Learn 100 new words

I am subscribed to Dictionary.com’s Word Of The Day feature via my RSS feed, even though I usually don’t make much of an effort to study the words, since I’ve got my own schedule going here. My schedule starts with the first ten “words of the day” ever (see previous posts).

Just now, I clicked on my bloglines RSS feed “word of the day”, and the word was “emolument” – the same word of the day as was the very first dictionary.com word! I’ll see if the next word is the next one on my list. If it is, I’ve found the loop – go me!

1. emolument – wages; compensation.
2. palindrome – something that reads the same backward as forward
3. deprecate – to disapprove or belittle.
4. bivouac – an encampment overnight, with little or no shelter.
5. umbrage – offense; resentment. Shade.
6. incipient – beginning to exist or appear.
7. dapple – a spot or blotch. A spotty or blotchy appearance.
8. pugnacious – quarrelsome.
9. capitulate – to surrender under agreed conditions.
10. susurrus – a whispering or rustling, murmuring sound.

I already knew what some of these words meant, but it was nice to review them. I went to Dictionary.com’s word of the day and at previous words. May 1999 is when they started doing it, so I took the first ten words from that.

I have included links to the words in case I forget how to pronounce them, or which words are verbs as well as nouns, and for the information of anyone reading this post.

I plan to review these every day until I feel like adding more words.

Everyone wants to build their vocabulary, right? Yeah.

Random thing: I think it helps to have very specific goals (“Stop drinking pop”, “Exercise 5 times a week,” “Eat either an apple or an orange once per day”) instead of vague goals (“Lose weight.”) That way you can hold yourself accountable and have your eyes on a target. It’s like practical versus theoretical. Concrete versus abstract. Specific versus vague. Anyway.