November saw a crucial resurgence in reading progress. October was a very busy month, and I expected November to be similar. To my pleasant surprise, I found myself blasting out pages in large blocks.This was most helpful as I hit the letter S. As with the dictionary, the letter S is the longest section of my thesaurus, but there were fewer chunks of redundant prefixes bogging me down mentally. S was not a stumbling block at all.
December began with an extended halt in reading. My family passed a cold around a few times, which left me tired and not keen on reading. We got a lot of holiday shopping done early somehow this year, which left me with plenty of time to pick the thesaurus back up in the middle of the month. I was surprised with how many pages I cranked out in just a few sittings.
While I finished this book off quickly, I didn’t stop looking for words to protest. I couldn’t find any worth protesting in December, however. Maybe the end of the alphabet doesn’t lend itself to the kind of synonym abuse I found in earlier sections.
I’ll post my official review in a few days. For now, here are my synonym objections for the final quarter or so of the thesaurus:
Retract/Palinode- I suppose the latter term has some place still in artistic and literary circles but it’s far from acceptable as a straight synonym. A palinode is a poem or song that serves to retract information laid out in a previous song, verse, or poem. What an artful way to present a contraction!
Rodomontade/Boast or Boastful- While the former initially sounds like a very snotty and boastful way to say boastful, context reveals all. This word comes from the name of an Italian literary figure- a haughty and boastful fictitious king. If you’re a fan of medieval Italian literature, I won’t roll my eyes at you if you use this word. If not, don’t try it.
Scarecrow/Tatterdemalion- The latter is a French term used to describe anyone or anything that is ragged in appearance. I can see how the two words may have overlapped over time but even Merriam-Webster Online doesn’t list scarecrow as a synonym. I’m willing to let it slide for any Frenchies and Quebecois that I may run into but not for anyone else.
Shrewd/Perspicacious-Both words refer to the ability to perceive things clearly, but they have distinct qualities. Shrewdness stems from practicality in mindset, while perspicaciousness suggests something more than practicality. It’s more of an uncanny power, making these words close but not at all interchangeable. Perspicacious is also a few syllables too long to get the point across.
Stupid/Hebetudinous- The latter comes across as a snobbish, condescending way to confuse the very person they may be using the word against. Of course, it’s rooted in Latin, making it more outdated than useful. It’s rooted in the Latin word for dull. Only through extensions of that root term, does one arrive at stupid. Save your syllables and you’ll less like a pseudo-intellectual.
Terpsichorean/Dancer- The former comes the name of one of the Muses from Greek mythology. Terpsichore was the patron muse of dancing and song. It works but only if your audience knows their Greek mythology.
Tintinnabulate/Ring- When checking for specifics on the former, I found that Merriam-Webster Online doesn’t even list it as a word in their database! I’m not an M-W purist or anything but that should probably give one pause. Tintinnabulum is the Latin word for bell, so fans of Latin can argue that this word makes sense and should be in bounds. But I hail from the ‘save your syllables’ school of thought, so it just sounds wordy and unnecessary.
Page Count: 528/528 (100.00%)
No comments:
Post a Comment