GalacticCactus Forum
Forums => English & Linguistics => Topic started by: Annie Subjunctive on June 16, 2005, 11:51:34 AM
-
I used the word irascible the other day (modifying beliefs), totally sure that it meant something like impregnable or unshakable. It doesn't mean that at all.
I suppose I was thinking it was related to deracinate, but I could have sworn I had heard it before to mean what I thought it meant. Is there another word I might have been thinking of?
-
Nothing comes to mind. Maybe you just heard somebody using it incorrectly.
-
Maybe I'm over-Latinizing again.
-
Actually, I'd say I use about 80% of my vocabulary words without being able to give you a strict definition of them. I kind of just throw them in where I instinctually think they sound good. This gets me in trouble with words I confuse easily, like ethereal, esoteric and ephemeral.
Come to think of it, that's kind of how I cook too.
-
I think we mostly learn where/when to use words based on context from speech or books, and we get the meaning of those words mostly from context. So if I learn from/am around people who misuse words, it spreads rather fast. And it's fun to say aloud those amusing new words I only read before, so sometimes I put words into my speech that I have never used before for the simple pleasure of pronouncing them and the novelty of their sound.
-
That's probably the same for everyone, Annie. I feel like I've got a good sense of when to use a word and when a word is used incorrectly, but I am absolutely horrible at giving definitions.
Oh, and that probably means you're a good cook.
-
I have to look up zeitgeist every time I hear it.
-
*goes to look up zeitgeist*
-
The spirit of the time. From German zeit time + geist ghost.