Tell her you were afraid.
Because I was afraid.
Of me? Afraid of what?
Tell her you were afraid of words.
What?
Words.
Because I was afraid of worms, Roxanne! Worms!

One of the things I’ve been thankful for in getting involved with blogging is reading the material of so many wonderful writers who have such fantastic vocabularies. (Or thesauruses. Thesauri? Whatever.) Makes me feel jealous. And a little stupid. But rather than run from my stupidity and my fear of unfamiliar worms, I’m going to embrace them. With a heavy-muscled, sweaty squeeze.

Ahhh, there. Feels good.

I’m also going to add words to this page whenever I run across ones I don’t know, that I might actually remember it and use it myself in future posts. Feel like expanding your own vocabulary? Read on! Know all these words already? Congrats, Einstein. Just remember, I’m probably bigger than you.

Erudite. Saw it here. It means: having or showing profound knowledge; “a learned jurist”; “an erudite professor”

Bleat. Don’t recall where I saw it. It means: to make the natural cry of a sheep or goat; also : to utter a similar sound

Detritus. Saw it everywhere, which made me feel particularly stupid. Anyway, it means: loose material (as rock fragments or organic particles) that results directly from disintegration OR miscellaneous remnants : odds and ends (sifting through the detritus of his childhood — Michael Tomasky)

Bucolic. Saw it elsewhere before, but saw it recently here. It means: pastoral, as an adjective, refers to the lifestyle of shepherds and pastoralists. What are pastoralists? People who earn their living painting in bright, chalky colors. Err, wait. They make their money with livestock. Yup. Pretty sure about that one.

Sluice. Saw it here. It means: a water channel that is controlled at its head by a gate.

Feckless. Saw it here. It means: Lacking purpose; Without skill, ineffective; Lacking vitality; Lacking the courage to act in any meaningful way. In other words, lacking in testicular fortitude. Those are my words, btw.