Vocabularies and Fingerprints
Each Friday I volunteer at the Barton School, at Spokane’s
First Presbyterian Church. The School’s mission is to help non-English speakers
improve their fluency. I’m constantly struck by the students’ courage and
tenacity in trying to figure out the complexities and inconsistencies characterizing
English.
Then there’s their vocabularies. I’m often surprised by the
basic words (in my opinion) that they don’t know and even more surprised by
some that they do. Our vocabularies are like our fingerprints: Unique. I’m
convinced that none of our vocabularies perfectly overlaps with anyone else’s.
Which brings me to my list of words or phrases. When I’m
reading I look up words I don’t know. Well, usually. Then I enter them in a
Word document (that’s appropriate). Occasionally I update my list, as I’ve done
this month, culling a few that I’ve remembered.
You see, that’s my problem. Merely looking up an unknown
word usually isn’t enough to recall its meaning when I encounter it again. As I
tell my students, repetition is needed for a word to become a permanent
resident in one’s vocabulary.
Here are five of these entries, giving you a small sample of
the English words I’ve encountered.
Ambisintrous: Clumsy with both hands. (Remember “ambidextrous”?
Then there’s that delightful line, “I’d give my right hand to be
ambidextrous”?)
Capgras syndrome: A mental health condition that
leads you to think people have all been replaced by exact doubles.
Iatronudia: The tendency of some women to pretend to
be sick so they can be seen unclothed in front of their doctors.
Retronym: A term referring to a noun and a modifier
that specifies the original meaning of the noun, usually required by
technological advances, to clarify meaning. Examples: rotary phone, snail mail,
analog watch.
Siffleur: A professional whistler.
Maybe
I’ll remember these now.
[300 words]
