Booking Through Thursday... unfamiliar words

[fajrdrako]

From April 17, 2008: Suggested by Nithin: I’ve always wondered what other people do when they come across a word/phrase that they’ve never heard before. I mean, do they jot it down on paper so they can look it up later, or do they stop reading to look it up on the dictionary/google it or do they just continue reading and forget about the word?

Any or all of the above, depending on the nature of the book, or the availability of a dictionary or my computer at that moment. Or whether I think I can guess (near enough to make sense of the passage) what it actually means.

If there is someone around at the time, I'm fairly likely to ask, "Do you know this word?" Chances are the person will: I have well-informed friends.

The greatest likelihood is that I'll either memorize the word or the page number and look it up later.

I do love learning new words and phrases.

Comments

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

I operate as you do. I love it when writers keep me on my toes.

Have you ever played the game at FreeRice.com? You have to guess the definitions of words. I had no idea there were so many English words that I've never even seen before. That sounds snotty, but when you're a Lit major with a lifetime of intensive and catholic reading behind you, you expect to at least recognize most words by sight, even if not yet on a first-name basis.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I love it when writers keep me on my toes.

Yes. I really don't often find words I don't know - not in fiction, though of course it depends on the fiction and the style of the story.

Have you ever played the game at FreeRice.com? You have to guess the definitions of words.

Yes. That one is fun. I did rather well.

What amazes me is the number of words in the Scrabble dictionary that I have never seen and haven't a clue about. Handy in a Scrabble game, of course, but amazing. One word I used (and I don't remember it now) was a bone in the foot of a frog. When would a person ever use a word like that? Unless you're a frog biologist, of course.

hat sounds snotty, but when you're a Lit major with a lifetime of intensive and catholic reading behind you, you expect to at least recognize most words by sight, even if not yet on a first-name basis.

Oh, I understand. I'm well-read and even in my early teens expected to know all the words I'd come across in not only the average adult novel but Victorian novels too. So it was a treat to discover writers like (as a not-quite-random example) Dorothy Dunnett, who still challenged my vocabulary.

Just one language, but with so many words.

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

One of these days ... I must find time to enjoy Ms. Dunnett properly.

Thanks to cionaudha for the ref to 'freerice.com' ... I had no trouble there running up a rather high score. I was stumped by only one word -- and that was one I had seen and thought I knew ... but not quite.

Lois McMaster Bujold also has an extensive vocabulary, as do a number of other writers. It's a shame that most of them are *not* SF writers; Bujold herself seems to be a stellar exception.

The thing I really like about this language we have in common is that **does** have so many words ... and no other human language (with the possible exception of Mandarin Chinese) even comes close.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

One of these days ... I must find time to enjoy Ms. Dunnett properly.

She doesn't suit all tastes. But she is magnificent.

I was stumped by only one word -- and that was one I had seen and thought I knew ... but not quite.

What was the word? Curious minds want to know!

t's a shame that most of them are *not* SF writers; Bujold herself seems to be a stellar exception.

She is amazing in a lot of ways.

The thing I really like about this language we have in common is that **does** have so many words

So precise, so adaptable - and so often misused and abused.

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

What was the word? Curious minds want to know!

"Unimpeachable" -- which I interpreted to mean "unquestionable" and "reliable", but not quite "blameless".

Oh well.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Handy word, that.

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

So precise, so adaptable - and so often misused and abused.

No kidding. Nowhere does it suffer as much abuse as when "spin doctors" and other allies of politicians (along with the politicians themselves) fold, bend, staple and/or mutilate same.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately there is nothing in any language that guarantees honest, sane, or non-evil use of words. Messing with the language accidentally, or for literary effect, is one thing. Messing with it for dishonest motives.... that's the preserve of shady lawyers, self-serving politicians, and advertisers.

