I love it when useless knowledge turns out to only be knowledge that is rarely useful.

Jul 22, 2007 21:42

When I was in sixth grade the first hour after lunch was dedicated to silent reading. Everyone in class had to read quietly while the teacher graded papers and did other such work. You were allowed to read whatever you wanted though, as long as it was a book (no comics, magazines, newspapers, etc.). I liked silent reading a lot because I read a lot anyway, and the teacher didn't yell at me for not listening. It was the best part of the day next to recess.

There was a period of four or five days during the middle part of that year where I didn't have a book to read (I had finished my last choice and kept forgetting to bring another one in). I offered to do several other activities silently and at my desk instead of reading, which I thought were reasonable since I was obviously smart, generally non-disruptive, and actually liked to read anyway, but my requests were denied, so I was given the option of reading a book I had just finished (bleh), trading with someone else (Also pretty bleh since most of them were still reading Goosebumps or Richard Scary, and also impossible as whatever I had just finished I'm sure it looked intimidatingly long to them), or otherwise finding a book in the classroom (I was not permitted to use the school library down the hall because we had strictly enforced rules about not only how many books a student could check out at once, but on what days and times they were allowed to check them out. This day was not library day, nor was it library time on library day, so I was out of luck.) My solution? I decided to read the dictionary. The four or five days worth of dictionary reading got me through the letter D (I skipped all the words I already knew), then I brought a real book and all was well.

In this exercise, only two words were added to my vocabulary thoroughly enough to stand the test of time. The first was comestible, which I never use personally since it is the same as the word edible, except that if you say edible people know what you mean. I have however seen it written many times since I started college, so learning it was useful. I was much more fond of the second word, but despite my best efforts, and to my great disappointment, I have never managed to use naturally in a conversation, nor have I ever heard anyone say , or seen someone write it...until today.

Today I saw the word Dolichocephalic written not once, but twice! And the most surprising part is that it wasn't in any sort of academic article, it was in a short fictional essay by Robert E. Howard (who will ever-after be one of my favorite writers, although he was already in the running). Not only this, but knowing the word already saved me another trip to a dictionary when he used the word mesocephalic, which I could easily infer.
Previous post Next post
Up
[]