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
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