Some people collect stamps.
Some people collect coins.
Some people collect art. And Jerome?
Jerome collected words.
I think having a word collection is a marvelous idea. My vocabulary could definitely use an update. I’ve been using words like ‘awesome’, ‘interesting’, and ‘cool’ way too much.
This book reminds me of all the vocabulary tests I had to take back in elementary and middle school. Those were difficult for me because I wasn’t a good writer back then, and I had high levels of anxiety.
Here are a few words I found in this book that I found enthralling and their meanings:
mollycoddle: to treat with an excessive or absurd degree of indulgence and attention
petrichor: the smell of dust after rain
mellifluous: sweetly or smoothly flowing; sweet-sounding
azure: bright blue in color, like a cloudless sky
infinitesimal: extremely small
And here are a few of my favorite words to say out loud and their meanings:
Oxymoron: a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction. (Examples – dry ice, cold sweat, jumbo shrimp)
hoopla: excitement surrounding an event or situation, especially when considered to be unnecessary fuss
moxie: a person full of energy, pep, courage, or determination
hootenanny: an informal gathering with folk music and sometimes dancing
discombobulate: disconcert or confuse (someone)
hullabaloo: a commotion; a fuss
bamboozled: to be tricked or swindled by another via intentional manipulation or deceptive practices.
This week’s Weird but True Fact about Words
There are more than 250,000 different words in the English language. But the average teenager only knows about 60,000 words.