Vocabulary... How big is yours?
I was chatting to Jon the other day on Skype (free Voice over IP software), and he's decided to try and expanding his vocabulary by learning new words regularly. While reading his current Iain Banks book, he'd come across quite a few words he didn't know from the subject matter and wondered if I knew them. Turns out it was a lot to do with sailing and boats. I used to sail quite a lot with my dad when I was younger so knew all these terms like gunwhale (pronounced 'gunnal'), fore/aft, starboard/port and which way round they all are. A lot of them I recognised and maybe had a feeling but didn't really know what they were.
We all grew up differently (well, maybe twins didn't - at a guess :-) so most of us have some words or phrases we know that most other people don't. How about taking time to ask your friends for an uncommon word they think is outside your vocabulary? Is that a good way to learn more?
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