Frazz by Jef Mallett for December 12, 2023

Y’know, you hardly ever see little kids with pennies for eyes any more.

You need to learn more words so that you can read more books.

Maybe you’ll go into politics. Then you say old things with new words.

Kind of a ying-yang thing, I guess. Only math is more disconcerting…

Okay kid, then when you know all of the old ones you may quit learning.

Most of the new ones learned at that age can’t be repeated here!

You might find it cruel fun to baffle with your vocabulary. Or entertaining for them when you appear to be trying too hard and use the wrong word. Either way, better than anyone who seems to limit their vocabulary to three vulgarities.

I’m currently reading “Sophie’s Choice” by William Styron. I enjoy the book, but he uses so many words that I’ve never heard of.

Some words describe concepts that you have to understand for the definition to have any meaning.

If you know the concept already, learning the word means you have a clear way of describing it to others, or yourself later.

If you don’t know the concept, you will need to take the time to learn the concept so the word will be useful. (Unless you don’t have a lasting need for “deserialization” or “technical debt” or “praxis” or whatever.)

And even if you think you know the concept from the context you have seen it in, there may be nuances or exceptions. A little reading can fill in gaps and fix misconceptions.

In the 30’s-50’s, look-say was the method most often used. It trained the mind to record and repeat the sound, just like repeating a song one has heard. That worked just fine until one ran into a list of new words which had no relation to previous vocabularies. Then we went to the dictionary and tried to translate the phonetic symbols in the text. Had that technique been included with the earlier method, many of us from that era would have been better prepared for the world of languages that we now face every day.

[One of the best college courses I had was a required diction course for voice students. We learned the sounds of and the diacritical signs and symbols for the proper enunciation of aria scores, etc, from operas in the most frequent European languages. Didn’t teach us the mechanics of the language, just the pronunciation, but it did open our eyes to the beauty that was out there.]

But new words are cool.

Almost complained himself into reading.

If you read tons of books you’ll pass the vocabulary test without having to memorize lists of words.

He should read the book “Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words” by Randall Munroe. In it, Munroe uses the 1000 most commonly used English words to explain things like microwave ovens, pencils and the atomic bomb work. It is well-illustrated.

Makes a great holiday gift.

All your old words were new words, once.

When I was in school they told us “use your vocabulary words in a sentence”. So I did. I created one long run-on sentence that incorporated all 20 words. These things never made much sense, but that wasn’t the point.

Back in the day spelling and vocabulary tests were easy A’s.

Ask Adam Cartwright.

The classic quote from Churchill, “Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.” – Winston Churchill

The English language does have an unusually large vocabulary. Not the largest in the world, but far larger than is typical. There are many synonyms. They do more than just keep thesaurus publishers in business, of course; they offer the ability to express oneself with great exactitude. They also express the remarkably diverse legacy of conquest upon the British isles, and then the continued history of Britain pursuing similar conquest across the world, with the language picking up bits and pieces as it went. (This is also why its spelling is so ridiculous.)

Kid B makin cents

It won’t matter so much when you are in your late 60s and begin forgetting words.

In an episode of The Simpsons Marge orders a subliminal weight loss tape for Homer. The company is out of weight loss tapes so they send him a vocabulary-enhancer tape instead. Homer falls asleep while listening to the tape. When he wakes up he speaks a flowery, erudite English while eating more food than ever.

Read-y, set go!

Because you’d never be able to use words like “Absqatulate” in your conversation.

Is no one going to answer his question? Learning new words helps you understand other people better. What you do after that is up to you.

If the purpose of language is communication with others, how is it better if you learn and use words that others do not understand?

And watch the movie version later.