/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.22087655]

What words have you had to look up while reading? Post your vocabulary builder or word list equivalent. Make fun of anons for their poor vocabulary.

[Anonymous No.22087688]

>>22087655
Reading Plutarch’s lives rn. Had some interesting gems I had to look up:
>traducing
>encomium

[Anonymous No.22087697]

>>22087688
>traducing
lol I looked this up earlier today
thought it was a typo for a minute because the context would have half-fit "introducing"

[Anonymous No.22087702]

>>22087655
Most of those words I don't know, but why is crime in there?

>Cock of the roost
>Estoppel
>Glibness

[Anonymous No.22087757]

>>22087702
I would say it is there to highlight the issue with flashcards, all they really test for is if you know A meaning of A word and not if you know the word along with all of its subtleties and nuances. English literature lives off of those nuances and while the majority can intuit these nuances through context few can use or explain them, just mimic usage and rely on context, passive vocabulary. You want to increase your language and comprehension skills, sit down with the OED and start looking up the words you already know. I am better "crime" has a very long and interesting definition that goes beyond illegal actions.

[Anonymous No.22087774]

>>22087757
You only needed the last sentence.

[Anonymous No.22087785]

>>22087774
I would say that I did not need to reply at all. But to communicate well you need take your audience into account, most people who would see the sense of that last statement in isolation are people who already know the worth of that statement.

[Anonymous No.22087807]

>>22087785
I dont see how you wouldn't need to reply. I was asking a question, that typically requires a response. The response was the last sentence, the rest was unnecessary. If you are taking your audience into account why add all of that unnecessary filler? (I am dumb, few words=good)

[Anonymous No.22087811]

>>22087807
You may want to look up the definition of "need."

[Anonymous No.22087816]

>>22087811
I just did, now what?

[Anonymous No.22087827]

>>22087816
Apply what you learned to the context I used it in? Good luck.

[Anonymous No.22087947]

>>22087702
Not sure. Possibly an accident it add anything you highlight

[Anonymous No.22087998]

the last page

[Anonymous No.22088023]

a good part of these was just checking the spelling (Br vs. Am) or etymology, the only ones whose meaning I didn't know or just wanted to verify were chide, gaggle and custodian

[Anonymous No.22088039]

I use my own flashcard/quiz app to drill vocab.

[Anonymous No.22088046]

>>22087655
>Crime

[Anonymous No.22088057]

>>22087998
Are you reading Don Quixote?

[Anonymous No.22088078]

>>22088057
These are the books the words are from.

[Anonymous No.22088870]

>>22087655
>hirsute
>presbyopic
from Infinite Jest, I've heard he starts making up his own words at some point so that should be cool

[Anonymous No.22088961]

>>22087655
>Nystagmic
From IJ

[Anonymous No.22088999]

stevedore

[Anonymous No.22089006]

>>22087655
I don’t understand what a “blue” is in the context of a man sending one to Odette de Crecy.

[Anonymous No.22089173]

>>22087655
piebald
apropos

[Anonymous No.22089347]

>>22087655
I have two anki decks where I save the new words I encounter, I'm +1100 words now.

[Anonymous No.22089349]

>>22088078
>In defense of looting
Babby’s first anarkiddie book

[Anonymous No.22089381]

>>22088023
>chuddy

[Anonymous No.22089391]

>>22088999
Eric Hoffer- Longshoreman

[Anonymous No.22089555]

