Friday, February 12, 2010

Nerd Alert

I don’t read the dictionary – at least not often, but I love learning new words. I use the dictionary feature at least once a day along with my reading. I’ve been keeping a running list of some of the words I’ve looked up and actually want to learn….

macabre - adj - disturbing and horrifying because of involvement with or depiction of death and injury : a macabre series of murders.
degust - verb - taste (something) carefully, so as to appreciate it fully
patrician - noun - an aristocrat or nobleman
codices (pl, of codex) - noun - an ancient manuscript text in book form (an official list of medicines, chemicals, etc)
noetic - adj - of or relating to mental activity or the intellect
esoteric - adj - intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest : esoteric philosophical debates
carte blanche - noun- complete freedom to act as one wishes or thinks best : we were given carte blanche
eidetic - adj - relating to or denoting mental images having unusual vividness and detail, as if actually visible
sanguine - adj - cheerfully optimistic : they are not sanguine about the prospect
hubris - noun - excessive pride or self-confidence
zeitgeist - noun - the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time : the story captured the zeitgeist of the late 1960s
ubiquitous - adj - present, appearing, or found everywhere : his ubiquitous influence was felt by all the family

My favorite word off this list definitely has to be zeitgeist. How fun is that to say? The word I most need to keep in my head is esoteric. People use that word constantly. I’ve looked it up at least a dozen times, and finally I think I’ve got it. I told you – I am a nerd and proud of it.

*This post is dedicated to Jenessa and her list of 1000 words she is learning for the ACT.

4 comments:

Laurel said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't remember meanings of words I hear all the time. :) ps- nerds rule.

C.J. said...

I, too, am a horrible nerd. I'm proud (ashamed?) to say, I've actually used many of those words in conversation! When I met Jim, I knew I had to marry him, because he was the first person I'd ever met who knew more strange words than I did. To this day, I have to stop him and be like, "what did you just say???"

Also, I've learned lots of awesome words using the dictionary function on my Kindle--just put your cursor next to the word and it tells you what it means. So, dictionary reading for us lazy folks! It makes me want to go read the thesaurus...

Andy said...

I love zeitgeist. it sounds awesome and is easy to use in everyday conversation. it's also a decent bar in SF.

Jenessa Hutchins said...

i truly appreciate the dedication =)