Rare Words

Posted on July 20, 2005 in Tutoring Words

My student sometimes complains about a word. “Why should I know this?” he will ask. “Will I ever see it?” The words in question are ones like effective, slender, and herd. I smile and solemnly promise to let him know when a word is not that important to know.

I do know a few rare words. Ones that you would wonder about were I to use them without explanation. A few of them might not be in your dictionary. And you would ask “If the purpose of writing is to communicate, why do you use them?” Accipter, buteo, and bajada — to name a few — have little use outside of a narrow intellectual circle or region of the country. There are, in fact, people who have lived their entire lives in the Mojave Desert right on top of a bajada who have no idea what one is! The only ones who do know are park rangers and the tourists who come to hear their lectures. Does this make the word entirely useless? Should we excise it from the language entirely?

I can understand my student’s frustration. Yet I remain a word glutton, a seeker after meanings a mere sliver from the words I hear every day. It is vital for me to know what to call the triangular skin on a cat’s nose (nose leather) or the ridges on the inside of its mouth (aveolar ridge). And what is the cat doing when it walks about the room, sucking in air? I live for the facts and for the language.

Tell me a unique word. I will treasure it.

---

Lynn found this link which you might enjoy.