Vanishd!

Well, after some recent posts of mine (pointless words) have brought in some heavy criticism from Abhishek, (especially over the word ‘lexeme’) , its time i justified the posts.

First of all, when I refer to any words as pointless, it essentially makes me the centre of reference. Also the pointless words here have been judged solely on whether I would be coming across the word in reading, using it myself or have a special encounter with it in the GRE. As such , most of the words i have put up in my post are justified.

Frankly speaking, it is a matter of taste. Some people may like excessively ornamented sentences, or others may insist upon the use of the right word for the occasion. Although I do enjoy such literary works (if and only if I have a dictionary at hand), I do believe in keeping my sentences simple. Also the use of complex terms for day to day words (e.g. for face, sneezing) irritates me!

And thanks to JR for coming to my rescue. In the particular case of the word ‘lexeme’, as he has rightly pointed out, a field specific word, so a someone from another field (read me) would hardly be expected to know / remember it! Same would be the case for a case involving two different fields( the reader and the word i.e.). I would not even want to mention medical terms in this regard (which is what, most probably, is the long word in JR’s post). Also , I must confess I had to constantly shift-rightclick ( the hotkey to my word web dictionary) while reading most of the posts, even google ‘brachylogy’ and ‘verbigeration’.

In my defence , as Abhiskek has heavily reprimanded me for hating to learn the new words, as also JR (we need more words..), I would like to say, I have always enjoyed learning new words and have always tried to employ some of them in day to day conversations (I have been frowned upon even for that!). Also the posts have been listed in the category ‘Words’ (since the beginning), meaning I intended to put some ‘meaningful’ posts there too.

Ironically, the ‘pointless words’ are what I seem to remember rather than more ‘meaningful words’ which has prompted me to open up this category. It seems if I post a word, I seem to recollect it easily. So one might expect some meaningful words there. An effort has to be made on my part to put up posts which would distinguish the finer tints in similar meaning words, as also include words with radically different double meanings. An excellent example is:

tattoo:

1. The practice of making a design on the skin by pricking and staining (the well known)

2. A drumbeat or bugle call that signals the military to return to their quarters (the lesser known)

Now how did people come to name them like that?!

N also I am waiting to what the other boy has to say about it.