Once again, I made it my resolution to try to keep track of all the words I have to look up in the dictionary. This would probably be much easier if I used an old-fashioned book dictionary, but do people still do that? I have a dictionary. I got it for my 25th birthday. It’s an amazing, unabridged doozy that weighs like eight pounds. Right now, I believe it’s sitting under the monitor on my desk. Yes, I use it as a monitor stand.
Just like last year, I tried to keep a little note on my dashboard where I would paste each of the words I had to look up for either meaning or spelling. About fifty percent of the time I was trying to catch people using a word wrong, just for my own smug satisfaction.
However, thanks to my friend Steve, I learned that there was a word I’ve been using incorrectly for as long as I have been using it. That word? Nonplussed. Yeah, I always thought it mean unperturbed, undisturbed, chill. Nope, it means “to render utterly perplexed; puzzle completely.” Who knew? I mean, aside from Steve.
Anyway, if you want to see the other words I didn’t know the meaning of, check below.
eminence 11Jan11
monotreme 11Jan11
seminar 12Jan11
provincial 15Jan11
ennui 16Jan11
enigmatic 17Jan11
mitigated 20Jan11
philandering 25Jan11
oeuvre 25Jan11
perpetuity 26Jan11
tazes 28Jan11
circuitous 30Jan11
Expound 01Feb11
slut 01Feb11
slovenly 01 Feb11
sloven 01Feb11
plebian 08Feb11
fatuity 10Feb11
curtsey 11Feb11
scepter 15Feb11
commodity 16Feb11
jeremiad 18Feb11
upholstery 23Feb11
lame 21Mar11
crazy 21Mar11
conscious 02Apr11
flagellation 04Apr11
debaucherous 17Apr11
synecdoche 01May11
ideology 03May11
indignant 12May11
define 16May11
cohort 16May11
panacea 19May11
arcane 24May11
slayed 27May11
prayer 01May11
acrimony 13Jun11
pastime 13Jun11
pretentious 15Jun11
bucolic 23Jun11
entropic 28Jun11
nonplussed 07Jul11
bemused 07Jul11
livid 07Jul11
irreverent 13Jul11
plumb 21Jul11
esoteric 03Aug11
profound 26Aug11
emphatic 05Sep11
hoary 08Sep11
posited 12Sep11
Jodhpurs 21Sep11
tenuous 21Sep11
current 26Sep11
inamorata 30Sep11
synecdoche 30Sep11
nihilism 06Oct11
elicited 17Oct11
jejune 06Nov11
credence 06Nov11
magnanimous 07Nov11
proclivities 11Nov11
dogma 16Nov11
autonomic 29Nov11
ubiquity 30Nov11
whiff 13Dec11
inquest 14Dec11
conflation 20Dec11
Words from Ziggy (dates unknown)
currant
ambivalence
demimonde
idiosyncrasy
nonplussed
peripatetic
bellicose