Ombudsman (n)

Ombudsman - A man who investigates complaints and mediates fair settlements, especially between aggrieved parties such as consumers or students and an institution or organization

So, for instance, someone who looks into insurance claims might be considered an ombudsman.

Niggard (n)

Niggard - a selfish person who is unwilling to give or spend

Woah! Definitely never knew this word before I read about it in my speech book. My book was talking about how a newly appointed Washington D.C. rep used this word (niggardly) to describe an approach to budgeting. All sorts of racial accusations ensued. As it turns out, the word is from Scandanavian descent and has no relationship to the other "n" word as it might so apparently seem!

Ex: When asked to donate funds to the Katrina relief efforts, the niggardly old woman replied, "I'd rather go shopping!"

Maxim (n)

Maxim - A succinct formulation of a fundamental principle, general truth, or rule of conduct

You mean it's not just a men's magazine!? :-) So how might this definition apply to the type of content generally found in the magazine?

I'll think about this one more later, too. Perhaps I should go buy a couple issues so I can research the matter further...

Caste (n)

Caste - A social class separated from others by distinctions of hereditary rank, profession, or wealth

Is a highly paid lawyer automatically considered in a different caste than a minimum wage assembly line worker? Still a little fuzzy on this one...

Reticent (adj)

Reticent - Inclined to keep one's thoughts, feelings, and personal affairs to oneself; reluctant; unwilling

Don't think I ever saw this word before I read it in my speech book yesterday.

Original example: Laurie was a reticent student, preferring to sit in the back corner of the room where she hoped to never be called upon by the teacher.

Minstrel (n)

Minstrel - A medieval entertainer who traveled from place to place, especially to sing and recite poetry; a lyric poet; a musician

This word comes courtesy of Kanye West's MTV diaries. It briefly showed an album cover for Little Brother's "The Minstrel Show." Makes all the sense in the world once you know the definition!

Jilt (v)

Jilt - To deceive or drop (a lover) suddenly or callously; reject

Ex: When I married my wife, I promised to never jilt her.

Lush (n)

Lush - A drunkard

This word also means to be bountiful, luxurious, wealthy, etc, but I never knew it was another word for a drunk until my wife used it in a sentence one day. Now, when someone's acting a fool while getting tipsy, I can call them a lush!

Aloof (adj)

Aloof - Distant physically or emotionally; reserved and remote

My speech book loves this word.

Original example: If Jane Doe is dating John and suddenly finds out they might be related, she might start acting aloof. It also appears to be a fancier way of calling someone "shy."

Honorarium (n)

Honorarium - A payment given to a professional person for services for which fees are not legally or traditionally required.

This word popped up when I was reading a Purchasing Dept. Newsletter that my employer sent out. I read it and said "What the heck is that!?"

I found a good explanation of "honorarium" on this site. It reads, "An honorarium is a payment granted in recognition of a special service or distinguished achievement for which custom or propriety forbids any fixed business price to be set. The amount of the honorarium should be specified in an agreement or in correspondence with the individual who will receive the honorarium. A copy of the agreement or correspondence should accompany the request for payment."

Come to think of it, I guess this is what you give to a preacher who conducts your wedding ceremony? It would be improper for a typical preacher to charge for doing a wedding, but yet it is almost always understood that a monetary gift be given to him/her. That monetary gift might be called an honorarium? Not exactly sure about this one, but I'll ask around to be sure I've got it correct.

Pragmatic (adj)

Pragmatic - Dealing or concerned with facts or actual occurrences; practical.

Yet another word I found this word in my Speech book, and yet another word that I've heard many times before and never bothered learning exactly what it meant.

Basically, someone who you would normally call "matter-of-fact" could also be labeled as pragmatic. I guess I would say that I am a very pragmatic person, because I typically like to deal with facts and tend to be more practical than anything else. I think that trait is typically found in computer guys such as myself.

Second thought: There is a company called "Pragmatic" that makes modems. I guess I now understand why this would make a good tech-company name...

Jibe (v)

Jibe - To be in accord; agree

There are other meanings of this word, but they are not the reason for the post.

I've always thought that "something doesn't jive" not that something doesn't "jibe"! How strange. Sure enough, when you look up the definition for "jive", it's all about jazzing & stuff like that, which I can see how "jazzing" might allude to "being in accord" with something.

But, alas, no. It appears that what I always thought about the word "jive" doesn't jibe with what I now know about the word "jibe"!

Tacit (adj)

Tacit - not spoken; implied; silent

This is another word used in my Speech book. I have a feeling that will be an original blog source for many words to come.

I've heard this word before, but never knew its meaning. I now know that I can tacitly show I love someone by being there for him/her in a time of great need. Or, I might tacitly suggest I don't want to eat at McDonald's by saying something like "Let's eat some real food tonight..."

Rapport (n)

Rapport - Relationship, especially one of mutual trust or emotional affinity.

I always thought that this word had something to do with the way someone was viewed by others. Now that I think about it more, I probably knew the real meaning of the word if it was used correctly, but I never was really certain of it, obviously, since I misunderstood a sentence in my Speech book because of it.

Now I know that to have a "good rapport" with another person simply means that you have a relationship that's held in high esteem (aka a "good" relationship).

Triage (n)

Triage - A process for sorting injured people into groups based on their need for or likely benefit from immediate medical treatment; A system used to allocate a scarce commodity, such as food, only to those capable of deriving the greatest benefit from it.

I think the first time I heard this word was recently during the Katrina news. Basically, if you've ever gone to the emergency room for a cut knee and had to wait four hours to get a band-aid, then you've been a victim of a triage system whereby the people with more serious injuries got seen first because of the limited caregivers on staff.

Purpose of this blog...

I've always thought of myself as having a decent vocabulary, but I've always told myself that I wish I knew more words. I think I would if I actually read books more often, but I don't. This means that most of my vocabulary is simply spoken, conversational English - which doesn't afford any great opportunities to learn new vocabulary (unless you're mingling with an English teacher, for example).

Anyway, in this blog, each post will be a word that I may or may not have heard before. In any case, though, it will be a word for which I did not know the full meaning, or a word that I thought I knew the meaning of, but didn't.

This blog is mainly for my own benefit, but if you happen to enjoy reading it, then be my guest!