Calantha
Gryffindor Alumni
My name is Luck, this is my song, I happened by when you were gone
Posts: 4,493
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Post by Calantha on Apr 14, 2003 10:40:01 GMT -5
Eh, I know what you are talking about Rue, well, sorta. Growing up I would always spend time listening in on the conversations of my sister and her friends and I would have the sort of feel for what she meant, and even sometimes I still get like that. I love the thesaurus...I spent a summer reading a different thesaurus a week and then comparing them and I have a very handy pocket webster thesaurus. *sighs* I envy your spelling skill.
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Post by Rue on Apr 14, 2003 10:48:50 GMT -5
But what's the use of knowing how to spell words which I can't use? Generally, if I see a word a few times, I'll be able to spell it. But every time I see it spelled incorrectly it lessens my chance of getting the spelling right.
Maybe I'm just good with lists, because when I had spelling tests, I would memorize the spelling really easily, and then those words which were specifically taught to me, I pretty much have permanently stored. It's the same way with the vocabulary I was taught in 7th grade; I know the exact definitions of epitaph, and vivid, and incognito. And I use those words a lot because I love them. So I'm just at a disadvantage from never having read a dictionary or thesaurus straight through, and I should improve my reading habits a bit.
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Calantha
Gryffindor Alumni
My name is Luck, this is my song, I happened by when you were gone
Posts: 4,493
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Post by Calantha on Apr 14, 2003 10:57:48 GMT -5
*thinks* I memorized words and how to spell them but then I would and will forget. Hehe, nah, I'm just a huge dork and have nothing better to do with my time and so that's why I sat around reading the thesaurus. *thinks* Word for today? I think it will be... paedophobia because it means a fear of dolls (or it can also be a fear of children, but that doesn't fit me so we'll go with dolls) Why? Well because I just got a very creepy feeling that my ancient porcelin dolls were staring at me...
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Post by En on Apr 14, 2003 11:28:35 GMT -5
Heh. I got to sit and look at a few dictionary pages with Gen and Rue this weekend and we found some hum-dingers.
There's a guy who works in the office with Robin and me who is a mysophobe -- having an unreasoning fear of dirt. My sister, who eats mushrooms, is a mycophage (that might be a Nialleword -- we just happened to be on a page with all the my- words and I noticed that myco- means fungal ).
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Calantha
Gryffindor Alumni
My name is Luck, this is my song, I happened by when you were gone
Posts: 4,493
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Post by Calantha on Apr 14, 2003 18:50:24 GMT -5
*shudders* I hate mushrooms unless they are douced in sauce.
*thinks* I once had a teacher who made us pick twenty words a week and we would have to define them and then write an one page paper with the words in it. And the words couldn't be related so you'd have to figure out how to pull them together. I hated it while I was in her class just because it was work and I actually am not a big fan of being forced to learn, but anyways, now that I look back at it, I miss it, and she was really a great teacher, despite the daily arguments I had with her. But then again, I have a tendency to be too zealous about some things.
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Post by En on Apr 15, 2003 11:07:48 GMT -5
Yeah, I had a teacher who used to give bonus points in spelling if you could write a paragraph containing several of the words off that week's list. I got a kick out of that, especially if I knew a meaning of one of the words that the teacher didn't, so that he had to look it up
I hated, on the other hand, that "what I did over the summer" essay. So one time I wrote this thing called "Where Argon this Samarium" about me and my imaginary friend Lawrencium going to Europium. But if you don't know the periodic table, you'd find it boron.
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fico the fur
Hufflepuff Alumni
Why'd you say "halleluia" if it means nothin' to ya'?
Posts: 964
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Post by fico the fur on Apr 15, 2003 11:29:19 GMT -5
One of my all-time favourite things to do with words is to "conjugate" them or whatever the term is for non-verbs. Like, taking something, a noun, and turning it into a verb, and then into an adjective, and then into an adverb. It's really great to just do it in the middle of a conversation with someone and watch if they look at you weird afterward.
I tend to be okay with pronunciation, but not naturally inclined toward it. But after I hear it once or twice, I have it down. I just don't always know when I read a word, or I think it stems from the wrong root, so I pronounce it incorrectly. *laughs* But I do the same thing as Nialle, only I pronounce really unfamiliar words in a Spanish accent. Not good when you know the word is from Greek or something.