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

Dorothy Dunnett, who still challenged my vocabulary
What do you think, how much Dorothy Dunnett challenges My vokabulary just now. It wasn't even that easy to read her in German (not my native language as well) but in English it's quite difficult. I'm to lazzy to look in a dictionary altought I still promise myself to do so.Yesterday I've just started to read "Pawn in Frankincense" and I've got through 40 pages, then I've read the last 40 pages (because I'm so unpatient). Now I know there were two boys, Khaireddin (who was killed) and the other (I've forgotten the name). Please, please say me which of them was Lymond's son?. I have to know the secret if I will really enjoy the novel.

Spoilers for "Pawn in Frankincense" here...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What do you think, how much Dorothy Dunnett challenges My vokabulary just now.

I can imagine! Think how hard it must be to translate her books!

'then I've read the last 40 pages (because I'm so unpatient).

Hee. I understand.

Now I know there were two boys, Khaireddin (who was killed) and the other (I've forgotten the name).

Kuzum.

Please, please say me which of them was Lymond's son?. I have to know the secret if I will really enjoy the novel.

Well! This is a wildly controversial issue among Dunnett fans. Dorothy Dunnett thought she 'made it clear'. I thought she did too, but many fans interpreted the action differently and there are ongoing verbal debates abut the "K vs K issue". Making a long story short, Khaireddin was the son of Lymond and Oonagh, while Kuzum was the son of Joleta and (probably) Gabriel.

Re: Spoilers for "Pawn in Frankincense" here...

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much!Now I feel betterr!

Re: Spoilers for "Pawn in Frankincense" here...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad!

TARDIS alert!

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Uh...it's Wednesday, Elizabeth.

In Pennsylvania, anyway.

Re: TARDIS alert!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Hee - you think I can't be late for a deadline?

I've done it before and I'll do it again!

Better late than never.

Anyway, I like messing with timey-wimey stuff.

second TARDIS alert! of the evening

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Um... you're a day early for the deadline, Elizabeth. Not late for it.

At least, unless you are so late for it that you back-pedaled right into Wednesday again.

Damn. You're good.

You could be an undercover Time Lord. Or Time Agent, at least.

You could be The Foot Of Boe.

Re: second TARDIS alert! of the evening

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

you're a day early for the deadline, Elizabeth. Not late for it.

Nope - it was the Apr. 17 question I was answering. So I'm late.

You could be an undercover Time Lord. Or Time Agent, at least.

Can I work with the Doctor and Jack in the TARDIS? Or maybe Captain John, too? (Smiling at the possiblities....)

You could be The Foot Of Boe.

LOL. I wouldn't mind worshipping at the Foot of Boe.

Re: second TARDIS alert! of the evening

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Hee! Write me a story about the Foot of Boe! Thank you.

Re: second TARDIS alert! of the evening

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

With toes? Can I be kinky?

Re: second TARDIS alert! of the evening

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Can I be kinky?

You'd better not be expecting me to say no...!

Yes, with toes... the Foot o Boe has to have toes, right? Or... maybe not, and therein lies the story. Hee.

Re: second TARDIS alert! of the evening

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

At this point, the Foot of Boe is an unknown quantity, like the source of the Nile.

Re: second TARDIS alert! of the evening

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Will the Foot of Boe make an airport metal detector go off?

Or, maybe the TARDIS has a detector for...?

Re: second TARDIS alert! of the evening

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

...Fet?

Or Boe?

That's an interesting notion: that when the Doctor encounters the Face of Boe in "The End of the World" and "New Earth" and "Gridlock", it isn't any kind of accident - the TARDIS set it up.

Re: second TARDIS alert! of the evening

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Uh-oh. Plot surmising.

In all that time (the time that Captain Jack has on his hands!), don't you think he'd come up with some ways to throw energy-lassoes around the TARDIS in this sort of way? I do.

And those encounters happened "before" the Doctor found out what Captain Jack's youthful nickname was, right?

Heh.

Re: second TARDIS alert! of the evening

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

don't you think he'd come up with some ways to throw energy-lassoes around the TARDIS in this sort of way? I do.

