When I was in junior high and high school, many of my English teachers would request that students circle/underline any words we didn't know that we came upon in our homework reading. I am sure that at the time I thought it was just a tedious waste of my time. Now that I am reading for pleasure, however, I have adopted many of the practices that were encouraged of me in my youth, including circling "vocab" words.
I am just about finished with Matthew Stewart's , and I've circled a fair amount of words. Any word I circle must meet one of two criteria. The word must either be (1) completely unfamiliar to me, or (2) be familiar, but one which I would like to work into my vocabulary and writing more prominently. The following are words that I circled for reason number one, followed by their respective definition:
Am I the only one that does this? Bonus points awarded for knowing the meaning of any of these words before reading this post.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I knew:
Wanderlust, austere, clandestine, and nefarious.
I once read that the bigger your vocabulary, the more “educated/intelligent” you were perceived to be.
I love “Reader’s Digest” because they have twenty vocab words each month. They list the possible definitions in a multiple choice format. You self-quiz with a grading scale that is something like average, good, and excellent.
Clandestine is a word I had to look up this past semester! I actually came across it a lot in French stuff, and when I looked it up in my French-English dictionary, I was discouraged to see it was the same word in English. I hate when that happens! The only other word I know in that list is austere :) I’m terrible with definitions, but I could spell any of those words! Word up. Love you.
i didnt know any of those words (which is sad)