>>22087655
>>22087998
I'm going to try to do them by memory just as a vocab exercise
>calliope - Greek goddess/musical instrument
>aplomb - self-confidence
>bonze - ?
>integument - hard outer covering
>synchrony - at the same time
>forsooth - indeed
>limpid - clear
>diachrony - through time
>pthisis - ?
>dolorous - sorrowful
>ineluctability - inevitability
>maladroit - incapable
>selenology - ?
>lacunary - having gaps
>obdurate - stubborn
>pithiness - the quality of being terse
>semiology - semiotics
>crime - ?
>tureen - soup dish
>larder - pantry
>excoriate - rub away/rebuke sharply
>soughed - ?
>opprobrium - harsh criticism
>commensurately - appropriately wrt size/order
>soporifically - boring to the point of putting one to sleep
>inimical - harmful
>bonhomie - good friend? good man?
>vertiginious - extremely high, so as to cause vertigo
>proprioception - ?
>ineluctably - inevitably
>amanuensis - ?
>mawkish - overly sentimental
>piscine - of fish
>rectilinearity - the quality of straight lines
>bailiwick - jurisdiction of a bailiff
>coda - conclusion to a piece of work
>lepidopterist - one who studies butterflies
>convalescence - recuperation, typically from illness
>brachiated - ?
>preternaturally - extraordinarily, beyond naturally
>suzerainty - one's dominion
>comely - handsome
>parvenu - upstart
>sine qua non - necessary condition
>specie - form/hard money (gold)
>insouciant - casual, uncaring
>chicanery - trickery
>inchoate - nascent, in its early stages
>fullerene - carbon allotrope (I think)
>dialectical - of logical discussion, opposing forces
>susurrus - ?
>vituperation - verbal abuse
>traducers - slanderers
>equanimity - calmness
>apposite - proper
>sanguinary - bloodthirsty
>alacrity - enthusiasm
>genuflection - bowing in deference
>imprimatur - ?
>sotto voce - quiet voice
>cognoscenti - the intellectual as a class
>palimpsest - an appended/reused manuscript
>riposte - counter reply
>claptrap - nonsense
>parochial - narrow outlook
>spoliation - ruining
>atavistic - primal
>profligacy - reckless extravagance
>lumpenproletariats - rogueish lower classes
>chiliastic - millenarian
>vacillate - to be indecisive
>dialectial - of logical discussion
>avaricious - greedy

[Anonymous No.22089574]

>>22089555
>selenology - ?
Study of the moon
>brachiated - ?
Braided clothes
>susurrus - ?
Whispering or rustling sounds

[Anonymous No.22089587]

>using kindle for word definition
>accidently select "the"
>vocabulary builder full of mis-selects

[Anonymous No.22089623]

>>22089555
>>atavistic - primal
It's a bit more complex than that.

[Anonymous No.22089649]

>>22087655
>>22087998
I have measurably low IQ but I was able to recognize most of these words; do I have a chance to make it

[Anonymous No.22089873]

>>22087998
I only know Palimpsest from fucking Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. I swear he used that word like 50 times in it.

[Anonymous No.22090036]

>>22087688
Just read his writing on themistocles last week. I plan to read pericles sometime in the coming month.

[Anonymous No.22090164]

>>22089649
Depends what you want to do. IQ is only a measure of mathematical intelligence. A lot of things in life are just about verbal or memory.

[Anonymous No.22090343]

>>22088039
Based anon going through Athenaze

[Anonymous No.22090403]

>>22087655
i know what coda because of elder scrolls lmao

[Brian No.22090583]

Hmm I wonder what nigger means
Update: that was a baaaaaaaad idea

[Anonymous No.22090600]

>>22090403
ya i knew palimpsest from some 90s pc rpg that that made you find a palimpsest before you could use the automap feature or something. can't remember what it was though.

[Anonymous No.22090606]

>>22090403
i knew coda cuz of led zeppelin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RunTziaqymA

[Anonymous No.22090714]

coda - care of a deaf adult

[Anonymous No.22090748]

>>22089623

[Anonymous No.22091371]

>Credulity, chauvinism, folly, syphilis, thalidomide, chiefly, cauterization, cadavers

[Anonymous No.22091383]

> Pooterirsh
> self-important and mundane or narrow-minded.

[Anonymous No.22091561]

>>22089555
>>aplomb - self-confidence

Heh, you fucking MORON

[Anonymous No.22092081]

>>22091561
I thought it was a pokemon

[Anonymous No.22092634]

>>22091383
Indian bros, not like this...

[Anonymous No.22092646]

>>22087655
I don't know any of these words

[Anonymous No.22092705]

most recent page of my unknown words book, if anyone wants to test themselves:
>crapulous, conspectus, chirality, spancel, sclera, moider, hoke, delf, discomfited, proctor, isomorphy, canzone, gloze, habile, seigniory, galliard, rthe, mendicant, cortege, gonfalon, malding, echolalia, whitlow
(last 3 are from this evening browsing 4chan

[Anonymous No.22092740]

