[Misc] How many of these words do you know?

[Stato]

They come from, pretty much, just two double pages in a so called 'bestseller' book I've attempted to read. I got to chapter three, because I've got fvck all better to do with my time at the moment whilst ill, and just thought I'd start writing down my numerous trips to the dictionary.

Will Self got a new one out?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Without using a dictionary or looking up online.

How many of these words do you know?

By know, I mean really know, as in, could use them with ease in a sentence. Any that you've vaguely heard of, but don't really know without looking it up, don't count.

Orcadian.
Peripli.
Skaldic.
Orographic.
Occidental.

Lunulae
Faience
Pibroch
Hawser
Gnomic.

Be honest with your answers. There's no prizes on offer.

Only those three.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

No prize, no play.

Sacked?

 

[Bakero]

Will Self got a new one out?

That was the first author to come to mind for me too but I think that little selection is pushing it even for him

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Peripli. - Chinese Nando’s

Skaldic - a bath that’s too hot

Orographic - Bukkake bang

Occidental - incorrect items in your food delivery.

Lunulae - sex in space

Faience - a dyslexic husband to be

Gnomic - a small comedian

 

[Bodian]

Without using a dictionary or looking up online.

How many of these words do you know?

By know, I mean really know, as in, could use them with ease in a sentence. Any that you've vaguely heard of, but don't really know without looking it up, don't count.

Orcadian.
Peripli.
Skaldic.
Orographic.
Occidental.

Lunulae
Faience
Pibroch
Hawser
Gnomic.

Be honest with your answers. There's no prizes on offer.

Hawser is quite common / known isn't it? Unless it means something other than what I know it does as well?

Gnomic and Occidental are both words I have actually used, and Orcadian is one I know but have never used.

The rest - havn't a clue.

 

[Eeyore]

I've heard of 1 and know the meaning of none.

But I've got by on NSC

 

[Guinness Boy]

I knew occidental and gnomic. No clue with any of the others.

Doesn’t necessarily mean the book is worthless. There’s a section of Birds Without Wings by De Bernieres where I had to look up every second word or so and it’s still the best book I’ve ever read.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Plaice

 

[Anger]

Unless I’m very much mistaken Occidental is another word for the Eye Tooth.

 

[zeemeeuw]

Faience - I was a bit of Lovejoy during the noughties.

 

[Stato]

That was the first author to come to mind for me too but I think that little selection is pushing it even for him

I remember him writing an opinion piece saying that Orwell's rules for writing were wrongheaded. I laughed because I'd finished a few of Orwell's novels / memoirs and never got through the first three chapters of one of Will's.* I like Will. He's an entertaining individual who talks beautifully. I like that he's an unapologetic intellectual, but if he's trying to sell novels that someone with a degree that included literature will throw at a wall, he's never going to sell a lot of them.

*- I did later finish 'The Book of Dave' after taking the approach that if he used a word I didn't know, I'd generally make assumptions from the context and plough on. It was quite good.

 

[Professor Plum]

3 for me.

Orcadian (helped by the fact I watched a related film the other day).

Occidental (Everyone knows that, right?)

Gnomic

Another Occidental, Gnomic shout here.

 

[1066familyman]

Hawser is quite common / known isn't it? Unless it means something other than what I know it does as well?

Gnomic and Occidental are both words I have actually used, and Orcadian is one I know but have never used.

The rest - havn't a clue.

I've lived by the Sea all my life. The only Hausa I've ever heard of are the people of Northern Nigeria, lol.

* I'm assuming you mean a thick type of rope used for mooring/towing boats or ships?

I reckon in three chapters of this book I've gone to the dictionary no less than fifty times.
It's ridiculous! I think the author thinks he's Salman bloody Rushdie or something!

 

[1066familyman]

I knew occidental and gnomic. No clue with any of the others.

Doesn’t necessarily mean the book is worthless. There’s a section of Birds Without Wings by De Bernieres where I had to look up every second word or so and it’s still the best book I’ve ever read.

Good for you.

I'm by no means the brightest boy in the village, granted, but when I'm never away from the dictionary whilst trying to read a work of Fiction...I'm out I'm afraid.

 

[BNthree]

Gnomic and occidental. Both because I’ve read them in books and not had the faintest bloody clue what they meant, so looked them up. I have certainly never used either in conversation.

Same for me.

 

[Bodian]

I've lived by the Sea all my life. The only Hausa I've ever heard of are the people of Northern Nigeria, lol.
* I'm assuming you mean a thick type of rope used for mooring/towing boats or ships?

Yes.

Maybe I read a lot of things like the Caine Mutiny, Treasure Island, and Joseph Conrad when growing up.

 

[Coldeanseagull]

I knew of three, but had heard of a couple of the others. I'm sure I've heard one used as a derogatory reference to Reading FC

 

[Stato]

I can use a few of these in sentences:

I sat through an episode of Doogie Hawser MD the other night. I hadn't meant to. It was entirely occidental. I'd meant to turn it off and read a book orographic novel. In the new comic version of Lord of the Rings Professor Stanley Unwin fills in the background of peripli characters. He explains that, before meeting Aragorn, Arwen dated Gimli for a little while. It didn't work out because he gave her the gnomic.

 

[Bodian]

They're written in two blocks of five for a reason.

They come from, pretty much, just two double pages in a so called 'bestseller' book I've attempted to read. I got to chapter three, because I've got fvck all better to do with my time at the moment whilst ill, and just thought I'd start writing down my numerous trips to the dictionary.

I was curious to see if it was just me, or if the book (a 'bestseller' remember!) is just way over the head of your average football messageboard user or not. It's not about football btw, but that's not the point.

After looking up the words I didn't know, I realise that I have actually skimread this book myself, and gave it away because I was disappointed in it. I should have been interested, as the theme/topic is my job/hobby - but I couldn't get on with it.

To be fair to him though, he has also written books abut lost words and so on - so I guess there's just a bit of overspill here?