Ex Libris

Recently I opened the cover to what I thought would be nothing more than a cozy little read, knitting my love for books even tighter as I delved into the mind of a fellow bibliophile.

Now, I've always had quite a fondness for words, forcing myself to look up words I am unfamiliar with in my reading, but as I [very] slowly turned the first few pages of this wonderful book, I realized how quickly this lady was wearing out my nifty dictionary app on my phone (is this weird to you?). It was quite unsettling.

Here are some examples of words I had to look up, confident I had never even seen them before:

Grimoires
Adytum
Adapertile
Camorra
Aspergills
Opopanax

I think you catch my drift, or at least, by this point have wandered into the kitchen, positive that making a pb&j sandwich would be a much better use of your time.

Two conflicting feelings quickly surfaced after this first chapter: First, a hovering cloud of dread as I realized my love for the written word may have just been all talk (oddly enough), and a spark of excitement as my mind mused and masticated (stop giggling and go look it up) on this hearty bill of fare.

And who doesn't want to be able to correctly call someone a "milquetoast" to their face? I sure do. Moral of the story? Better vocab = better insults.

No, in all seriousness, constantly growing and developing your vocabulary clearly has many benefits.

Want to integrate new words into your drab vocab?

• Sign up to receive the 'Word of the Day' in your email via Dictionary.com here.


• Go to Freerice.com. This site helps build vocabulary while feeding impoverished nations. Win-Win.


• Don't skip over (or mumble incoherently) challenging words that cross your path. Take a moment to actually look up the word (the thought of a dictionary app suddenly isn't so foreign and laughable now).


• Watch this


• Buy this and thank me later.

-me-