>>22087655
>calliope - musical instrument like a flute
>aplomb - zeal and pluck
>bonze
>integument - outer layer; could refer to e.g. human skin or the peel of a fruit
>synchrony - synchronicity?
>forsooth - exclamation expressing agreement?
>limpid - clear
> diachrony - quality of happening in temporally distinct periods; comparative analysis of events happening at different times
>phthisis - wasting disease
>ritard - fast rhythm in music?
>nie?
>Chiaroscuro - balance of light and shadow in aesthetics
>dolorous - dejected, crestfallen
>ineluctability - impossible to prevent
>maladroit - unskilled?
>selenology - study of the moon
>lacunary - full of lacunae
>obdurate - stubborn
>pithiness - skill in phrasing, quotabilitiy
>semiology - semiotics?
>tureens - type of irish stew
>larder - kitchen cupboard
>excoriate - viciously criticize
>polysemy - quality of having more than one meaning
>soughed - moved as wind moves
>opprobrium - disrepute, bad reputation
>commensurate - to anexceptional degree
>soporific - sleep-inducing in the sense of being boring
>inimical - incompatible
>bonhomie - friendliness?
>vertiginous - vertigo inducing
>proprioception?
>amanuensis - notary, scribe (ok i looked this one up because i could almost remember it)
>mawkish - falsely sentimental, overwrought
>piscine?
>rectilinearity - rectangularness?
>bailwick?
> coda - concluding section in a piece of music
>lepidopterist?
>convalescence - healing
>brachiated?
>parvenu - social upstart with dubious origins
>insouciant - lazy
>chicanery - contrived scheming
>inchoate - fledgling, incipient

[Anonymous No.22092751]

>>22087655
I don't look up words I don't know unless I like the way they sound and want to learn how to use them properly. Otherwise, I just keep reading.

[Anonymous No.22093062]

>>22092705
>crapulous - eating and drinking excessively
>conspectus - an inspection(?)
>chirality - phenomenon of mirror images
>sclera - white of eyes
>discomfited - embarrassed, shown up, routed out
>proctor - overseer, supervisor
>isomorphy - correspondence of form
>canzone - provincial Italian song
>mendicant - ascetic beggar
>cortege - ceremonial procession
>gonaflon - a type of banner
>malding - (you)
>echolalia - the phenomenon of echoing

[Anonymous No.22093196]

>>22087655
Learning new outdated words is part of the fun. "Probity" is my fav so far

[Anonymous No.22093204]

Some faggot writing about social media used some Latin phrase that meant "confessing your guilt" or some shit like that. Just use English you pompous cunt.

[Anonymous No.22093367]

>>22093204
>Just use English you pompous cunt.
Ignoring beauty and precision, part of the purpose is to filter out illiterates.

[Anonymous No.22093372]

it seems to me that with the collapse of human knowledge into searchable databases easily retrievable at any moment that what will become more valuable than the knowledge itself is that of the directional signifiers. Complex and abstract words like those found here can be used as highly refined tools to highly sophisticated tasks but their base syntactical unit is hermetically self-contained apart from etymological heritability. That is to say, the only way to know of these unknown unknown words or "keys" or "tools" is to already know of them in a catch-22. Thus intermediary information brokers and media cartographers will be indispensable as curators and stewards of not just knowledge the entirety of art and media. The occult tradition has long operated on such notions of esoterica.

If this board is evidentiary it seems the struggle of young pupils today is not a search for meaning but a struggle even find the loose thread in Plato's cave to begin pulling on. They know something is not right but a plume of fog and ash rising from the collapse of hierarchies and narratives leaves them wandering among a deluge of digital ruins and commodification.

[Anonymous No.22093381]

>>22093367
In one of Orwell's essays he said writers should not use Latin phrases.

[Anonymous No.22093384]

>>22087655
Marcus Aurelius is really into ''accretions''. I was going to skip it but he kept using ''accretions'' over and over, so I became aware that it must be integral to his philosophy.

[Anonymous No.22093401]

>>22093381
I've read that essay, and imo a lot of his advice is awful and dumb.
>>22093372
>intermediary information brokers and media cartographers will be indispensable as curators and stewards of not just knowledge the entirety of art and media
There's nothing new about this. It has been the modus operandi of civilisation for at least two millennia now. We're just observing its acceleration and, in that, its autonomic nature becoming apparent.

