A word is worth a thousand pictures.........
Most of my younger correspondants on the internet use one of the various dictionary services to look up words.....(those who bother to look up words at all that is).
I do so myself from time to time..........but I always find something lacking in the experience and always return to the lifelong habit of using a real dictionary.
I have, in fact, a dictionary within easy reach of my desk...it weighs, easily, in the neighborhood of 20 pounds and contains 135,000 entries. It is well worn, which should come as no great shock to those who know me. The much loved dictionary we had at home when I was a kid comprised over 200,000 entries.
I have suffered much in the way of good natured taunts and jibes from young friends....... I've been labeled dinosaur, fossil, Thesaurus Rex......etc. You can imagine....and maybe I deserve it. It does seem an arcane and inefficient practice to turn from a computer that you are working at to muddle through an unweildy and enormous tome ("as I pondered weak and weary over many an ancient volume of forgotten lore") in search of a word you can have at the click of a button without even having to have the beginnings of a clue as to how to spell.
I've given it some thought lately...but today, something happened that clearly illustrates the value of (and perhaps even the reason behind) my peculiar preference. Certainly it explains the feeling of being less than satisfied by the practice of looking up words on-line.
As I "honed in on" a word I was looking up, I realized I was casually taking note of the words that caught my eye along the way. Occasionally I would stop and read the definition of a word I was unfamiliar with as I neared the particular word I had gone in search of.
I can't, off-hand remember what I had started to look up....but in addition to having found my word, I learned a whole new useful word.
Ladies and gentlemen.........I give you:
grangerize. To illustrate, as a book, with additional prints or engravings taken from other books; to mutilate by cutting out photographs and illustrations.
Remember that the next time you have to spend an hour in a doctor's waiting room with nothing to do except browse through a stack of outdated, grangerized copies of Outdoor Life and Better Homes and Gardens.
*grins*
Thus endeth the entry............
I do so myself from time to time..........but I always find something lacking in the experience and always return to the lifelong habit of using a real dictionary.
I have, in fact, a dictionary within easy reach of my desk...it weighs, easily, in the neighborhood of 20 pounds and contains 135,000 entries. It is well worn, which should come as no great shock to those who know me. The much loved dictionary we had at home when I was a kid comprised over 200,000 entries.
I have suffered much in the way of good natured taunts and jibes from young friends....... I've been labeled dinosaur, fossil, Thesaurus Rex......etc. You can imagine....and maybe I deserve it. It does seem an arcane and inefficient practice to turn from a computer that you are working at to muddle through an unweildy and enormous tome ("as I pondered weak and weary over many an ancient volume of forgotten lore") in search of a word you can have at the click of a button without even having to have the beginnings of a clue as to how to spell.
I've given it some thought lately...but today, something happened that clearly illustrates the value of (and perhaps even the reason behind) my peculiar preference. Certainly it explains the feeling of being less than satisfied by the practice of looking up words on-line.
As I "honed in on" a word I was looking up, I realized I was casually taking note of the words that caught my eye along the way. Occasionally I would stop and read the definition of a word I was unfamiliar with as I neared the particular word I had gone in search of.
I can't, off-hand remember what I had started to look up....but in addition to having found my word, I learned a whole new useful word.
Ladies and gentlemen.........I give you:
grangerize. To illustrate, as a book, with additional prints or engravings taken from other books; to mutilate by cutting out photographs and illustrations.
Remember that the next time you have to spend an hour in a doctor's waiting room with nothing to do except browse through a stack of outdated, grangerized copies of Outdoor Life and Better Homes and Gardens.
*grins*
Thus endeth the entry............
posted by captn | 7/10/2006 08:15:00 PM
2 Comments:
Terribly useful word. Should be included in all English phrase books for sale in foreign countries. ;-)
I'm most especially gratified that you like it dear.........
Veridically speaking, I had you in mind as I wrote the entry.
*grins*
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