Words I Never Use
This morning while reading an old Newsweek article about Sigmund Freud I noticed several words that I had no clue to what they meant, just vaguely guessing at their use in context.
I actually had to look them up; not that it was necessary to understand the article but out of curiosity as to why a person, supposedly well versed in English would have never encountered these words.
“… an act of expiation …” (atonement, penance)
“… salient fact.” (significant, relevant)
“… sardonic and grave …” (scornful, sarcastic, derisive)
“… explain the calumny …” (slander, defamation, denigration)
“… facile casual assertation.” (simplistic, superficial)
“… the leitmotif of the next few years.” (lead motive – from Wagner opera)
I am actually a published writer of magazine articles and one of my editors said I have an “inimitable style.” While I enjoy playing with words and call myself a wordweaver instead of wordsmith, I write in the common vernacular understood by most ppl. (Oh yes, that abbreviation should someday replace the ridiculously spelled word ‘people’).
As to why I never encountered these particular words is that I probably never read academic dissertations, just the low-brow stuff one would expect to find in Newsweek, written for the average person with a high school education. So, using transference (a word in the article that I did know) I will blame the writer, not the reader. Know your audience would be an appropriate admonition here.
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