READING UPDATE: The Dictionary, Part 3: Ancestor - Ascensional

All the snow and ice hitting the Mid-Atlantic region the past two weeks prevented me from making much progress since my last post.  It is difficult to stay awake to read tin print containing very little wow factor when you are exhausted from shoveling snow and ice that same day.  I’m still trucking right along but it’s been slower than I’d like.

Despite all the potential for disappointment, I am happy to report that I have surpassed one milestone and am nearing another.  I passed the 100-page mark since my last post and I am just a few pages away from finishing the letter A.  Hitting 100 pages subconsciously tells me that I am really doing this.  Starting the B-words will be a mental boost for me as well.  I think a sense of relief and freshness will come each time I start a new letter.

Now then, here are my notable words this time around:

ANCHORMAN- This word can mean someone who holds a broadcast together, someone who runs the last parts of a race, or someone who graduates last in his class.  I find it interesting that it can mean either someone very important or someone of little value.

ANNO DOMINI- My dictionary lists its first written use as occurring in 1530.  I know the term is older than that, but I have to wonder, what did the Western World use to track years before this system came about?  And how do we really know that Anno Domini years are really accurate.  These are the things that I think of.  :-p

ANOREXIA NERVOSA- M-W dates the written use of this term back to 1873.  It’s been 141 years and we still can’t nip this one in the bud?  Wow.

ANTIHERO- This word dates back to 1714 but it took over 100 more years for ANTIHEROINE to catch on.  Likeable bad guys have been popular for 300 years.  Likeable bad girls?  Only 200.

ANTILOCK- We take this system for granted in our cars now, but my dictionary says it’s only been in common use for 40 years.  (M-W online says 51 years- another instance that highlights subtle inaccuracies of an old book)

ANTINOMIAN- The definition is “one who holds that under the gospel dispensation of grace the moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation.”  This bugs me when applied to Judeo-Christian principles because it misses the point entirely.  The Hebrew moral laws in the Torah did not earn one salvation.  Rather, they were to be followed in appreciation of Jehovah’s covenant with the Hebrew people.  Salvation was never something to be earned, only something to be given. 

I also don’t like this philosophy because “faith without works is dead.”  My interpretation and understanding of scripture is that we cannot just believe and sit back and do nothing.  Works are not required for salvation (again, it cannot be earned) but one’s faith can be revealed to others through their works.  That doesn’t mean everyone claiming faith needs to go out and do something drastic, but you should feel led to do something.

ANTIPARTICLE- Maybe one of my physics friends can help me on this one.  When an anti-particle is brought together with its counterpart particle, mutual annihilation occurs.  If matter cannot be created or destroyed based on our understanding of physics, how does that work?

ANTIQUE- I can accept this term as a measure of age (M-W suggests something made 100 or more years ago) but it’s hard to swallow as a measure of value.  Just because something is old means bubkes about its value.  Value is not intrinsic.  It must be imparted upon an object by an outside observer.  Think about all the old stuff our grandparents and great-grandparents passed down through the family.  How much of that is actually worth anything?  It all depends on the buyer.  The Millennial generation doesn’t seem to appreciate, let alone care for, anything ‘old.’  What’s going to happen to Baby Boomer-era and older ‘antiques’ when those generations start dying off?  My guess is they’ll show up on Pawn Stars and be sold for pocket change.

APHAERESIS- It’s an old word that few of us probably know but we see it in action all the time.  It’s the dropping of a syllable sound at the beginning of a word.  People have been lazy speakers for centuries!  I like finding words like these that explain everyday phenomena.

APOLOGY/APOLOGETICS- Here is another word I’ve been misunderstanding for quite some time.  I though apologetics in a religious sense was a way to make amends with the world, as if trying to find a mutual agreement between theology and the common culture of the day.  Nope!  Apologetics can mean making a defense for something too.  How did I not learn the true meaning of this term as a Religious Studies minor in college?  Thanks a lot professors.

APRIL FOOL- Which came first- the April Fool or April Fool’s Day?  According to M-W, April Fool came first, even though their definition is the person who gets tricked on April Fool’s Day. 

ARISTOCRACY- We like to think that America is egalitarian when it comes to opportunity.  Are we really though?  While there are plenty of self-made men and women in this country, this is not the land of opportunity we like to think it is.  More and more, I think we are a land of multiple aristocracies hiding behind the guise of egalitarianism.

Think of all the ways we try to stratify our society.  When I was growing up my peers and I made fun of a neighboring school district that was more rural than us.  We also made fun of the county to the north of us as a whole because of stereotypes about its inhabitants passed on through the generations.  Try as we might to put up a good front of Americans all being equal, many of us try to make ourselves out to be better than some other group for one reason or another- money, material possessions, or education.

