{"id":2619,"date":"2021-04-16T13:36:07","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T13:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2021\/04\/16\/on-looking-up-words\/"},"modified":"2021-04-16T13:36:07","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T13:36:07","slug":"on-looking-up-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2021\/04\/16\/on-looking-up-words\/","title":{"rendered":"On Looking Up Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patrick Kurp of Anecdotal Evidence<\/a> is a man after my own mold:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

When I encounter a new word, lengthy or not, I like to know what it means and where it comes from. I won\u2019t necessarily use it, in writing or speech, but I\u2019ve grown accustomed to plugging holes in my knowledge of the world. Plain speaking is essential but so, on the right occasions, are eloquence and verbal lushness. Part of linguistic effectiveness is sensitivity to context and audience. When it\u2019s not mere showing off, deployment of obscure words adds a pleasurable texture to poetry and prose \u2013 one of many reasons we read Shakespeare and Sir Thomas Browne. A gifted writer commands styles and is not limited to one. In addition, what\u2019s obscure or pretentious to you may be familiar and homely to me.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

My sentiments exactly.<\/span><\/p>\n

The blogosphere is vast, and she is deep. If the ordinary modes of human interaction have left you high and dry  in your quest for the like-minded, a little fishing in her vasty deeps should satisfy your needs.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patrick Kurp of Anecdotal Evidence is a man after my own mold: When I encounter a new word, lengthy or not, I like to know what it means and where it comes from. I won\u2019t necessarily use it, in writing or speech, but I\u2019ve grown accustomed to plugging holes in my knowledge of the world. … Continue reading “On Looking Up Words”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,280],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language-matters","category-vocabulary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}