[Anonymous No.22093411]

>>22093401
Hmm who should I trust the brilliant author or someone posting on lit
:thinking:

[Anonymous No.22093416]

>>22089381
O it's Chuddy this, an' Chuddy that, an' "Chuddy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Chudsworth", when the band begins to play

[Anonymous No.22093417]

Counterstain
Corymb
Carcinization
Preludial
Étude
Lemuria
Bleep censor
Megagon
Formican
Boustrophedon
Semivowel
Isotropy
Zhi
Dalrymple
Detente
Heteroscedatisticy
Brigandage
Chiasmus
Ergotic
Epinastic

[Anonymous No.22093423]

some recents


Osmatic
Sialagogue
Sapid
Saporous
Dulcify
Dulcimer
Flump
Ululate
Susurrus
Bombination
Gaudery
Ugsome
Rubescent
Doless
Dyspathy
Fleerer
Gruntle
Refulgent
Tintinnabulation
Slobgollion
Grandissimus

[Anonymous No.22093443]

>>22093204
>Some faggot writing about social media used some Latin phrase that meant "confessing your guilt"
Mea culpa?

[Anonymous No.22093449]

>>22093381
Eric Blair is not my supervisor.

[Anonymous No.22093453]

>>22087655
Loquacious

[Anonymous No.22093480]

>>22093401
I agree vanguards and such notions are not new but their function, utility and means are changing as self-directed informal education becomes more prevalent. just look how lucrative it is to churn out youtube 'X summarized' slop for a generation of digital natives playing cultural catch-up. Pedagogy itsself being revolutionized by AI right now. How many of us embarked on arduous quixotic quests for 20 or 30 years in pursuit of 'truth' or 'meaning' trying to brush aside the techno-detritus veil of maya with no more to go on than a few proper nouns? This board is full of them and I believe don't believe it has to be this way

[Anonymous No.22093518]

>>22093411
If you really do need some feeble appeal to authority, there are more brilliant authors who believed the inverse. I won't say whom.
>>22093480
We live in a titanic glut of midwits and know-it-alls and "conscious social commentators" (hypocrite that I am) and the tide doesn't seem to be surging any time soon.
>I believe don't believe it has to be this way
What other way could it possibly be?

[Anonymous No.22093548]

It's been a while since I've had to look up anything in particular, but I recall these words / phrases making me turn to the dictionary

>crepuscular
>bete noire
>avuncular
>tumescent
>argyle
>cyclopean
>neotenous

[Anonymous No.22093551]

>>22089649
recognizing a word is not the same thing as knowing it

[Anonymous No.22093571]

>>22092705
>sclera
White part of the eye.

>discomfited
Unsettled or embarrassed.

>proctor
School staff who observes students during an exam, is how I most often see this used.

>mendicant
A wanderer or beggar that lives off charity.

Sad to say the rest have me stumped and some don't even look like real words to me.

[Anonymous No.22093600]

>>22092740
>piscine
related to fish, think Picses, the zodiac sign
>lepidopterist
One who studies butterflies.

knew those two at least

[Anonymous No.22094120]

Mortsafe
Equalusuaq
Catadromous
ǂʼAmkoe (moribund)
Khoisan
Dumi
apocopes
bolections
reglets
dipsomania
quincunx
varicoceles
experialist
agnate
pedalferrous
fulvous
louvered
gibbons
apercu
eidetic
murated
erumpent
rutilant
hale
purled
nacelle
sulcus
imprecated
tumbrel
comportment
scopophobic
asperity
rapacious
afflatus
bathetic
brachiform
strabismic
ascapartic
adit
factota
chuffing
neuralgiac
tumid
eustacian
xerophagy
gynecopia
suborning
solecistic
lissome
ascapartic
anapestic
bradyauxetic
lordosis
corticate
mucronate
codicil
lume
thanatoptic
spansules
hasp
prognathous
nonuremic
apothegm
apicals
selvaged
caparison
cunctations
aphasiac
lordotic
rictal
thanatopic
olla podida
inguinal
sudoriferous
swart
emetic
parotitic
alacrity
sinciput
kyphotic
ciquatoxic

[Anonymous No.22094158]

>>22094120

>eidetic
>asperity
>comportment
>rapacious
>aphasiac
>alacrity

how the hell did you not know what these mean

[Anonymous No.22094206]

>>22094158
tundish

[Anonymous No.22094346]

>>22094120
>gibbons

[Anonymous No.22094418]

here are a couple i came across lately


Eccoproticophoric
Sunups
Ecchymosis
Peneplain
Persiflage
Solecism
Euneirophenia
Yarborough
Hiraeth
Rizz
Psithurism
Pogonotrophy
Cynosure
Flapdoodle
Tatterdemalion
Too-too
Flanderization
Lippiness
Parvanimity
Ostrichism
Podsnappery
Ebriosity
Cose
chanterelles
Longanimous
Multipotent
Jackanapes
Nephalist
obfirm
Conurbation
Gewgaw
trisomy-21
Aposiopesis
Breviloquent
Carriwitchet
Bulbospongiosus
Areolar
Dysphemism
Litotes
Mussitation
Nefandous
coregasm
finasteride
prepuce
ischiocavernosus
rugosity
Skene's gland
mesenchyme
menarche
clitoral-urinary meatus distance
granuloma

[Anonymous No.22094447]

>>22093453
that's a funny word to post by itself

[Anonymous No.22094457]

y'all are just making up words at this point

[Anonymous No.22094494]

>>22094457
like which one

[Anonymous No.22094521]

I only know these ones off the top of my head, what does this say about my reading level? Am I retarded and never noticed?

