I learned a new word today
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A lung disease caused by the inhalation of certain silicon based particles.jim_doki post=18.72189.751317 said:
It's Ancient Greek, and it's the inflammation of the lungs due to inhalation of microscopic particles of silica, it's a complicated word for a "simple" fact.jim_doki post=18.72189.751317 said:
I'll suggest :
Scoundrel : a bad person
Curmudgeon : ill-tempered and stubborn individual with firm opinions (House, Schopenhauer, Statler&Waldorf)
Hippo...phobia is actually made up for lulz. Sesquippedaliophobia covers it.spiggy post=18.72189.751672 said:
Monadnock : A hill that has resisted erosion.
Pyrrhic - A victory in which you lose so much that the gains pale in comparison. Remember this one, it's on the SAT, and teachers love using (abusing) it.
Don't get me wrong, new words are fun (eg: susurrus: A whispering or rustling sound; a murmur) but etymology is my drug.
For example, "nick-name" came from "eke-name", (literally an 'also-name') probably as the result of someone young and impressionable person hearing "an eke-name" and interpreting it as "a nick-name".
Words' meanings can also change over time - even completely flip in meaning.
For example, in the King James Bible: "It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth." This is clearly a different meaning of repent to our own; repent here means "made to regret".
Even greater changes of meaning have occurred, with much more common words: "like", in Shakespeares' day could mean both "pleases" and "like":
HOST: The music likes you not? (Don't you like the music?)
JULIA: You mistake; the musician likes me not. (You misunderstand; I don't like the musician.)
(The Two Gentlemen of Verona)
Here's a funnier one: "Silly" came from the West Germanic gesaelig, meaning "happy. It then moved onto "blessed", as in "the silly Virgin Mary" and continued on to "pious", but the very common link with Mary pushed its meaning on to "innocent" in 1200, to "harmless", to "pitiable" in 1280, to "weak" by 1300 and finally to "foolish" in 1576.
For example, "nick-name" came from "eke-name", (literally an 'also-name') probably as the result of someone young and impressionable person hearing "an eke-name" and interpreting it as "a nick-name".
Words' meanings can also change over time - even completely flip in meaning.
For example, in the King James Bible: "It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth." This is clearly a different meaning of repent to our own; repent here means "made to regret".
Even greater changes of meaning have occurred, with much more common words: "like", in Shakespeares' day could mean both "pleases" and "like":
HOST: The music likes you not? (Don't you like the music?)
JULIA: You mistake; the musician likes me not. (You misunderstand; I don't like the musician.)
(The Two Gentlemen of Verona)
Here's a funnier one: "Silly" came from the West Germanic gesaelig, meaning "happy. It then moved onto "blessed", as in "the silly Virgin Mary" and continued on to "pious", but the very common link with Mary pushed its meaning on to "innocent" in 1200, to "harmless", to "pitiable" in 1280, to "weak" by 1300 and finally to "foolish" in 1576.
SATs test students' knowledge of definitions?wilsonscrazybed post=18.72189.752045 said:
Yes, I remember memorizing about 5000 words I haven't used since.Saskwach post=18.72189.752051 said:
dog
It's god spelled backwards.
Apart from that I remember feeling special because I could use 'xenophobia' in primary school, but the big word for high school was 'pseudodissestablishmentarianism', but one I learned in uni was 'verisimilitude' as well as a stack of other words that I won't bore you with due to the fact that I'm an arts student.
It's god spelled backwards.
Apart from that I remember feeling special because I could use 'xenophobia' in primary school, but the big word for high school was 'pseudodissestablishmentarianism', but one I learned in uni was 'verisimilitude' as well as a stack of other words that I won't bore you with due to the fact that I'm an arts student.
