We read a lot at our house. And since it's never too late to improve oneself and broaden ones horizon vocabulary-wise, we make it a point to look up new and unknown words when we encounter them. Mind you, we know a lot of words already and frankly what we read for the most part doesn't stretch us much, but now and then a particularly erudite author will infuse his or her prose with a word that escapes our personal etymological or philological resources. So we look it up.
Well, we attempt to. We have a copy of Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary which isn't. It was published in 1977 and the spine is broken and it's heavy and hard to use. Granted a lot of words were already invented by 1977, but according to a guy here in Austin, author of "A Million Words and Counting" about 4,000 words a year are being added globally to the English language, so we could be 124,000 words behind.
So Mom bought a little copy of Webster's New World Dictionary at Wal-Mart; it was published in 2003 so that should get us more up-to-date. Up-to-date perhaps, but sadly lacking. On occasion we have failed to find as many as five definitions in a row. Maybe we should have spent more than $3.87 for enlightenment. Or maybe it's because it's only 753 pages long compared to the old 1,533 page New Collegiate. I figure that's about 100,000 fewer words.
So we have committed to investing more than $3.87 for enlightenment. How much more, I don't know. Mom just called from some store and asked if I could remember an unfound word. I gave her riparian as our litmus test.
Does your dictionary include the word riparian? I'll wait while you check.
She came home with a copy of The American Heritage Dictionary and I have to say it looks pretty impressive with 948 pages of teeny-tiny print and cost only $5.99. It includes the definition of riparian. However, it did not have the first word I needed to look up - marcelled.
I wonder what an OED costs?
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6 comments:
Dude: freedictionary.com. It's got them all. And comes included in your internet! You must be doing reading on a higher level than 'juvenile fiction' -- I never have to look words up! :-)
Just looked up marcelled on freedictionary. It doesn't have it. Microsoft also does not know how to spell it. Are you sure your not just making up words? NOT that you would ever make things up...
Sarah: Ahh, but reading is a very low-tech activity - at least at our house. The object is to reach over besides ones easy chair and pick up a book and satisfy one's quest. A book. Not an i-whatsit, not a laptop, not a blackberry. A book.
Rob: I'm offended.
n. A hairstyle characterized by deep regular waves made by a heated curling iron. [After Marcel Grateau (1852-1936), French hairdresser.]
riparian: relating to or living or located on the bank of a natural watercourse (as a river) or sometimes of a lake or a tidewater - our Webster's New collegaite Dictionary copyrighted in 1981 had that one.
It also has marcelled: to make marcel in; to make a marcel.
Hmmm, 1983 must have been a good year for dictionaries.
If he were honest, he would admit that reading for the blind and dyslexic has contributed to his new interest in dictionaries -- to know how to say the word. You can usually come close to what it means by the context, but that doesn't help you at all with how to pronounce it.
Y'all must be really good with cross word puzzles. No Alzheimers for you.
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