Word of the Moment V

It's no surprise that people can increase their vocabulary by reading, and I've often bragged that a person can increase their vocabulary by reading genre fiction as well, but I had no idea that you can increase your vocabulary by reading reviews of science fiction and fantasy novels.

That is until I read James Sallis's column Books reviewing The Land Across by Gene Wolfe and Cordwainer Smith, Lord of the Afternoon by Pablo Capanna in this month's The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Seriously. When I sit down to read book reviews, I don't expect to have to run over to the dictionary every few minutes to look up words the reviewer is using. If he's quoting a passage from the book and I have to look up a word from the quotation - then fine. But to look up words from his writings? Come on? Are we sure he's not showing off?

Well, doesn't matter. Mr. Sallis expanded my vocabulary this week, so I suppose I must thank him. So without further (boring) adieu, here are this entry's words of the moment:

• encomia - noun - a formal expression of high praise; eulogy
• shibboleths - noun - 1. a peculiarity of pronunciation, behavior, mode of dress, etc., that distinguishes a particular class or set of persons; 2. a slogan or catchword; 3. a common saying or belief with little current meaning or truth.
• mimetic - adjective - 1. characterized by, exhibiting, or of the nature of imitation or mimicry; 2. mimic or make-believe.
• cavil - verb - to raise irritating and trivial objections; find fault with unnecessarily (usually followed by at  or about)

 
So there we go, four new words we can struggle to actually use in our daily lives. And don't let people convince you that you're just showing off your superior vocab, because you're not, you're just letting them know you read science fiction book reviews.
 
Until Next Time...
Cavilly Yours,
Michael