"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

I'm not going to check with a dictionary but there are occasionally words that force me to look them up. Then I promptly forget their meaning. Solipsism and sophistry are two that come to mind. Does anyone use these words in everyday speech? If so, how so? No fair looking them up. I've just pretty much decided not to add them to my current 400 words.

Lots of you have probably played that game where you come up with wacky fake definitions for obscure real words. We love it. Our version is called "Big Dic" and we play it by passing around our in house big dictionary -- not with the chintzy board game with the same concept. The problem is that I end up remembering the fake definitions -- not learning new words. Withershins and zarf and woik.

Then there was the word I just learned I've been misusing for years. Laconic.* My husband was reading me an article and asked, "what's laconic mean?" I tried to explain how I used it but then we looked it up. I'm really sorry to have lost that word from my vocabulary now that I know the real meaning. What a drag! All this time, I've probably sounded like some jailbird with a brand new copy of "How To Develop a Super Power Vocabulary."

Then are also those words you have only read and never say out loud. You know the meaning from context. One day the perfect opportunity arises and you use it in conversation, but you mispronounce it. And the person you're talking to, tells you so. Can't think of any offhand but this happens. The only one that comes to mind is Vur-say-z for Versace (Showgirls) but there are better examples that aren't proper nouns.

Susan

* REAL DEF: using or involving the use of a minimum of words : concise to the point of seeming rude or mysterious

* WRONG DEF: ease of carriage, long and lanky, easy-going

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Epitome is one that gets mispronounced a lot here at work. And I mean a lot.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

Get outta here, Amanda. How else can you pronounce it? Ep-ee-TOME?

You know what drives me nuts is when someone says ECK-cetera.

Haha, right, Booth!  That's probably the last time I looked it up too.

Sounds like you've got solipsism and atheism confused.

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Haha, or how about chaise LOUNGE when it's actually chaise LONGUE!

Everybody else is so stoopid and we're all smart!

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Chris, that's so gaucho of tu.

Susan 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

My theory by A. Elk, brackets, Miss, brackets. This theory goes as follows and begins now. All brontosauruses are thin at one end, much much thicker in the middle, and then thin again at the far end. That is my theory, it is mine, and it belongs to me, and I own it, and what it is, too.

Ange's Odyssey

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love."