Take the Ivy League schools for instance.  They think they’re better than everyone else.  They claim to provide superior education and connections for their alumni.  In reality, they only have those reputations because they are old and didn’t go under over time.  For every best-and-brightest they enroll, I guarantee you they enroll a trust fund brat who is only going because of a family history at the school or because they’re rich enough to get in the door.

Any time someone looks down on someone else because they didn’t go to the ‘right school’ or come from the ‘right town’ or wear the ‘right clothes,’ they are tearing down American egalitarianism and raising up an aristocracy.  It is evident in politics, the business world, and especially in the land of higher education.

Okay, enough ranting for one day.  I will see you in two weeks with words beginning with A and B!

READING UPDATE: The Dictionary, Part 2- Addressee - -ance

It may not look like I have gotten very far in nearly a month of reading, but I am actually now 5% through my Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.  When I say it that way, I am encouraged.  When I say that I’ve read 80 of 1,600 pages, I feel as though I’ve been buried in an avalanche.

At my current pace, there is absolutely no way for me to finish the dictionary during 2014.  I’ve had some off nights though, where I either didn’t feel like reading or fell asleep reading.  It was because of my sluggish pace that I abstained from posting last weekend.  Doing so led to a longer list of notable words for this post, which is a plus.

Despite my very uphill battle with reading this behemoth, I am glad that I chose to read the dictionary first.  It is probably one of the most time consuming reads out there simply for the fact that, as a reference book, it is not meant to be read cover to cover except by an editor.  The second and third books I plan to read on my quest also fall under the reference category but the print is bigger and the page counts are smaller.

Interesting words I came across:

AD HOC- I’ve heard this term used for committees or years and years but no one ever explained to me what it meant.  I know now that it means “formed or used for specific immediate problems or needs” or something that is improvised.  It’s something that is not concerned with the long run.  It makes sense and it’s good to know.  I’m not sure why I never looked it up before.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN- According to my dictionary, the first usage of this term in print was 1984!  That makes this now common term only as old as I am.  Wow.  My dictionary, however, is 18 years old, so the MW folk may have found an earlier usage for this term since.  In fact, MW’s online dictionary has its first usage backed up all the way to 1855.  Maybe it didn’t gain mainstream traction until the 80s.  Who knows.

AFRICANIZED BEE- Here is another term I grew up hearing.  I even recall watching a TV-movie about a swarm of Africanized killer bees moving through a rural Southwestern town.  As it turns out, this term is only 40 years old.  I’ve been on the lookout for A-words whose first usage came in a year ending with 4.  I haven’t found many worth noting, but this and the above word were worth it.

AILUROPHILE/AILUROPHOBE- Many words in English have their roots in Greek prefixes and suffixes.  Some words are widely used.  Thankfully, this is not one of them.  The former means a cat lover; the latter means someone who fears or hates cats.  I’m glad we went with the Latin/German root for the word cat.  The Greek way just looks weird.

AIM- Most often, we use this word as a verb to describe the process of lining up a shot at some sort of target, be it physical or an intangible goal.  The oldest usage of the word, however actually meant the target itself.  Funny how that works, isn’t it?

AIR BALL- I do not watch much basketball, but I am familiar with this term.  Did you know that it is only 33 years old per MW?  Its usage may be older than that, but it wasn’t until 1981 that MW found it in print.  The NBA grew in popularity in the late 1970s, so maybe that explains when this term landed in the dictionary.

AIR RAID- As of 2014, this term is 100 years old.  Considering that the Wright brothers made their first flight in 1903, it just goes to show you how quickly we humans can weaponize new technologies and processes.  In eleven years, humans figured out how to use aircraft to drop bombs on each other and did so with such regularity that the term was common enough to make the dictionary.  Very sad.

ALL-TIME- Here is another word celebrating its centennial (again, according to a 1996 dictionary).  I wonder what or who it was first used for.  As a sports fan, I suspect something like baseball or college football if it was first used in America.

ALTOGETHER- An obscure, secondary definition for this word means nude.  In this context it is usually used in the expression ‘in the altogether.’  I don’t get it and I don’t particularly like it.  Was it just some prudent way of saying someone is altogether nude?  It sounds to me like an expression that nobody uses anymore.

AMBITION- There is far too much of it in politics and not enough of it where it is really needed.

AMBIVERT- It means “a person having characteristics of both extrovert and introvert.”  I never knew such a term existed, yet it perfectly describes me.  Those personality tests always seemed to try to force you into one of the two categories.  It’s nice to know there’s some recognized middle ground.

That's it for now.  We'll see how much further I can get in another week or two.