Word of the day: Inconsequential. It's one of those pretty-sounding words, and it makes me think of lost beaches at sunrise.
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Calantha
Gryffindor Alumni
My name is Luck, this is my song, I happened by when you were gone
Posts: 4,493
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Post by Calantha on Apr 15, 2003 12:19:08 GMT -5
*laughs* You've got no idea how much I enjoy the periodic table. I'm sure your essay was awesome.
*thinks* I always like the assignments that were free choice. And once, I remember we had read a horrible mystery and so I planned a murder mystery luncheon for my class and we took a week from the book and did it. I was just really lucky that I had some teachers who let me explore different areas of the arts and let me have fun. Nothing is worse than a bored me in a boring class.
Today's word will be....cwm...okay, I just like the word because it has no vowels, but if means a valley or a glen.
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Post by En on Apr 15, 2003 15:11:02 GMT -5
Is that like... Welsh? I think I've seen the word "coomb" before, meaning a glen or glade, and the w in the middle would be pronounced oooo if it were Welsh.
*loves that once you're in as a word geek, you can connect to other words you don't know because you know their cousins*
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Calantha
Gryffindor Alumni
My name is Luck, this is my song, I happened by when you were gone
Posts: 4,493
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Post by Calantha on Apr 15, 2003 15:33:31 GMT -5
Hmmm...I'm not sure of it's origin, but that sounds good to me...it's usually used over in the uk so I'm guessing the chance of it to be Welsh is fairly probable.
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Ceridwen
Gryffindor Alumni
Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense
Posts: 604
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Post by Ceridwen on Nov 14, 2003 7:49:34 GMT -5
Yes, cwm is Welsh. (We get Welsh TV in Ireland, it's a trip to listen to). Words... drooool. I am like Homer Simpson, tongue hanging out, the whole nine yards. Some of today's favourites: Mellifluous Maleficent Gloaming Theodolite Peripatetic Inchoate Onyx Insinuate (I don't know why, I just like the sound... satisfyingly snakey) Anthropomorphic *wipes chin* I do so love words. I wish I worked in a place where I could use words like this all day long...
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Post by Nie on Nov 14, 2003 8:00:29 GMT -5
I have a thing for words. I like metaphors alot, and similies. For a while I was making heaps of them, but alot of the stuff I've gone through lately doesn't seem to have anything it can be comapred to, so I haven't had metaphors and similies roaming around in my head as freely.
I actually want to learn more words, and I want to learn another language. I've decided I'm going to learn Japanese because I just love the sound of it, and it'll be a challange learning hiragana and kanji.
I don't know if I actually have favourite words. I guess because each word has it's own use and meaning so we need every word.
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Ceridwen
Gryffindor Alumni
Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense
Posts: 604
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Post by Ceridwen on Nov 14, 2003 9:14:23 GMT -5
Wellllll.... it's not that I have a favourite word, it's just that I love the sound of some words more than others.
Like 'Splendour', or 'Glimmering' or 'Reprehensible' or 'Pusillanimous'... lots of syllables, and lots to get your tongue around. Some words to me are like your favourite sweets, they just taste good.
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Post by En on Nov 14, 2003 12:39:29 GMT -5
OOO! Peripatetic! That's one of my all-time favourites... right up there with misconstrue, masticate, lachrymose, and sluice.
*repeats that aloud just because it's so much fun to say*
Sluice... sluice... ssssslllllluuuuuuice...
If words had flavours, what would these be? Sluice just feels like a beverage... masticate has to be like a chewy, starchy vegetable... and lachrymose is probably a chocolate-covered dessert tart. ;D
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MagPie
Gryffindor Alumni
Posts: 449
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Post by MagPie on Nov 14, 2003 15:07:13 GMT -5
Has anyone seen the movie Donnie Darko (En, still can't get the italics thing to work )? Very good movie, check it out if you haven't seen it. Anyway, Drew Barrymore is an English teacher in it and she says that a professor she had (well, her character had) said "cellar door" was the most beautiful phrase in the English language. It doesn't seem all that great to me though... But one of my favourite words (as well as one of my favourite literary devices) is onomatopoeia (I am pretty sure I spelled it correctly...). Actually, I think it's one of my fave words BECAUSE it's my fave literary device.
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