Wednesday, November 19, 2008

New Additions to my Vocabulary!

I tried hard to come up with something more boring to write about, but came up short. Stay with me though, as this will be slightly amusing to some small fraction of the internet population.


Anyway, I learned two new words this week, and I thought I would share. The source of this new knowledge: fucking Newsweek. Seriously.


I think what happened was this: I was so shocked by the fact the author was using words that I recognized as words, but whose meaning escaped me, I HAD to look them up. Very embarassing. Basically, I encounter fewer than 5 unfamilar words a year. I shouldn't see two of them in the same magazine article.

The offenders? Vituperative and callow.
I vaguely recognized that vituperative was a 'negative' word. I would have guessed that it meant loud and aggressive. I wasn't far off. The Newsweek article was describing the angry mobs that attended McCain rallies in the US prior to the election.



KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLL HIM!



As for callow, I would have guessed, quite superficially, at some combination of the words 'cad' and 'shallow'. I was a little more off the mark there, as callow does not denote anything so explicitly negative. It just means 'lacking adult sophistication'. The article was describing Obama. The descriptor is somewhat ironic, as Obama comes off as very adult and very sophisticated, at least to me.

You got something on your mind, honkey?



So there. Remember than angry republicans are 'vituperative' and that Obama is 'callow' and you will never forget these two words. Impress your friends or avoid feeling embarassed. Don't walk the same path I did.

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