Whenever I can’t confidently figure it out from context. I do it a lot more now that it’s so easy with google, in my younger years I would often forget if there wasn’t a dictionary immediately available.
Two from this week alone: kine and passerine.
Do you know the mystery of the Zzxjoanw?
My word from last weekend: quisquillious
I’m a bit of a word-nerd, so every single time I hear or read a word I don’t know I look it up. Then I go and look up its etymology separately because dictionaries don’t generally give very complete etymologies. And I look up words that I know the general meaning to, but don’t have a 100% solid understanding of. And then sometimes I get side tracked looking up further words and etymologies. So I’ll see a fairly simple word and then I must know the difference and relationship between warranty and guarantee and why guarantee has that “u” shoved in there. But then I’ve completely forgotten what I was even reading about.
I usually do stop to look up words I don’t know, unless it’s very inconvenient at the time. Yesterday I looked up “marplot”: a person who mars or defeats a plot, design, or project by meddling. Not that it wasn’t pretty obvious what the word meant, but I’d never seen it before.
I’m also usually compelled to look up a translation of foreign language phrases, and I hit Wikipedia a lot when I’m reading historical fiction.
On the internet, all the time. In fact, now sometimes when I’m reading a book I start to highlight a word, right-click and google and then remember I can’t do that with a book.
Heck… I had to look up four words in the OP.
Very rarely. If I come across a word I don’t know, I can usually figure it out from context.
Often. I recall looking up “quondam” while reading The Paladin of Souls for example.
"Captain of horse, swordsman, bravo, quondam murderer, destroyer of lives, - not just of enemies’, but of friends’ - shall I go on? The sort of fellow whose funeral’s orations are all on the theme of ‘Well, that’s a relief.’ ".
Rarely. I grew up with a mother who raced to a dictionary at the drop of a hat and made a big production, so now to be contrarian I try to avoid it. I only look up a word if I can’t get a sense of it from the context, it keeps recurring, and it’s significantly impeding my understanding of the text.
All the time, but perhaps not in the moment. I have a habit, when reading a book, of using a blank piece of paper as a book mark, then writing any words that I come across, even if I can tell by the context, it’s general meaning, on the paper. If not during, when I finish, I look them all up.
Once a month or so. Pro tip; for a quick lookup type define: <word> into Google, like this:
define: petard
I’m similar to Cerealbox. Like their response, it’s not uncommon for me to look up words I already know (or assume I know), to make sure I’m communicating an idea as best I can. I feel part of developing vocabulary is understanding and adopting words as you read or hear them in context, but it’s also vital to understand the specific meaning of a word, if you plan to use it with any regularity in the future.
So I certainly do look up words which I don’t understand, which is also convenient since I do most of my reading online. Nonetheless, I still have a lot to learn, given the history of language(s) can get very complex. It’s also that much more interesting when coming from a different cultural background, which in hindsight, has made for confusing communication.
Other times, I’ll just flag the word and look it up later. This is usually the case if I can generally follow the rest of the sentence or idea and just want to continue with the material.
Quite a bit. I check the Shorter OED first, then Merriam-Webster, and finally, if I must, something internet based. The latter always makes me feel dirty, though.
It appears I’m the first to say I never look up words I don’t know. If it’s important for me to know the meaning, then IME the meaning can be gathered from the context. If it can’t be gathered from context, IME it’s not generally too important for me to know the meaning of the word. And besides I’ll never remember the meaning of a word just because I looked it up.
For example, “otiose” above. I don’t know what it means. But it’s not important for me to know–it was just being used as an example of a word with an obscure meaning. Okay, got it, I have the idea I need to have to understand the post–no lookup necessary.
Do you never read non-fiction, particularly about the sciences? Imagine you were reading this:
[
[QUOTE=some person or person on wikipedia]
Ylem is a term that was used by George Gamow, Ralph Alpher, and their associates in the late 1940s for a hypothetical original substance or condensed state of matter, which became subatomic particles and elements as we understand them today. The term ylem was actually coined by Ralph Alpher.[1]
In modern understanding, the “ylem” described as by Gamow was the primordial plasma, formed in baryogenesis, which underwent Big Bang nucleosynthesis and was opaque to radiation. Recombination of the charged plasma into neutral atoms made the Universe transparent at the age of 380,000 years, and the radiation released is still observable as cosmic microwave background radiation.
[/QUOTE]
](Ylem - Wikipedia)
Do you seriously think you could deduce the meaning of “baryogenesis” from context if you didn’t already know it?
I thought I was the only person who did that! When I’m reading Jack Vance, I make sure it’s a full sheet of letter-sized paper.
That’s an example of a word that just won’t stay defined, no matter how many times I look it up. I keep conflating it with “quoditian,” an entirely different word. Perversely, it’s easier to remember “quondam” by connecting it with “erstwhile,” than simply “former.”
If I really needed to be sure I knew what it meant, I could imagine looking it up, but to me it looks pretty clear that it basically refers to the creation of certain types of particles very soon after the big bang.
I guess you’re right to point out that it’s not just context that’s relevant here–knowledge of word roots etc can help as well.
If I’m reading for recreation or entertainment, I try to figure out what the word means from the context.
Most other reading prompts a look-up ASAP.
I look them up every time.