Something Happened

No, this is not about the Joseph Heller novel. Although I did read it once upon a time, I don't remember anything about it. Which, in and of itself, is my review of it.

This is about yesterday. Yesterday was a Thursday which I believe is the worst day of the week. But something good happened which proves the vagaries of life. I used aplomb in a sentence for the first time ever.

Now that may not seem like much of anything special to you. And maybe it just doesn't take much for me to have a good Thursday. But it was exciting for me.

Everyone has multiple vocabularies. We have our reading vocabularies, writing vocabularies, speaking vocabularies, and subsets like work vocabularies and children's vocabularies. Yesterday's use of aplomb was exciting as I took it from my reading vocabulary, added it to my writing vocabulary, and then added it my speaking vocabulary. Kind of a triple play.

Now that may not still seem like much of anything special to you. But you need to know that I am a poor speller, poorest of the poor. Yesterday as I'm writing I snatch aplomb (It's meaning) out of my reading vocabulary deck and try to slam it down into my writing list. I couldn't spell it. In place of the pl I kept trying a b. It wasn't in my speaking vocabulary so I wasn't pronouncing it out correctly. I probably spent a half hour searching out that correct spelling before putting aplomb on hold and moving on with the story.

Last night I was talking with my middle daughter, who can spell, and asked her how to spell the word. Well, as I wasn't pronouncing it correctly, she couldn't spell it correctly. But that conversation put me back in the hunt.

I skimmed through synonyms looking for it. Words like witty, pithy, reassured, and smooth. Finally I looked at savoir-faire which led me to poised and then, eureka, aplomb.

All told I spent at least an hour actively chasing that word. And when I wasn't chasing it I was thinking about chasing it.

So I learned two things yesterday: how to spell aplomb and that I liked http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ the best of all the online dictionaries.

George W. Parker