This is the book I'm currently reading.
It's call "Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination" by Peter Ackroyd.
This is me trying to read this book.
Note size of eyes compared to sheer mass of book.
Now.
Don't get me wrong.
I'm REALLY enjoying it.
It's full of fascinating information and history, interesting characters including Chaucer, Henry the VIII (that puppy kicker!), and of course Shakespeare.
HOWEVER.
I'm NOT used to reading a book that affords me more than a few words in the entire volume that I don't understand.
I may not be able to spell, but, DAMN IT, I know my words.
This incredible tome is so full of words I don't know, I've resigned myself to writing them all down so I can review them later.
Here's a list composed after only about 10 pages.
EMPYREAN
PATRISTIC
ADDUCED
LINEAMENTS
RATIOCINATION
AUREATE
FABLIAU
Now, I can generally surmise what these mean in a fashion, based on the context of the sentence they're surrounded by...but if someone actually KNOWS what these words mean, when they're just hanging out there all by themselves like that, speak up!
Give me a hand, would ya?
4 comments:
geez. I'm reading a book where apparently just about every town in the old world was named 'Salt'. There is a good chance that most of those words at one time also meant... you guessed it, salt. ;) loving it, though.
Are you sure you know whom you’re blogging with? You said I was intelligent. Either way I am smart enough to use a dictionary.
EMPYREAN: Heavenly, celestial, ethereal.
PATRISTIC: Early Christian theologians or their writings.
ADDUCED: something cited as evidence.
LINEAMENTS: Are you sure that’s spelt right? LINIMENT is a rubbed on medicinal, like Tiger Balm.
RATIOCINATION, AUREATE, FABLIAU: You made these up. They are not in the Oxford Canadian Dictionary.
lineament \LIN-ee-uh-muhnt\, noun:
1. One of the outlines, exterior features, or distinctive marks of a body or figure, particularly of the face.
2. A distinguishing or characteristic feature; -- usually in the plural.
Ta Da!
Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious!
(If you say it fast enough you'll always sound precocious...)
As for Henry the 8th, well, we followed that puppy-kicker all over England, now didn't we!
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