I'm sure he would try!

Re: TARDIS alert!

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

Wednesday: The day after many people in Pennsylvania went off to vote in the so-called "state primary"?

And yes, like many Canucks, I find American politics bizarre beyond the telling of it.

Re: TARDIS alert!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

American politics and the American political system is something I find so complicated that it's totally confusing, especially since it seems to be different in each State. The levels of complexity look totally arcane to me.

Re: TARDIS alert!

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Yes! Do tell me about it. It is rather embarrassing in its weirdness. And if the process itself isn't weird enough (yesterday's primary election is to choose candidates to run in the general election in November, and only those registered to a party can vote for candidates in that party's races), we also have ridiculous stuff like Hillary accepting the endorsement of Richard Scaife mellon's newspaper, the Tribune-Review, which Teresa Heinz Kerry accurately called "Mellon Scaife fish-wrap," run by the very man who put ten million dollars of his own money into trying to dig up dirt on Bill Clinton, and basically personally orchestrating the mud-slinging that ended with the man being impeached (unconstitutionally, I must add) for a single action: perjury. Hillary... say it ain't so! She used to be my candidate, but "it's our turn: the women's movement started before the civil rights movement!" is not a valid reason to pick her over Obama. (How can you resist a man who's Black Irish?) Hillary has shown herself to be deeply tied to the existing political system, and not above using right-wing-ish low-blow politicking no matter how many people she hurts along the way.

Whew. Thanks for letting me talk! (Did I help clear it up any? Hope so.)

Re: TARDIS alert!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You didn't enlighten me so much as to the US system in all its intricacies, but those were very interesting comments about Hilary Clinton - and a clear indication (to my mind) of how the political process warps and subverts honest ideals.

Re: TARDIS alert!

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Yeah. You're right. And a lot of Obama's supporters are seeing the same thing, and are supporting him because they don't want more of what we already have now.

(Was that you under another username?)

Re: TARDIS alert!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Was that you under another username?

What? Where? No.

Re: TARDIS alert!

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Alayne's brother, I take it? Okay.

Re: TARDIS alert!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Bingo - you got it!

Re: TARDIS alert!

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

(Was that you [Elizabeth] under another username?)

Good grief, no. Among other things, I'm definitely male.

I was in APAplexy for a while, though I left in 2003 and have not yet returned. As I noted there, I am a longtime friend of Elizabeth, and share much the same interests in languages and such. I also don't share as much interest in modern TV programs, and have a range of interests that E does not share (such as the stupidities that pass for modern public/mass transit in North America in these post-modern times).

I should note I am clear about the difference between the U.S. and Canadian (and other) systems of government. It's the underlying *politics* that I find so strange ... beyond any telling of it.

words and Gene Wolfe

[(Anonymous)]

Have you read "The Shadow of the Torturer", by Gene Wolfe?

Well, it's not a standalone book. It's the first part of a five-volume book, The Book Of The Long Sun, but whatever. As one reviewer put it, you see the plot out of the corner of your eye.

Wolfe uses an amazing rich vocabulary of obsolete words, but he followed the rule that everything in the book is accurately named. So when we meet undines, they're swimming. What else? And I definitely want some blue nenuphars for my garden.

The hero wasn't a torturer, of course. He was, ahem, a journeyman in the Guild Of Seekers For Truth and Penitence.

Don

Re: words and Gene Wolfe

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Have you read "The Shadow of the Torturer", by Gene Wolfe?

Yes, long ago - I love his style.

As one reviewer put it, you see the plot out of the corner of your eye.

What a good description! I remember being both puzzled and fascinated. Funny thing is, I haven't read any Gene Wolfe novels since that one - though I bought a few, sitting right now on my bookcase, still unread. That's something to address any time now.

I remember him as being amusing and wry and serious all at the same time.

I've always wondered why Wolfe isn't more famous - i.e., more talked about - than he is.

So when we meet undines, they're swimming. What else?

Well - of course!