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Thursday, April 17, 2008
Vocabulary
I haven't been doing all that well with Booking Through Thursday questions for the last week or so. Here's this week's Booking Through Thursday question:
Every now and again I come across a word that is new to me, and that I can't work out a meaning in context. On those occasions I will visit an online dictionary, but because I am usually reading during the commute to and from work that is often now accessible either, and by the time I get home I have other things to think about!
I’ve always wondered what other people do when they come across a word/phrase that they’ve never heard before. I mean, do they jot it down on paper so they can look it up later, or do they stop reading to look it up on the dictionary/google it or do they just continue reading and forget about the word?
Every now and again I come across a word that is new to me, and that I can't work out a meaning in context. On those occasions I will visit an online dictionary, but because I am usually reading during the commute to and from work that is often now accessible either, and by the time I get home I have other things to think about!
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I only read at home these days (my commute is on foot), and I don't have a dictionary with me, so it depends on whether the computer's on or not. If it is, I'll immediately look it up. If not, if I'm really intrigued I might write it down to look up later, but usually I just resign myself to not knowing.
I don't look words up that I don't understnad if I am honest. I might ask someone I know if they are around but that's about it.
I often read in places without access to a resource to look up or ask the meaning of words too and if I'm lucky I may remember to look the words up later, but usually I forget. When I can though, I try and find out the meaning of unfamiliar words if I can't guess at them just from reading the context the words are used in.
I Google the word and find its meaning. Some words that authors use are a bit archaic or even worse, they are colloquial terms. I was ever thankful for the author of "An Irish Country Doctor" for putting a dictionary at the end of his book! Many of those words were lost on me, an American audience. But yes, I look up the word, but then again, I spend most of my time reading at home.