And for Christmas, he gave me a calendar called "Weird and Wonderful Words"......a couple of examples....
Sindonology - the study of the Shroud of Turin
Kenspeckle - a Scottish word meaning 'conspicuous' possibly from the Swedish.
Let's see......... the leftist nature of some of the 'true conservatives' on FR is kenspeckle. I LIKE it. :)
Or how about 'erinaceous'..........someone with the manners of a hedgehog. That one could be used around here, too. :)
When I was young, I too loved to read dictionaries. Words really ARE "magic: and the more fluent one is, in one's mother tongue, the better. And now, I have learned a couple of new words and seen a couple of "old friends".
Many thanks for "ERNACEOUS"; it's now going to become a favorite of mine. :-)
Do you know WHY many people think that our FFS were so much more intelligent than we poor mortals? It's because they used, REALLY USED the English language so well! Lots and lots of now in disuse words, used to berate and belittle and libel others......but it sounds, to us, so erudite, because they didn't sound like today's ganstarapper wannabes, with all the F bombs and gutter slang and profanity. Yet, if you look at what they said about each other, they were WORSE! LOL