Quotes About Vocabulary

For the fact remains that without Arab help, western Europe would never have recovered its knowledge of Greek science and mathematics—still the foundations of modern science today—or understood how to interpret it.7 Arabs supplied Europe with a new scientific vocabulary, with words like algebra, zero, cipher, almanac, and alchemy; and a new system of recording numbers that we still call Arabic numerals.

Te suena la palabra error, camarada comisario? ¿Existe en tu vocabulario? Endurece el otro la mandíbula. Su mirada podría rajar de frío el cristal de las gafas. —El Partido nunca comete errores.

The dictionary is an ossuary of empty words.

Ah, this blasted habit of mine of inventing or deriving words!

The hero is a device which the historian has taken over from the layman. He uses it because he has no scientific vocabulary or technique for dealing with the real facts of history-- the opinions, emotions, attitudes; the wishes, plans, schemes; the habits of men. He can't talk about them so he talks about heroes.

People use the word "goal" when they are talking about aspirations or outcomes. If someone says "goal," you can't be sure what they are talking about since the word is ambiguous. For that reason, "goal" is not part of the vocabulary in Behavior Design. Use either "aspiration" or "outcome" for precision.

One time I happened to use the word 'denigrate' onstage, and it didn't get any reaction. So as I continued my act, the left side of my brain was fast-forwarding to see if I had any other big words coming up.

The kids who speak well, are articulate and intelligent, are all readers.

I don't know what ontological means... I barely graduated high school, and I have never heard that word in conversation.

I grew up cursing a lot.

I guess my diction just isn't very good.

Human vocabulary size may have evolved through the same sexual selection process that favored enormous song repertoires in some bird species. But whereas only male birds sing, both men and women use large vocabularies during courtship, because courtship and choice are mutual, and because unusual words work as reliable displays only if their meanings are understood.

Unusually among European languages, English has distinct words for 'story' and 'history' rather than the same word for both: 'Was für eine Geschichte!' means 'What a story!' rather than 'an excellent history book', and une histoire can be tittle-tattle in the street as well as a work of historical scholarship. For Winston Churchill, there was never any distinction.

Is there another word for synonym?

the philanthropic banker his brother-in-law, who predominated so much in the town that some called him a Methodist, others a hypocrite, according to the resources of their vocabulary;

So far as the advocates of a constructed international language are concerned, it is rather to be wondered at how much in common their proposals actually have, both in vocabulary and in general spirit of procedure.

During my first semester of college, I raised my hand in a class and asked the professor to define a word I didn't know. The word was holocaust, and I had to ask because, until that moment, I had never heard of it.

Never use a big word when a little filthy one will do.

If you don't know how to pronounce a word, say it loud!

The word 'midget' is a slur. It evolved from P. T. Barnum's era of circuses and freak shows. Society has evolved. So should our vocabulary. Language is a powerful tool. It does not just name our society. It shapes it.

My lad chewed and swallowed a dictionary. We gave him Epsom salts - but we can't get a word out of him.

It was all completely incomprehensible to me. I was fearful of the language. You had to look up every third word.

Never should an unfamiliar word be passed over without elucidation, for, with a little conscientious research, we may each day add to our conquests in the realm of philology and become more and more ready for graceful independent expression.

Sometimes I know the meaning of a word but am tired of it and feel the need for an unfamiliar, especially precise or poetic term, perhaps one with a nuance that flatters my readership's exquisite sensitivity.