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/lit/ - Literature

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750342 No.750342 [Reply] [Original]

As either a reader or a writer, do you write down words you're unfamiliar with that you come across, that you think you might use in your own work? I have been for a little while and keep them stored in a .txt document. I used to write them down but after losing the notebook several times I decided to digitalise.

>> No.750346

Sort of... I write down proverbs and sayings or quotes that look interesting. I use them to inspire plot-details in my book I'm desperately unaware of how to finish.

It's going to end up as a short story and I'll be sad...

>> No.750344

No, but I should.

>> No.750934

No, but that's kinda a good idea.

>> No.750944

Generally I just have a look-up list. If I like the word, and think I can use it correctly and appropriately in a sentence I'll probably remember it anyhow, and it'll make it into my writing somewhere.

>> No.752350

Pretty interesting idea I guess, how much do you have written?

>> No.752352

I do. "I Am A Cat" left me with a whole load of words I'd never encountered before.

>> No.752354

>>752352
Sweet. Care to post some of your favourites? :)

>> No.752374

Nope.

>> No.752396

>>752354

Some were: obstreperous; egregiously; supine; peroration. Ulteriority also caught me out until I looked it up and it made obvious sense.

>> No.752410

I do, but I only do it when I read books that are not in my own language.
Then again, I am a cultural traitor and hardly ever read books in my own language anyway.

>> No.752437

>>752410
I bet I do ^ ^

>> No.752468

Yes. Lolita and Infinite Jest have provided some fun ones.

>> No.752481

you should probably try not to use words just because they sound obscure and exciting to you

if you didn't understand it chances are your reader won't

of course this doesn't apply if you're andrew hussie

>> No.752491

>Then again, I am a cultural traitor and hardly ever read books in my own language anyway.
Gonna have to high-five you, I own exactly two books that are written in my native tongue, and both were gifts.

>> No.752505

>>752491
What language?

>> No.752506

>>752505
Dutch

>> No.752550

>>752506
cultural traitor here, ik ben dus ook Nederlands.

>> No.752556

I'd betray my lousy culture in a second if I were Dutch.

>> No.752643

>>752556
YJDK 'bout that Reve

>> No.752653

Yep, my personal lexicon is hundreds of words strong.

For fun I will tell you I just added the word "juvenescent."

>> No.752693

post your .txt file OP

>> No.752711

>>752693
here http://pastebin.com/sutywgZv
it's badly formatted, but easy enough to read

everyone else should post theirs if they have it digitalised!

>> No.752735

mine:

acrimonious
portentous
pernicious
insidious
alacrity
sagacity
consumption
executor
nephritis
myriad
triumvirate
alusive
esquire
interlocutor

misanthrope
candor
vindictive
modus operandi
lithe
modicum
lucid
anthiesis
caouternance
stoically
ebullience
rutelage
invective
rotund
perogative
asinine
prosaic
chided
contrite

axiom
beneficence
userping
stipend

milieux
reappraisals
ineluctable
Manichaean
solipsistic
imprudent
Fin de siècle
pedagogically
supererogatory
coda
lapidary
insouciance
internecine
dillitente
pejorative
atrophy
bane

>> No.752874

>>752711
>>752735
Nice lists! Thanks for posting. Everyone else post theirs or post your favourites that you've written down I guess.

>> No.752880

>>752735
You really should have known half those words in the first place.

>> No.752881

virisimilitude
gorgonopsid
paroxysmic
samizdat
meretricious
chiriascuro
lordosis

>> No.752885

Traitre culturel ici aussi. Je ne sais pas pquoi mais je deteste de lire le francais. Jaime pas bien ecrire non plus.

>> No.752890

>>752880
which half?
I knew them but just wanted to keep note of them

>> No.752894

Mine was small to begin with and I stole a lot from this thread.

