I want to stage a mini revolt against Wordless Wednesday with Word-full Wednesday.
I was thinking the other day about words and it is funny how with certain words, I can remember exactly how I learned them.
I learned the word excruciating in the 2nd grade. I read Anne of Green Gables for the first time and there is that scene where Gilbert calls Anne “Carrots” for the first time. He tries to apologize, but Anne will not accept. She tells Diana that Gilbert has hurt her feelings excruciatingly and that she will never forgive him.
So here I am, a seven year old that has just acquired a new word for her verbal arsenal. So, of course, I went to school the next day and trotted out as soon as it was appropriate. I told a friend that I had suffered an excruciating pain…I think that I stubbed my toe or something.
Anyway, this other kid, who was supposed to be the smartest kid in the second grade–it was alleged that he read entire encyclopedias for light reading (this was when encyclopedias came in book form)–tried to tell me that there was no such word. We got into a huge argument about it on the bus.
So, the next day, of course, I brought a dictionary with me (this is also the day when dictionaries were huge, heavy books, not convenient online sites…but I had a point to make). I won’t lie, it felt good to one-up the “smartest kid in the school”.
Other words I learned in a weird way:
Expectorating: I learned that word from watching the Disney version of “Beauty and the Beast.” Gaston sings this song where one of the lines is “I’m especially good at expectorating.” Peep 1:53.
Perhaps it was “Gaston’s” dulcet tones, but I never forgot that word. I like knowing it too, though I don’t really have many opportunities to use it.
Facetious took me forever to remember. I don’t remember the first time that I encountered it, but I know that I must have looked it up a dozen times before the definition finally took root in my brain. Every time someone would say the word to me, I would rack my brain for the meaning–because I knew that I knew the word. But, it wasn’t there. It was a joyous day when the definition finally decided to hang around in my brain for a while.
So, am I the only one that has strange and indelible word memories like these?
