 2008 by Becca
Today, for Booking Through Thursday, Nithin asks:
I’ve always wondered what other people do when they come across a word/phrase that they’ve never heard before. I mean, do they jot it down on paper so they can look it up later, or do they stop reading to look it up on the dictionary/google it or do they just continue reading and forget about the word?
oh dear, i’m afraid this will sound terribly snobbish, but i rarely come across words i can’t define, if not exactly at least by inference from the surrounding text.
perhaps it’s because i’m old and have been reading for so very long.
or perhaps my choice of reading matter is a bit too comfortable, and i should search out more erudite authors.
when i was very young, i kept a notebook (see previous post) where i could jot down words i didn’t know.
and just now i’m feeling a mighty urge to run for my dictionary and start reading so I can locate some new, unfamiliar words to add to my vocabulary.
because we can never have too many words at our disposal, can we?
I love finding new words, especially if I can then find a way to use them and enjoy them even more.
I think a reader often can figure out a word or phrase from the context. You’re right we can never have too many words!
I don’t think it sounds snobbish at all…I think it sounds like you know yourself.
I don’t often find words that I do not understand or cannot deduce the meaning from the context.
My hubby makes fun when I use unusual words in conversation and swears I make them up. I don’t! He just doesn’t have the expansive vocab that I do.
And no…we can never have enough words…
I’m a bit like you and find I seldom have to seek out the meaning of a word. Phrases or sayings might be new to me, though, and sometimes I find that a word I’d associated with one meaning also has another, or is used differently in other places. I can’t come up with examples right now. In my Writers’ Group, I’m the one people turn to to check out meanings most often, … AND the one they expect to have botanical names for plants, etc! Strange to say, I often do!
But as to your question: I don’t jot them down. Sometimes I underline and question-mark them. I seldom run to the dictionary, and I very often find I’ll encounter the same word being used by someone else within a day or two, so I can pursue the meaning then!
Your method sounds great to me!… much better than reading the dictionary.
The New Yorker trips me up every time! Most other books, not a problem — I can usually figure it out. But those New Yorker writers…!
You sound like my husband he is my own walking dictionary which is very useful. I just can’t seem to remember new words even though I look them up, isn’t there some saying about having to use them three times then they belong to you? I’ll have to try that.
erudite??? where’s my dictionary? LOL
Honestly I don’t come across that many words that are unfamiliar to me either, but when I do I just skip right over them. Generally I can figure out from the context what they mean.
Not snobbish at all — I said the same thing!
I used to jot them down in a notebook too. Now I just gather the meaning form the context.
snobbish, no! I like this answer! I am somewhat like this too!
Here is my BTT post!
I think it just shows you are very well read and have a good vocabulary. I don’t often come across words I don’t know but now and again they crop up. I ask my very learned and much older and wiser hubby. If he’s unavailalbe then I look it up. I have to know otherwise it nags away at me.