# What is the last word that came up in reading that you had to look up? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 28, 2008, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517 "2008-09-28T01:01:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/1 "2008-09-28T01:01:45Z")
Title says it all really. I was reading an article about Bob Dylan, Shakespeare and Nabokov which contained the word **prolegomena**. Never seen it before. **define: prolegomena** in Google got me: ``` * introductory studies. www.willdurant.com/glossary.htm ``` What was your last new word? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/2 "2008-09-28T01:05:49Z")
I don’t recall which word it was, but it was in Donaldson’s **Fatal Revenant**. I always need a dictionary nearby when reading Donaldson. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/3 "2008-09-28T01:08:54Z")
Plangent ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/4 "2008-09-28T01:09:50Z")
**lacunae** Came across it today when reading a book about the Silk Road in Central Asia. It was discussing problems with early Chinese translations of Buddhist texts. On edit: > [@](#): > > Plangent I saw this for the first time a couple of weeks ago going over vocab lists for the GRE’s. The shit you have to learn to get into grad school . . . ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/5 "2008-09-28T01:24:34Z")
Crepuscular. Can’t remember the book, but it was military history and it was a few months ago. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/6 "2008-09-28T01:29:35Z")
boustrophedon ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/7 "2008-09-28T01:38:16Z")
Re-reading _Master and Commander_ for like the third time, just today I cam across **otiose** and had to look it up. [Otiose!](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/otiose) I guess I must have glossed over it the first couple of times I read the book. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/8 "2008-09-28T03:01:21Z")
I came across **meretricious** used in an unfamiliar way, and discovered its archaic meaning & etymology. (From _meretrix_, prostitute). ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/9 "2008-09-28T03:18:57Z")
**Propinquity** , used by Steve Martin in his book _Shopgirl_. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/10 "2008-09-28T06:03:36Z")
Parvenu - meaning a social upstart, or person from an obscure background who has risen to wealth or status. Like **Jodi** , it’s a word I’ve glossed over many times in the past. It was just that I read it and then heard it (in _Miss Potter_) within a couple of days and that prompted me to confirm its meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/11 "2008-09-28T07:44:01Z")
Gruesome. Normally, I’d know what the word means, but in reading stuff for a philosophy class, it was obvious that the usual meaning wasn’t what was being used. So, I went a-Googlin’. It turned out to refer to a problem in inductive inference, wherein the color “grue” is used to describe items which are green before a given time, but will be blue after a certain time. I don’t think there’s a semester where I’m not scratching my head over the words used in at least one philosophical reading. I was encouraged to just jump into senior-level courses without having intro courses, and I’m holding up well, but the field has a well-developed vocabulary that is baffling to outsiders like me. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/12 "2008-09-28T07:56:47Z")
“Aedile,” in Robert Harris’ _Pompeii_. It’s a type of elected municipal officer in the Roman Empire. It’s appeared again in his _Imperium_, which I’m reading now. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/13 "2008-09-28T09:02:28Z")
[Quondam](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/quondam), used in _The Paladin of Souls_. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/14 "2008-09-28T09:05:47Z")
_Epistemology._ I _always_ have to look up [epistemology](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology), I suspect because I don’t really believe there’s any use for such a concept. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/15 "2008-09-28T09:37:58Z")
Reading, I don’t recall, but after the Presidential debate I had to look up “existential”, “tactics”, and “strategy” because of the odd ways in which they were used by McCain. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/16 "2008-09-28T13:51:55Z")
“Anomie,” which is “a state or condition of individuals or society characterized by a breakdown or absence of social norms and values.” I was reading an article about David Foster Wallace. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/17 "2008-09-28T14:48:50Z")
Not a word, but a phrase: Happy puppet syndrome (A genetic disease, kids with it tend to laugh very easily and flap their hands at the wrist.) ---
**Author:** ![lucky\_henry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lucky\_henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucky_henry)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/18 "2008-09-28T19:37:42Z")
salitter - The Road by Cormac McCarthy ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/19 "2008-09-28T19:44:39Z")
I was reading a book in which a man was accused of killing his wife. One of the characters said the man was accused of “wificide.” After I stopped laughing at the ridiculousness of the word wificide and complaining to my husband that the author could have bothered to look it up and find “uxoricide” rather than just making up a word (and a dumb sounding word at that) I realized I should probably look it up to see if I was the ridiculous one. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517/20 "2008-09-28T20:25:21Z")
‘Tyro’, meaning a beginner. It was horribly out of character for the character who said it, to be frank… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-last-word-that-came-up-in-reading-that-you-had-to-look-up/465517.md?page=2)