I skipped BTT last week, but remembered to do it this time around. Here’s the latest question:
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?
I absolutely stop reading and look the word up in a dictionary. I keep one by my night table (I do most of my reading in bed) specifically for this purpose, and use it whenever necessary. Looking up new words is a force of habit that was ingrained in me way back in junior high by one of my reading teachers, so I’m used to it.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been reading many books where I actually need to look stuff up. This says more about the quality of my chosen reading material than my own vocabulary… Grisham, Michael Connelly, and Agatha Christie aren’t exactly known for pushing the limits (intellectually speaking).
Because I’ve had to look so few words up recently, I clearly remember the last ones that sent me scuttling for my Webster’s: “tommy” and “butty” from Disraeli’s Sybil.
tommy: Slang. bread, esp. brown bread, or rations, as formerly distributed to troops and workers.
butty: a fellow worker or friend, esp. in a coal mine.
April 17th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Now in my personal lexicon, a ‘butty’ is a sandwich, especially to anyone from the Lancashire area.
And a ‘tommy’ is a tomato, as in a tommy arto!
April 17th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I saw the sandwich definition of “butty” as well, but in the context of Sybil, it was used to mean fellow workers, so that’s the def. I listed here.
Didn’t know about “tommy” being a tomato, though!!