[Image credit: Master isolated images]
At my age, and with all the books I’ve devoured over the years, I figured I’d probably run across all of the words out there. In fact, for nearly three decades, I’ve affectionately been dubbed “the walking dictionary.” So when I come across a new word now and then, I can’t help but be excited to add another to the vocabulary coffer. After all, the dictionary is always being updated, so why not me? My contribution for this month is perspicacity, a word that showed up in a Dean Koontz novel a friend of mine was reading. According to Dictionary.com, perspicacity is the keenness of mental perception and understanding. Synonyms include: astuteness, shrewdness, clear-sightedness, cleverness, intelligence, sharpness, acuity, insightfulness and wisdom. Used in a sentence, it may read: The young writer displayed perspicacity beyond her years in matters of character development. And now that I’m familiar with this word, I feel like I’ve gained a bit of perspicacity, myself.
What new word have you learned lately?
Mar 26, 2012 @ 18:31:20
I haven’t learned a new word lately. But I do remember my embarrassment when I found out how a particular word was pronounced. As an avid reader, I’m sure I’ve read hundreds of books and, for years, whenever I read the word macabre, I pronounced it in my head as mackabree, with the accent on mack. Was I ever surprised when I heard how it’s REALLY pronounced! LOL! I just LOVE words!