Increasing vocabulary

[rapidshare]

People bitch like whores about our semi-extensive vocabulary here; then again, people bitch like whores about anything, because they think it makes them seem smart, important, etc.

The ANUS(tm) vocabulary would have been considered normal or even a bit vernacular 200 years ago. It would not have been considered challenging. If you want to know why we don't wimp out... that's one big reason. Never say "yo, go ahead" to entropy.

Here's one good resource for building your vocabulary the easy way: A Word a Day (AWAD) from Wordsmith.org.

For over a decade, this list has mailed out a new word every day, most of them useful in conversation....

http://wordsmith.org/awad/

I recommend this to anyone wanting to build up a vocabulary.

[Heydrich]

A related aside - when I was in high school(way back when), my friends would often make sport of, and teachers marvel at my fairly advanced vocabulary knowledge and usgage, considering I was an average student and long-haired troglodyte in most of their eyes. I generally attributed my large vocabulary and occasional use of obscure terminolgy to Metal. They all just laughed...I, of course, was serious.

[scourge]

Welcome to being better than the Crowd. There are two ways to go. Be one of them but stand out inoffensively as a neutered hipster pretending its integrity remains intact. Or push onward and continue to leave the Crowd further behind.

[Serra]

Anki. This software has been very helping on my learning of the german vocabulary. It is a virtual flash-card manager that programs the next time you'll see a card based on how well you know it.

Watch the introductory videos. They'll explain this better than I could.

[Parasite]

hey thanks for the heads up on wordsmith! I tend to look most words i dont know when im reading but i dont read everyday so this word-a-day is keeping me fresh!

[Conservationist]

Welcome to being better than the Crowd. There are two ways to go. Be one of them but stand out inoffensively as a neutered hipster pretending its integrity remains intact. Or push onward and continue to leave the Crowd further behind.

We don't need your elitists shit here, Patrician!

Our statistics indicate that 70% of all human needs can be expressed using the following verbs: FUCK, KILL, EAT, TAKE, BUY, SODOMIZE.

In addition to those, we need only about 400 nouns and adjectives.

Any more than that, and you're trying to make us unequal, citizen... you will have to answer for your crimes...

[I disagree]

A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

To mark the 400 years of translation of the King James Version of the Bible this year. Earlier we featured five people from the Bible who have become words in the English language.

This week we feature another set of five words. Now it's the turn of five places that have taken root as metaphors in the language.

What's in the Bible may surprise most people, even those who believe they know it. In a recent item on CNN, Rabbi Rami Shapiro says, "Most people who profess a deep love of the Bible have never actually read the book." How much do you know about the "Good Book"? Try this Bible quiz.
Golgotha

PRONUNCIATION:
(GOL-guh-thuh)

MEANING:
noun:
1. A place or occasion of great suffering.
2. A burial place.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Golgotha, the hill near Jerusalem believed to be the site of Jesus's crucifixion. From Latin, from Greek golgotha, from Aramaic gulgulta, from Hebrew gulgolet (skull). The hill was perhaps named from the resemblance of its shape to a skull. Earliest documented use: 1597.

USAGE:
"The attack has turned the once peaceful serenity of a plateau state to a Golgotha."
Chris Agbiti; How Not to Govern a Volatile State; Vanguard (Apapa, Nigeria); Apr 1, 2011.

Explore "golgotha" in the Visual Thesaurus.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel. -Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924)

      

A.Word.A.Day by email:

   

http://wordsmith.org/words/golgotha.html
Today's word of the day. Apparently listening to good metal can increase your vocab too.