Features Jan-June 2003 |
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Do you know anyone (of course not you) who uses the wrong word in conversation or writing? Well, I've been thinking that I'm on the cuspidor of notoriety. Because I've been thinking, that can be dangerous. Each of us has an active vocabulary consisting of all the words we understand and use. Then there is the passive vocabulary of those words we recognize, probably understand and usually do not use. In the latter category, often we do not use a word because we are not sure of the spelling.
The title above is not misspelled because it means to work, study or write, especially at night ... and that is what I am doing. I used to be a mourning person, but since the PC augmentation I have become a knight person. It is all right to check on these spellings in your own dictionary. I did. I hope you don't think that I go around expounding in this manner on a diuretic bases. These words are chosen in a very felicitating way and I think you will appreciate my felicitousness. On our local golf course, some golfers say the greens are being aeriated. To be correct, the greens are being aerated. They use a machine which pulls grass plugs out of the green to supply air and moisture to the green. These holes are filled with a mixture of sand and fertilizer. It makes it difficult to putt but in a few days the greens are much improved. I heard another person holding a peace of plastick which he said was made of lewisite. I did not correct him. He mint Lucite, an acrylic resin plastic, because lewisite is a blistering poison gas. In the Catholic church a Low Mass does not necessarily mean that it is held in the lower part of the church. A High Mass could be held in the lower church, and versa visa. A Low Mass is performed with less ceremonialism than a High Mass. And that info comes from above. The word lugubrious does not refer to a person who talks a lot, or has drinked a lot. The true meaning describes a person who is very sad or mournful in an exaggerated way. Peccable does not mean vulnerable to pecking; it does mean liable to or capable of sin. Carboy ... no, it is not a kid who works in a parking lot. It stands for a large glass bottle enclosed for protection. If a person is described as decadent, he is in a state of decline, but if that person dies he is not decagon because the latter word is describing a plane figure with ten sides and ten angles. I hope this little exorcise proves helpful in expanding your passive vocabulary, but does not affect your active vocabulary. Ciao! Let's eat. March 7, 2003
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