The other night I was reading the NY Times Sunday Magazine and while I was reading, I came across a word that caught my eye. The word was BAFFLED. What a great word. I noticed several other words in this piece and I loved how they were used in the sentences. It made me think of how I really wish I had a better vocabulary. I want to have a greater variety of words. I wish I had them at my fingertips, but I don't. Or do I and it's just laziness? I mean, how often do I describle something as "great." Much, much too often. Sometimes, while writing, I can catch myself using words that I haven't used in a while, but not as often as I'd like. BAFFLED. It's such a great word. So descriptive. Can't you just picture it...someone looking BAFFLED?
What about you? Do you have a large vocabulary? Do you think it's brain laziness that makes us chose the same words over and over to descibe something?
3 comments:
I think that being an avid reader helps, but I thought that I had a pretty good vocabulary until I started studying for the GRE!!!
Great post. I love words...how they sound, how they feel when I say them, discovering new ones.
Sometimes I think that my vocabulary is large, but it's usually right about then that I come across someone who makes me want to carry around a dictionary at all times.
I think choosing the same words could be a bit of mental laziness, a dash of habit and perhaps an awareness of to whom you're speaking. I don't mean talking "down" or "up" as the case may be, but maneuvering along that fine line of being eloquent without being pretentious. Does that make sense?
I think I subconciously pick up words reading books so much. Not realizing it I will pull some word out of nowhere when I write and think - "where did I get that?" Sometimes, if I read a book and come across a word I really like I will write it down.
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