Book Review: Oxford Essential Dictionary of Difficult Words
The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Difficult Words
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is a wonder if your style of writing is a bit on the intellectual side or if you want an Anthony Hopkins type of character, ala Silence of the Lambs–educated, professorial, cerebral. Their dialogue and interior monologue must include words that are well-selected, pithy, yet meaningful in their spot. They become the signature of that person and the reader recognizes the character’s appearance on a scene by their speaking style. If that’s not your normal speaking style (as it isn’t for most of us), it can be tricky, but not impossible thanks to this book.
In my case, I love words. I keep a list of my five hundred favorite words (like abecederian and apocryphal). I enjoy finding that one word to replace ten others–
dew point
heuristic
curmudgeon
…or the exact word to fit a circumstance
diaphoretic
heterodox
palindrome
When I bought this book, I curled up in bed and read it before going to sleep. The beauty of well-selected words is calming. So many of them flow off the tongue as though they should always have been there, in my mind.
xenophobic
obfuscate
bibliophile
perspicacity
Oxford Essential Dictionary of Difficult Words also has common words that we-all have likely forgotten–
objective
pantomime
raffish
spurious
When I read these, I scratched my head. They aren’t difficult, but–then it struck me–when was the last time I used them?
For more about beautiful words, check out these posts:
10 Tips Plus One More About Beautiful Words
103 Most Beautiful Words? You Decide
Ten Favorite Geek Words–Part I
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
Filed under: book reviews, geeks, words, writers resources Tagged: beautiful words, bibliophile, Dictionary, essential words, neologism, Word, words
