Don't you love them? They way they sound when you say them out aloud? The taste they leave behind? The way they mean something different in every context? The power they give you?
Don't you love learning a new word? I remember the first time I chanced upon a new word. I must've been 8. Maybe 9. I was looking up something in our tattered Chambers' and I saw 'quintessence' on top. The word caught my eye and I looked it up. It was beautiful. Chambers also gives you the origin of the word - it's roots. I won't spoil it for you. Look it up yourself. In a dictionary - don't google it. Googling, for some reason takes away the beauty of words. You can never do the "on the way to the dictionary" thing.
My dad, when he is super bored, and had no new books to read, opens the dictionary and looks up words - their meaning, the story behind them.. It might sound geeky, but I can totally relate to that. I'd like to do that too!!
But, you know, at the end of the day, it's not the words you use that counts. It's how you use them that really matters. Sadly, few people get that.
Take Chicken Little for example. I believe (and I'm sure once you read her blog, you'll agree) that her language is extremely powerful! She doesn't write about anything powerful or deep, mind you. She writes about college, relationships, friends, studies - stuff everyone goes through. She doesn't use big words either. She uses simple, everyday, what you-and-i-will-use words. And yet, her posts are powerful. She has a way with them words.
Or take Roshan George. He has, by far, the biggest vocabulary among anyone I know. His vocabulary is even better than my dad's (yes appa, it is and you know it!), but you hardly find him flaunting his words. He learns these words and waits to use them. He threw this word at me the other day and I went all blank and he said "I've been waiting to use it ever since I was a kid. Try it somtime." I promptly forgot the word.
Me, I'm not so good with the vocabulary. I forget things. I don't remember words easily. They slip through my mind. I envy Roshan George very much. But I envy Chicken Little more. Because while Roshan knows the words, Chicken knows how to use them. And that's what really counts.
P.S: Roshan writes pretty well too. Much better than me at any rate. Loads better.
@ Roshan and Chicken: Sorry guys, the post isn't aimed at either of you. I just used you as examples.
காலை எழுந்தவுடன்...
8 months ago
9 comments:
I think it is necessary that I leave a comment here. Chitra, as usual, has got it all mixed up. My vocabulary consists of three words and no more but the way I use them has wowed men, women and children alike. In fact, my book 'I am hungry', a story about me being hungry, written in only those three words, has been read by an unprecedented number of people, all of whom have loved it and have expressed a keen, though inexplicable, desire to buy a copy for a despised ex. An attempt at reconciliation, I'm sure.
PS: The word was 'synecdoche' :) And I don't "learn these words and wait to use them". You make me sound like that creepy fellow in college who used to come up to me every day and say, "Let me see you solve this problem!", "I found this math problem.", "Can you solve this?". Not that I'm not, just that you shouldn't go telling people I haven't met in person that.
Somehow, the TOEFL has the ability to take the shine off them words. :(
@ Roshan: I rest my case.
@ Aquila: It does?
I do. I so do. Especially looking up the roots of words. After all, english is the biggest sponge of a language, taking in words from every other language it comes in contact with. It lets you see how they came into being. The word origins are the best part of a dictionary.
I don't know. Maybe I have a hangover from evolutionary biology! :D
the words and the way they are used tell a lot about a person...
i had this habit of doing a word- surfing with a dictionary... where you find words in the description which you dont know and you look them up, find more and move along
the chain...
nice to know others do it too!
@ Ess and Arul: I suggest "An adults's approach to vocabulary" if you're really interested. It's fun reading it.
I'm used to being held as an example for girls-who-go-astray, so, yeah, this is some what mildly pleasing.
And the fact that you think I'm superficial (the opposite of deep), is heartwarming. No. Really.
@ Chicken: We're all superficial, girl!
i used to read dictionaries as a kid too. still enjoy looking up roots of unusual words from time to time!
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