Antithesis
Asinine
Axiom
Catharsis, Cathartic
Goad
Hesitancy
Lechery, Lecherous
Penultimate
Pernicious
Sage, Sagacity
Seminal
Stoic, Stoically

Modus Operandi
Milieux
Detente

>> No.752899

>>752735
nice words brah

>> No.753067

These lists are pretty boss. Should help me on my way to starting my own.

>> No.753715

This is good shit. Do want more.

>> No.753890

vivisect
vapidity
solipsist
foreskin

>> No.753902

we should have some dictionary for hard words to use when we want to look smart in writings.
/lit/ionary shall it be called.

>> No.753905

>>752894

Nice high school vocabulary list bro. *smug*

>> No.755711

>>753905
Post some of yours then bro. You gotta back up that smugness

>> No.755737

vicissitude
extemporaneous
schadenfreude
meretricious
tintinnabulation

>> No.755754

>>752894
What the hell.

Are you going to add 'hell' to your list too?

>> No.755779

I keep a list of words I don't understand in a notebook. The list has the word, the dictionary definition, the work it came from, and the sentence where it was used.

>> No.755797

>>755779
That sounds awesome. Can you post some of your favourites? Or scan some in and show us?

>> No.755799

>>755754
Perhaps the poster's first language isn't English?

>> No.755803

>>752481
I never use a word in writing until I've seen it used by at least three other authors. Words are rarely perfect substitutes for each other - the subtle differences are hard to pick up from a dictionary. Actual examples of the word in action are the best.

>> No.755816

>>755799
Well, English isn't my first language either. That's no excuse for someone posting on 4chan.

>> No.755859

>>755816
The fuck are you talking about? My point was that words that may seem relatively easy to those who are native speakers or who speak it at an advanced level with plenty of experience.

>> No.755868

>>755797
I don't have any scans, but here are some of my favorite entries. Poets love and work with words better than any other writers. Most of my favorite entries come from poetry collections.

fusty - (Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar) - "fusty, peanut-smelling mouth of every subway" - stale and unclean smelling

hawser (Pablo Neruda, 20 Love Poems) - "last hawser, in you creaks my last longing." - large heavy rope for nautical use

blort (Ted Hughes, Crow) - "Its shapeless cry was a blort of all these voices." - ???

hierophant (Ted Hughes, Crow) - "Crow, the hierophant, humped, impenetrable" - person who brings religious congregants into the presence of the holy

scumbled (Allen Mandelbaum, Ovid's Metamorphoses) - "What men call chaos: undigested mass/of crude, confused, and scumbled elements." - to blur the outlines of

sedulous (James Joyce, Dubliners, An Encounter) - "chocolate which we ate sedulously as we wandered" - persevering and constant in effort

>> No.755872

>>755859
And I'm saying that if the poster really didn't know the meaning of those words, he shouldn't be posting on 4chan. If you haven't noticed, we speak English here.

>> No.755874

>>755872
Those words aren't exactly prerequisite for putting together posts on an online message board. I've barely used most of them and I've been speaking English for probably longer than you've been alive.

>> No.755883

>>755874
Eh, they sort of are. At least in the sense that if you don't know what they mean, your English is probably fucking awful. Also, sure, you've probably been speaking English for much longer than I have, and yet I've used or read at least one of those words around here. I mean, come on:
>Antithesis
>Asinine
>Catharsis, Cathartic
>Hesitancy
>Penultimate
>Sage, Sagacity
>Seminal
>Stoic, Stoically

You gotta be shitting me.

>> No.755888

>>755883
>Sage
>4chan
lol'd

>> No.755902

>>755883
Fair enough you can't use understand a sentence without one of those words but the guy is adding them to his list. He's making an attempt to learn them. There really isn't a problem here.

>> No.755908

>>750342
This pic is the last words of all those people, right? That's so awesome.

>> No.755925

read Joyce, make word list, post baaaw thread when most of the words aren't in any dictionary

>> No.756483

Those lists are rad. Learned some new shit. So I'm off to make my own

>> No.756974

OP here. Thanks for posting your lists people. Anyone else got more?