Preschool through Elementary School

Some people collect stamps.

Some people collect coins.

Some people collect art. And Jerome?

Jerome collected words…

I think having a word collection is a marvelous idea. My vocabulary could definitely use an update. I’ve been using words like ‘awesome’, ‘interesting’, and ‘cool’ way too much.

This book reminds me of all the vocabulary tests I had to take back in elementary and middle school. Those were really difficult for me because I wasn’t a good writer back then and I had high levels of anxiety.

Here are a few words I found in this book that I found enthralling and their meanings:

mollycoddle: to treat with an excessive or absurd degree of indulgence and attention

petrichor: the smell of dust after rain

mellifluous: sweetly or smoothly flowing; sweet-sounding

azure: bright blue in color, like a cloudless sky

infinitesimal: extremely small

And here are a few of my favorite words to say out loud and their meanings:

oxymoron: a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction. (Examples – dry ice, cold sweat, jumbo shrimp)

hoopla: excitement surrounding an event or situation, especially when considered to be unnecessary fuss

moxie: a person full of energy, pep, courage or determination

hootenanny: an informal gathering with folk music and sometimes dancing

discombobulate: disconcert or confuse (someone)

hullabaloo: a commotion; a fuss

bamboozled: to be tricked or swindled by another via intentional manipulation or deceptive practices.

This weeks’ Weird but True Fact about Words

There are more than 250,000 different words in the English language. But the average teenager only knows about 60,000 words.