Also, a great time to go through all these emails that have piled up:
Haaa...these things are important.
On occasion, I do not get the opportunity to expand my vocabulary via email and my inbox is graced with a "word of the day" that I already knew. Like "lexicographer" or "bibliophile". I only wonder if there are people who subscribe to the word of the day who did not yet know those words...
But every now and then I find a word of the day that I really like, and I snatch it up instantly. "Nominalize" is a great one. I want to use it in sentences. Also "antipodes". The only difficulty, of course, is actually using these words in sentences. This has a couple causes:
1) It is unfortunately infrequent that there is a conversation in which it is appropriate to use many of these words. Often these words are large, ridiculous, and/or little-known simply because they are so specific and specialized to a certain topic or group.
2) Even if a good word-using opportunity does come up, the use of the word typically warrants and immediate definition of the word.
But, being the lexophile that I am, I still try to do it as often as possible.
So aside from being a bit of an insufferable know-it-all or winning hard in Balderdash, why on earth is it important to have big words? Most of these words can be explained in only a few, much more familiar words:
- Bibliotaph: a person who hoards (doesn't necessarily read) books
- Gormandize: to eat ravenously
- Oniomania: an uncontrollable desire to buy things
- Hortatory: urging or encouraging action
- Gambol: to dance, skip, or frolic
- Crepuscular: active during or relating to the time of twilight; dim or indistinct
- Pandiculation: the act of stretching oneself
- Gratulation: a feeling or expression of joy (makes "congratulations" make sense, no?)
- Saporific: producing flavor
- Empyreal: pertaining to the sky; celestial
Obviously, Dictionary.com needs to have a discussion with Google's spell-checkers, because according to their program, none of the above are words...
Perhaps the most important reason to have big words, even if they're cumbersome and smaller words are easier understood, is because having big words give us the ability to change how we think.
One of the few things that I remember distinctly from psychology is the Sapir-Whorf Theory of Linguistic Determinism. The theory is that our linguistic capabilities are based largely in the languages we speak. The words that we learn and use give us a distinct frame of reference for how we interpret and think about the world. For example, someone who grows up in a snowy climate tends to have many more words to describe different kinds of snow, whereas someone who has only heard of snow may only use one word to encompass it all. The theory tends especially toward indigenous languages that were developed along a specific culture and territory. It has several criticisms (as all psychological theories do) but seems to generally be upheld to varying degrees.
For example, as I learned Spanish, I began to learn ideas that I hadn't ever had in English. Sometimes things have a translation, but it still doesn't carry quite the same intrinsic meaning. Sometimes the syntax changes everything around and you start realizing that 'getting married' is actually 'marrying yourself to' someone else.
But you don't even have to be bilingual to experience this. I think that this theory applies even within one language. For example, many people speak and behave differently among different groups: with friends, at home, in professional settings, and so on. In fact, one of the first things that you do when you begin to study something or join a new group is learn the vocabulary distinct to that discipline. Having those new words will help you to think along the same lines with those around you, communicate yourself better, and plant new ideas that you never even considered before...simply because there were no words for it.
Let's do an experiment:
The word 'coriaceous' means 'of or like leather'.
So think about leather for a minute.
And how it is.
And what it feels like, or looks like, or smells like.
Except this word, 'coriaceous', is an adjective. And using it to describe leather would just be redundant.
So now think of some nouns you could put 'coriaceous' with.
Go wild with it! Forget all the things that are typically regarded as coriaceous, and just find ways that it might fit with something new.
Something you've never even thought was "leather-like" before.
...Did you find any exciting ideas?
Having words for things allows us to expand how we think about something. It can help us be more empathetic when we finally put a finger on that feeling, whether that word be completely made up or not. It gives us a new frame of reference for the world we experience and, most importantly, allows us to share those thoughts and that world with the people around us.
Bigger words can indeed be better.
“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”
-Thomas Jefferson.
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