The best way to acquire words
Saturday, June 12th, 2010 at 4:38 pm by Jacqueline
Words are great.
The vocabulary I habitually utilize hardly taps the well of words available in the English language. This isn’t news: most people fail to employ the full range of lexical jewels stashed in their thesauruses. As such, I’m delighted to announce that the book I’m reading now is full of fantastic words.
I’m reading Perdido Street Station. No lie: The man who wrote this book, China Miéville, has a lexicon just as prodigious as the world he paints. Here are a few novel and infrequently seen words I’ve espied thus far:
- detumescing
- veldt
- sciolist
- eidolon
- vertiginous
- aesthete
- bombastic
- moribund
- inveigled
- oneiric
- febrile
- necrotic
- pusillanimous
- bivouac
- chthonic
- dissident
- querulous
- inchoate
- paean
- patina
- desiccate
- moniker
- nacre
- solipsistic
- autotelic
- liminal
- deracinate
- sepulchral
Aren’t these splendid? I didn’t start taking notes on words until a hundred pages in, and I’ve got several hundred pages to go. Just think what wordly wonders I may encounter next!
Saturday, June 12th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Okay, a couple of those I didn’t consider particularly novel – in fact I’m impressed I know so many on that list – but oh man, I still appreciate him SO MUCH for just USING those words. Because you’re right, most authors don’t bother. And as for words like “deracinate” and “febrile”? Mmmmmyes. China Mieville jumped to the top of my favorite authors list very, very quickly.
Saturday, June 12th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
Not all of them are novel, no, and I figured you’d say as much. (Though, I will note that I said the words were either novel or not seen all that often–words I’d like to either learn or remember exist.)