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A while back the kids and I played a game in which I would find a word in the dictionary and they would try to define it. Not only did they impress the whole family with their vocabulary, we all learned a few more words, and what they learned stuck.
1. Dirge (This one actually came up on a test over a year later, and was remembered from the game. It was an English class, rather than Music, though.)
2. magnetite (obviously the black iron ore, not the latest butt-enhancing exercise routine)
3. confute (I’d just use refute, but whatever.)
4. disco (You’d think this would be easy for the kids, but no. Just shows my age. Now it’s all dubstep)
5. florid (Easy for a Romance writer to remember even if it’s from anger rather than passion, but not so easy for a teenager to remember)
6. quittance (You’d think with my accounting background I’d know this one.)
7. rabbet (No, it’s not misspelled. It’s the carpentry term)
8. Suetonius (I’m not sure it’s fair to use a dictionary that includes historical figures. No way I’d have guessed the Roman historian Gaius Suetonius)
9. capo (a guitar playing thing.)
10. Acyclovir (What the heck is this doing in the dictionary? Not what I want to have to explain to my kids, though I suppose they ought to know. *groan*)
11. provide (Got to give them an easy one now and then)
12. Madeira (The Boy knew because it had already come up in a video game.)
13. fakir (great way to start a religious discussion.)
I learned some new things
There were about 5 words I didn’t know but I suppose you can figure out which one I actually looked up. Maybe I should just go get that shingles shot at Walgreens huh?
Oh, is shingles related to herpes?
I believe another name for shingles is herpes zoster and it’s a result of childhood chicken pox, not sexual activity. Since shingles typically presents at an older age, though, I’d be very skeptical if a twentysomething romantic interest tried to say the bottle of acyclovir in the medicine chest was for shingles. Then again, at my age I’m not exactly attracting (or looking for) twentysomethings. Hubby would have a fit, for starters.
your post reminding me of how i used to love those ‘improve your vocab’ blurbs in the morning paper! happy tt!
If you haven’t read Suetonius’s The Twelve Caesars, hie thee to library or amazon.com! It’s as entertaining as a novel, perhaps more so. It’s full of juicy gossip, sex scandals, and oddities of all kinds. Did you know that when Claudius’ son Drusus choked on a pear and died, the pear tree was tried for murder, dug up and burned? And how about all that stuff about Caligula and his sisters, or making his horse a senator, or ordering his army to collect seashells and then claiming the shells as the god Neptune’s tribute? All that and much more is in The Twelve Caesars. Fun stuff!
Why does it not surprise me that you would know?
Love the video game reference. Sounds too familiar.
Have a great Thursday!
http://harrietandfriends.com/2012/02/13-popular-dogs-in-the-usa/
Some good words there. More parents should play this kind of game with their kids. I have another vocab post this week, too.
Fun TT! Love your definitions!
*hugs*
Paige
My TT is at http://paigetylertheauthor.blogspot.com/
Great words! Nice to know they learn something from a video game every now and then.
I knew all but two of them!
In response to the acyclovir discussion, shingles does tend to show up later but not always. Also, the antiviral drug can be used to treat a range of the herpes viruses, including shingles, HSV2 (genital herpes), HSV1 (oral herpes – what some people refer to as cold sores or fever blisters). AND there are other herpes sites like the chest, just as a for instance. I inherited a herpes support group from a colleague and it sparked an interest in virology in me. But I especially like the hemorrhagic viruses.
I had no idea when I came up with this list that I’d be learning so much about herpes.
The blog world is a never ending surprise, isn’t it?
LOL. Yep.