[Anonymous No.22094537]

>>22089574
>Braided clothes
that might be one definition, but brachiation is the act of swinging by your hands, like on monkey bars.

[Anonymous No.22094561]

>>22094521

no anon, you're not retarded. you're perfect and god loves you

[Anonymous No.22094812]

>>22087655
Kind of a dumb thread but anyways I just save them to bookmarks and revue from there.
Guess the meaning then click to see if I was right. A lot of French sayings because reading old books and Dos Passos, apparently knowing or dropping these things into "everyday" conversation was routine or something. There are hundreds. I'm not going to cut and paste all of them.

If the idea is to have unique, interesting, useful ideas expressed in the simplest terms then most of this is just masterbatory.

[Anonymous No.22094816]

>>22087757
Try looking up the definition of the word "what"!
A really good thesaurus is better than a dictionary I think

[Anonymous No.22095139]

>>22094812
>cuckcuckgo

[Anonymous No.22095195]

i've been saving words in a text file for years, but never the definitions. Someone kill me.

Here are some:
stridulate
lixivious
moulder
compage
arefaction
exequy
ministration
exsuccous
pendulous
excitate
archimime
propitiation
infelicitous
cerecloth
cerement
adipocere
saponification
parapraxis
temerarious
diuturnity
pruriences
drolatic
pinion

[Anonymous No.22095224]

>>22095195
>pinion
>ministration
these aren't even rare words

[Anonymous No.22095231]

>>22087655
Having a bit of trouble with rhetorical devices atm, t every time I think I’ve mastered a good number, new ones appear

[Anonymous No.22095263]

>>22095224
who said I was only saving rare words?

[Anonymous No.22095323]

>>22090606
>we are not the same

[Anonymous No.22095649]

>>22095224
Ministrations is my favorite euphemism

[Anonymous No.22095681]

>>22089649
maybe
>>22090164
>IQ is only a measure of mathematical intelligence
fundamentally wrong, consider educating yourself before responding

[Anonymous No.22096092]

>>22094418
>finasteride
Not like this bros...

[Anonymous No.22096111]

>>22096092
Wunderdrug.

[Anonymous No.22096112]

niggas be dialectically abberating they lumpenproletariats in the avaricious claptrap
applying heidiggerian riposte to Crime

[Anonymous No.22096439]

>>22093518

consider a library containing all possible books, arranged at random, might as well be a library containing zero books, as any true information would be buried in, and rendered indistinguishable from, all possible forms of false information. That's what the internet has been becoming and we will need tools like AI to counter it.

look at something like this for instance. rather than pay for liberal arts degree, spend years winching yourself up book by book lecture by lecture in which your greatest limitations are time and access I can now train an AI on every philosopher I like and engage in Socratic diaologue to educate myself. If I do not understand something I can ask for explanations at various levels of complexity, I can ask what Plato would think about Heidegger, I can ask for examples, debunks, steelmen, context, influence. So much unnecessary time, browsing, googling, skimming, wikiing, video essaying (if you even know where/how to look) is eliminated and that surplus time + knowledge has radical implications on societal scales much like the invention of the leisure class during the industrial resolution and then the fine arts to mollify them

https://chat.openai.com/share/48686389-6a4b-4904-bb8e-8e89f883ce12

the last decade has been a slow march of collective enlightenment as a critical mass of people are going into the online spiral of mirrors and slowly winching ourselves out of ignorance through exposure and reflexivity. Somewhere along the way that dream of the new internet got snuffed out and financialized but AI can break that stranglehold, one of many reasons opensource models and access will be crucial

[Anonymous No.22097119]

>>22096439
Words were never really all that important. You continue to miss the point of an education. The last decade has not been a slow march of collective enlightenment, but merely the illusion of it (the finetuning echo chambers, for example). You are just so, so far off from the truth anon.