I have always loved learning the definition of big words, especially when they give nothing away to their meaning, such as defenestrate, which is the act of throwing a person out of a window. Another of my favourite words is sesquipedalian, which is a person who is given to using long words. I think it is quite fitting that the way to name a person who uses long words is to use a long word yourself!
Today I was again reading my novel "Fall of Giants", and in a speech given by one of the characters they used the word poltroonery. Usually when I am reading a novel, based on the events of the novel and what the characters have been saying, I can guess at the meaning of a word, even if I don't know the exact definition. However today when reading the word poltroonery, I didn't even have a hint as to what the character was implying by using the word. In the end I had to refer to my good friend dictionary.com! It turns out that a poltroon is "a wretched coward", and to accuse someone of poltroonery is to accuse them of wretched cowardice! I liked this word, it fitted with the speech given in the book and now I know the meaning, I can add it to my vocabulary along with defenestrate and sesquipedalian. All I need to do is to find an opportunity when I can call someone a poltroon!
If you want to check the definition or other definitions I suggest dictionary.com.
16 days of learning so far!
Adrian - I love you! This stuff is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteNice, I had never heard of sesquipedalian, however it did remind of of the word autological. Which is words that describe themselves, like 'example', and 'short'.
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