When I was an undergrad, I had this English professor that gave us readings and asked us to look up words we didn’t know the definition of. The first time he gave us the assignment, I didn’t look up any words. I’m a native English speaker and because I understood what the reading was about, I didn’t think it was necessary to look up any words…
…then in the next class, he randomly asked us to get out a piece of paper and define some words. I’m still thinking, “no worries here”. Then he called out a few words and that’s when it hit me…I only understood what some of the words meant contextually, but I could not for the life of me define them.
I think he called out thirteen words, out of which I only could define about 4. The worst part, they weren’t even complicated words. So guess who was humbled and started breaking out the dictionary when doing readings for the class? Yup! Sadly, it didn’t quite become a habit.
I was reading a book recently and the word, “desuetude” was used…nope, no contextual understanding even, so Google it is! I don’t think I’d ever come across that word till then. It sounds like one of those words you use when you want to confuse people on purpose lol!
That said, this blog shall no longer be in desuetude ^_^ may the days of inconsistency be over for real x_x
#YouLiveandYouLearn
differentshadesofbrown 