Word of the Day

I have a love of the English language. Knowing this, you might think that if words brought me that much joy, I might know a few more of them. But, alas, I have a very small vocabulary! In hopes to broaden my vocabulary one year, I asked for a word of the day calendar for Christmas. I had visions of eloquent speeches (given by me of course), not sitting beside my dictionary as I read books for people my own age, and understanding one of my parents' conversations (they have good vocabularies - how did I not inherit this?) without needing to ask them what a word meant. A word of the day calendar would deliver my hopes and dreams, right?

I knew, the very moment I opened my gift from a loving Santa, that I would sound much more intelligent within weeks, if not days. I opened the page: utmost - 1: situated at the farthest or most distant point: extreme. Other definitions followed. This won't be too bad. I can use this word to gain the utmost respect from the brilliant people of the world - NO PROB!

The next day: gadarene: headlong or precipitate. Ummm...should I admit that I don't actually understand this definition. Should you need a dictionary to look up the words you don't understand in your word of the day calendar? Precipitate??? Isn't that when rain or snow falls from clouds in the sky? How will I ever use this word???

After I got over the initial shock of a daunting word, I thought, "If all the words were as common and easy to use as utmost, there wouldn't really be a point to this calendar, right?" I can give this a shot.

I've decided that tonight is the night I'm going to use this new word. I will ask my husband to pass the gadarene salt while at the dinner table. See, I'm using new words! Already my vocabulary is expanding!!!

Think anyone will notice that I still don't know how to use this word in context? Hope not.