These 9 Words Don’t Mean What You Think They Mean
The following is an excerpt from The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead, in which author Charles Murray discusses words with meanings that have changed — and not always for the better.
1. Disinterested
Disinterested used to mean uninterested.
The meaning of disinterested is “free of bias and self-interest.” It is essential that a judge be disinterested, for example. Disinterested does NOT, repeat NOT, mean “lack of interest” or “uninterested.” I put this so emphatically because we’re not talking just about proper usage. Disinterest used in its correct sense is on its last legs—I’ve been appalled to see it misused in articles in the Washington Post and other major publications. English does not have another word that conveys the meaning of disinterested as economically. If we lose the distinctive meaning of the word, we have measurably degraded our ability to express ourselves in English.
50 Most Challenging Words
Back in 2010 The New York Times published a list of 50 fancy words that most frequently stump their readership.
The New York Times 50 Fancy Words
(defined and used)
1. Inchoate: just begun and so not fully formed or developed
I am glad your inchoate proposals for integrating the company were not accepted this time, thus saving us face. Read More…
English pronunciation test
While most of you non-native speakers of English speak English quite well, there is always room for improvement (of course, the same could be said for every person for any subject, but that is another matter). To that end, I’d like to offer you a poem. Once you’ve learned to correctly pronounce every word in this poem, you will be
speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world.
If you find it tough going, do not despair, you are not alone: Multi-national personnel at North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters near Paris found English to be an easy language … until they tried to pronounce it. To help them discard an array of accents, the verses below were devised. After trying them, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months at hard labor to reading six lines aloud.
Try them yourself.
English is tough stuff
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. Read More…
25 Romantic Words That Don’t Exist in English But Should
1. Mamihlapinatapai (Yaghan, Tierra del Fuego) – This term, which holds the Guinness World Record for “most succinct word,” means “looking at each other hoping that either will offer to do something which both parties desire but are unwilling to do.”
Only the British could invent such a language
We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Then shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!
And, in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother‘s not Mop?
If people from POLAND are called POLES
then people from HOLLAND should be then HOLES
and what to say about GERMANS… GERMS?!
SOURCE
Click to read: Crazy English
Image courtesy:
155 Key Words For Resume and Cover Letter Construction
You want to enhance your resume, so you would have better chances in the job search. Try and use the vocabulary below.
Action Verbs
13 Words You Probably Didn’t Know Were Coined By Authors
Image courtesy: http://www.independent.co.uk
Boredom
If you’re not a fan of his books then it’s probably no surprise that Charles Dickens is credited with inventing the word boredom in his classic 1853 novel Bleak Read More…
Positive Personality Adjectives List
List of 100 common personality adjectives that describe people positively
You may use them for inspiration or to enhance your resume.
In reply to Important Infrequently Used Words To Know Rochelle commented that she would like to to see a list of joyful words she should learn as well.
So, let us have them:
A
adaptable –adj able and usually willing to change
Synonyms: compliant, flexible, malleable, resilient, versatile
adventurous –adj daring, risk-taking
Synonyms: adventuresome, audacious, bold, courageous, enterprising, intrepid, risky, brave
Click on the word below to follow the thesaurus link.
You are never alone with a Good Book
This is the way I feel when I read a compelling work – like I enter a place of magic and wonders. Like I am part of another world. Literally.
And you know the feeling of book-hangover after it all ends…
Source: www.fubiz.net
Quote of the day: Educate a girl
“Educate a boy, and you educate an individual. Educate a girl, and you educate a community.”
Image courtesy: http://modernsocialworker.blogspot.com
AWARDS
Just English 