How may one enhance his vocabulary?

[Cyberian]

<< I'll recommend one book, not necessarily for its value to improving your vocabulary, but because it is simply a great book that brought a generation to the starting blocks: On The Road, by Jack Kerouac. Read it and have fun. >>



You must be older than you look!
I met Jack Kerouac at a bar at which I hung out in the early 1960s.

 

[UG]

<...How may one enhance his vocabulary?? ...>>

Learn more words.

 

[GasX]

<< I'll recommend one book, not necessarily for its value to improving your vocabulary, but because it is simply a great book that brought a generation to the starting blocks: On The Road, by Jack Kerouac. Read it and have fun. >>



That is the best book I have ever read, and I have read many of them...

 

[mAdD INDIAN]

Try to make up insults to use on your friends. I'm not joking..me and my friend looked in the dictionary for words and used them against each other. Not all the words have to have a negative meaning either but when you put em all together it sounds like a nice insult. It's actually pretty funny and educational at the same time.

'I vehemently pronounce you to be incapitated in the cranium due to your non-orthodox behaviour which incests from your inability to habitat with normal humans' or something like that..i just made that up on the spot right now.

 

[Bellgoody]

Read well.

The History of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant. All 14 volumes. Twice. Have dictionary handy. Enjoy. Grow. Live. Love. Learn. Reflect. Write. Teach. Share.

Die well.

 

[Paul Ma]

pride and prejudice has plenty of archaic words. hrmmm... scribe to m-w's word of the day email list. or umm... be a linguist's friend. A lot of my friends have increased their vocabulary since I've started to talk to them.

 

[Pretender]

 

[Robert01]

Reading newspapers and magazines (ie Time, US Weekly) may be pretty helpful, but remember, most newspapers are written at the 9th grade level. Yes, you'll find new words, but nothing too complicated. Read magazines, newspapers, and books that actually interest you. If you're not interested in what you're reading, you're not going to remember anything; including the words. You may also want to attempt to try to do crossword puzzles and jumbles, they are usually pretty fun and it does enhance your vocabulary.

Make flash cards of words that you encounter through reading and hearing (more than likely it'll be reading--the clean words, anyway); and study 10-15 minutes a day.

 

[JediKnut]

Read a lot of books. More importantly, when you come across a word you don't understand, don't feel scared to refer to your Dictionary &amp; then try &amp; remember the meaning of the word. If you can use the new words in your conversation you'll remember them better.

 

[Carbo]

<< You must be older than you look! >>



<< I met Jack Kerouac at a bar at which I hung out in the early 1960s. >>

Hey, Cyberian! So, you met Kerouac? Where? I wouldn't expect it to be anywhere other than a bar, if I'm to believe all stories about his penchant for booze. I'm one of the old dopes on this forum at 46.



<< That is the best book I have ever read, and I have read many of them... >>

Mwilding, you too must be a geezer? It's unusual these days to hear anyone younger than, say, 30, to even have heard of Kerouac, let alone read any of his works. I did my Masters thesis on the Beat Generation. It was a hell of a lot of fun and really opened my eyes to another option for a young man of 21 to pursue. Of course, times are so different these days, I couldn't in good conscience recommend to anyone sticking out their thumb and following their heart. That innocence is, very sadly, long gone.
I'd be most curious to the reaction of some of the late teens/twenty somethings on this board after reading On The Road. I wonder if the book would hold any truths for this generation. I fear not because the book is so rooted in, among many things, anti-materialism.
I fear that spirit would be incomprehensible to the youth of today.
I think I'm starting to sound like an old, reminiscing geezer. No matter. I'm going to dig out my old, dog eared copy and reread it this weekend.

 

[rseraji]

dictionary.com has a word of the day function.. its pretty intresting