( Saturday, January 27, 2007 )

Psh! Education Smeducation!

I learned something not too long ago that I thought was pretty amazing. The English language contains roughly 600,000 words (although apparently no one can agree for sure on the exact number, mostly because new words are constantly being added--'Truthiness' anyone?). The average educated person, however, only knows about 20,000 (around 3%) and only uses 2,000 (around 0.3%) in a week. It left me speechless. (Ba dum, ksh!)

Anyway, it inspired me to get on the proverbial ball and start learning. There are 580,000 words in my native language that I have yet to discover. I feel like...an intrepid explorer!
**Cue Personal Theme Music (if I had any)**

So, being the cheapskate that I am, I went searching the internet for a free Word of the Day calendar (actually, I did look for a real, physical, bought-in-the-store desktop calendar, but it seems they aren't big sellers...because I couldn't find one. Anywhere).

If you want to join me on my fearless quest to learn words that I will probably never be able to use because no one will know what the heck I'm talking about, go sign up for dictionary.com's Word of the Day e-mail. It's good times. And then, in the words of Inspector Clousaeu, we'll be able to "engage in a lee-ttle verbal jousting".

C'mon, I know you want to.

8 Comments:

Blogger Davey Jones said...

surprisingly not.

hey there's a bloc party concert in van in march... want to come?

5:56 AM  
Blogger the Stewart said...

Zenon, I know secretly you went and signed up for it. I know it. Deep down.

And I wish I could go see Bloc Party...I won't be in Vancouver in March. THATSUCKS! And their new CD will be out by then, even. BOOOOOO.

1:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I used to do that and the hard thing is actually integrating the word into your everyday vocabulary (or even remembering to - the trick is memoizing thee word, it's definition and recalling both to use it properly). Turgid is a fantastic word, but one doesn't often get to work it into normal conversation and when one does, one gets quizzical stares and then is made to feel like a snob. :)

I'll do so again, but I'd like to make an addendum to your linguistical proposition. We should not only sign up for the email of the day, but then at the end of the week post one favorite and usable word from the 7 we acquire over the course of the week. and encourage our readers, via our blogs, to join the vocabulary revolution.

B.

5:44 PM  
Blogger the Stewart said...

Nice! I'm in. And for the record, I love the word "addendum". I'm going to use it tomorrow. I don't care how, I'm just going to. World, watch out!

So next Sunday it is.

Viva la revolution!

8:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

done and done. I'll post the proposition on my blog this evening.

12:36 AM  
Blogger Rougette said...

Ok I'm in. But I've already embarked on this same expedition to enhance my vocabulary. The end result was me not checking my email often enough to keep up with the constant bombardment of new words.

I'll try, but I can't guarantee anything. It'd feel weird to give up my signature words and phrases, like "Awwwwwwww frick" or "Shuddup, piesang!" or "Jeez louise..."

10:31 PM  
Blogger Rougette said...

Hey that song by the New Pornographers isn't half bad...

10:49 PM  
Blogger Cryptisemita said...

I'm in...

6:40 PM  

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