When I was in elementary school, we were given a list of words each week that we were required to spell and eventually define. I used to do quite well in this “class”. Once I reached junior high, however, the spelling tests started to die down. I remember receiving vocab words each week in seventh and eighth grade, but I don’t think anyone ever really enjoyed these spelling tests. (I may have been the only one in seventh grade who got a kick out of the assignment where we had to incorporate each new vocab word into a sentence…I just thought that it made me appear so smart.)
After eighth grade, though, my English teachers decided to do away with the spelling tests. I was relieved because I started to view them as an annoyance. I mean, weren’t spelling tests such an elementary thing?
However, those vocab words showed up once more when I entered AP English in twelfth grade. It started out as something fun, I think. My teacher would write on the corner of the whiteboard the word-of-the-day found on dictionary.com. Eventually, the list of words grew longer and he figured that we, the students, should make more of an effort of learning them. I want to say that we had vocab tests every 2-3 weeks, but I honestly can’t remember anymore.
And then I went off to college and that was that.
Except…ever since May, I’ve been keeping a list of words that I previously didn’t know the definition of.
I don’t know why I suddenly have this fascination. Every time I run across an unfamiliar word while reading a book, I instantly drop what I’m doing and pull up a dictionary. Afterwards, the word and its definition gets placed into a Word document and I try to memorize it so that one day, it will seamlessly enter my lexicon. I will not have it disappear into the great memory-loss abyss, spinning away before it gets a chance to become long-term memory. (By the way, did anyone else see Inside Out recently? Great movie.)
Anyway, something must be working because when I was reading my book yesterday, I came across a word on my list. Magnanimous. You have no idea how excited I got for myself for instantly knowing the meaning of this word.
But it still doesn’t beat the word that started it all: ululate. It’s such a fun word to say. However, it has more of a negative action/meaning: to wail or howl in grief (could also be used to describe the howling or screeching of an animal).
Is all of this vocabulary love nerdy? Yeah, probably.
Do I care? No, not really.
Does anyone else have a favorite “sophisticated” word? (I know that “defenestrate” is popular. Which I don’t blame anyone because I like this word, too.)
P.S. In my last blog post, I briefly talked about my new writing project. Well, in case you were curious, last night I reached the 63k mark. So it’s going quite well and I’m starting to wind it down. My goal is to reach 75k, but we’ll see how many more words it’ll take me. I’m still on track to complete the whole draft by the middle of August.
