#WritersCoffeeClub Jan 13. Are you actively building your working vocabulary? How?
Not specifically these days, but I instinctively look up unfamiliar words I run across when reading.
When I was about 10-12 years old I went through a phase of reading dictionaries.
@cstross the dictionary was a pretty frequent last resort of Something To Read for this pre-Internet kid. And looking up words is always better than just ignoring them like they weren't in the sentence!
@cstross
"When I was about 10-12 years old I went through a phase of reading dictionaries." Who didn't?
You moved on to thesauruses at 13? With an occasional foray into Cruden's Concordance, for entertainment?
@cstross I look up words etymology. Knowing their history and how they influenced other languages helps me a lot to remember them on the long haul.
@cstross I find it more effective to look for links between words. looking up the etymology of a word is very effective in that endeavour, and sometimes creates unseen bridges between languages. I do that a lot in French, English and Spanish. The back and forth is instructive and (for me) anchors a word deep in my memory
@cstross reading in French and German
