Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Excel-lent Vocabulary

Interesting experiment I started today:

I made an excel list of vocabulary words that I didn't know. It's becoming an excellent way to memorize them. One word per row, then definitions from miriamwebster.com and dictionary.com (for variety), their synonyms from both websites, their function (verb, adjective, etc.) an example in a sentence, and then their origin. A lot of interesting facts to be learned here. I definitely recommend it.

Word successfully memorized today: Panglossian, which means naively optimistic. There was a character named Pangloss in a Voltaire novel, and the adjective is derived from that. Interesting stuff.

The typing of the word, definition, and fact helps cement it in your mind.

Learn lots of vocab! And don't curse like Sue Simmons...

2 comments:

Quillhill said...

I guess by nature a writer is a Panglossian creature.

Vivien V. said...

I don't know about that one.