what's the use?

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#17220 - 01/26/01 11:59 PM what's the use?
Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,538 tsuwm Carpal Tunnel
tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,538 this too shall pass	In my role as curator of the wwftd archives, I am often asked where I find these curiosities. The answer to this is as varied as the words themselves and involves a shelf full of resources, contributions from subscribers, and (yes) even perusing the occasional dictionary. But true reading pleasure comes with the discovery of a new, unusual word whilst reading ordinary(!) books. Some of my favorite sources over the years that I've been doing this include folks like William F. Buckley, whose English vocabulary may be the most prodigious of any person alive today (and he uses it bombastically and precisely, all at once); Vladamir Nabakov (the Russian-born novelist), who exhibits a similar aptitude for eloquence and an astonishing capacity for the English lexicon; Thomas Pynchon, who dredges up rarities and makes them his own (e.g., he makes wonderful use of 'musaceous' in "Gravity's Rainbow"); Gene Wolfe, who exhumes archaisms and obsolete words to make the settings of his science-fantasies (e.g., "Book of the New Sun") ring true; and James Joyce, who needs no further comment. I'm told that writers such as Borges and Anais Nin should be read in their original texts, but even the translations can be linguistically rewarding. I'd like to hear from others... which writers move you (to the dictionary) in their use of language?

#17221 - 01/27/01 12:18 AM Re: what's the use?
Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 87 nikeblack journeyman
nikeblack journeyman Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 87 City of Brotherly Love, no not...	Colin Dexter of Inspector Morse fame. I once spent a frustrating and, in the end, useless hour hunting for a definition of some obscure word he'd used in one of his novels. Can't remember the word. Other than that? I'll have to muse on that a bit more... Oh! Patrick O'Brian. Those durned nautical terms!

#17222 - 01/27/01 02:15 AM Re: what's the use?
Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 2,891 belMarduk Carpal Tunnel
belMarduk Carpal Tunnel Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 2,891	I don't have one author in particular. I recently, well, o.k. last year, re-read two books that were mandatory reads in high-school. W.O. Mitchell�s Who Has Seen the Wind and John Steinbeck�s Of Mice and Men. I found I had to look up several words that had fallen out of use, like stook in Who Has Seen the Wind). The use of these words made the writing seem richer. If I could find a proper Hindi dictionary I would finally get to understand all those words Rudyard Kipling uses. I am going through a collection of his stories and he lobs in Hindi words left and right. Often I can glean what the word means by the surrounding sentence or paragraph, but sometimes not�it can be so frustrating.

#17223 - 01/27/01 01:15 PM Re: what's the use?
Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 130 Solamente, Doug. member
Solamente, Doug. member Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 130 Virginia	Anthony Burgess really opened my eyes to tons (tonnes) of new words. Like so many, I started with A Clockwork Orange (and like so many, I read the whole thing without realizing their was a Nadsat glossary in the back!). I find it fascinating that so many of his invented words from that book have entered the language. In Earthly Powers, I'm convinced that he put at least one word that needed looking up on each page (sibilant and steatopygous immediately come to mind). A hell of a way to get through a book, but I muddled through, eventually. I owe him a great debt, as he was my first introduction to the amazing possibilities of language.

#17224 - 01/27/01 04:00 PM Re: what's the use?
Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 328 Rapunzel enthusiast
Rapunzel enthusiast Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 328 Eastern Pennsylvania	During my Freshman year in college, I discovered the work of a history writer named Simon Schama. There were a lot of words in his book Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution which I was not familiar with. I was also driven to the dictionary several times while reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. The word I remember best is "callipygian," although I may never have the opportunity to use it in normal conversation.

#17225 - 01/27/01 04:08 PM Re: what's the use?
Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 wwh Carpal Tunnel
wwh Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858	Dear Rapunzel: Did your long hair hide your callipygy? Wiping a palmprint off my cheek, Bill Hunt

#17226 - 01/27/01 04:57 PM Re: what's the use?
Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Jackie
Jackie Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky	Wiping a palmprint off my cheek Which one?!?!

#17227 - 01/27/01 05:01 PM Re: what's the use?
Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 328 Rapunzel enthusiast
Rapunzel enthusiast Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 328 Eastern Pennsylvania	Which one?!?! Thanks, Jackie. I couldn't have said it better myself.

#17228 - 01/27/01 07:29 PM Re: what's the use?
Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 wwh Carpal Tunnel
wwh Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858	Dear Rapunzel: Why, to that malar prominence to which you telekinetically administered it. You wouldn't hit below the belt, would you? wwh

#17229 - 01/27/01 08:14 PM Re: what's the use?
Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Jackie
Jackie Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky	Rapunzel, shall we take turns?

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