Precocious
If it's one thing that our brains do well, it is pattern match. We constantly seek to make order out of the chaos in our lives. From arm-chair psychology to abstract artistry to stereoscopic vision, our brains have become well versed in finding ordered reality out of almost anything. Some would even argue that the one thing our brains do better than anything is lie to us.
A concrete, and literary, example of such deception would be in the way we infer the definition of a word based on its connotation, inflection, and the context of the sentence in which it is used. From time immemorial I have heard the phrase:
"Eddie, you are so precocious" or "Eddie, stop being so precocious.
Do you know what precocious means? For the longest time I did not know what precocious meant. I inferred (i.e. my brain lied to me) that precocious was a negative word. Somehow, it must mean "bratty" or "insubordinate", "flippant" or "sassy". Well, actually, it doesn't mean any of those things. Apparently, precocious means:
Manifesting or characterized by unusually early development or maturity, especially in mental aptitude. (from www.dictionary.com).
So, for all of those years, I was being complemented -- the negative inflection mere sarcasm, not damnation.
Now, I came to that recognition a while back, but I have also been reading an excellent book called "Words that make a difference" and was surprised at how little I understood the meanings and etymologies of the words I use.
Because so many people learn words through informal usage and imprecise definition their "meanings" tend to be tied to how they were first used (which, of course, perpetuates their continued usage in that vein). As I come across some wordy wisdom, I'll try and put some examples up on the blog. I think some people might be surprised at the meanings behind the words they use. Of course, it could just be me who uses words without knowing their full meaning...
As an aside, the word precocious and the word apricot both come from the same Latin word. That why and how of that linkage is left as an exercise to the reader.
-Ed
ps:
Of course, this means it is equally possible, growing up, that I was being told:
"Eddie, you are an apricot" or "Eddie, stop being such an apricot."
A concrete, and literary, example of such deception would be in the way we infer the definition of a word based on its connotation, inflection, and the context of the sentence in which it is used. From time immemorial I have heard the phrase:
"Eddie, you are so precocious" or "Eddie, stop being so precocious.
Do you know what precocious means? For the longest time I did not know what precocious meant. I inferred (i.e. my brain lied to me) that precocious was a negative word. Somehow, it must mean "bratty" or "insubordinate", "flippant" or "sassy". Well, actually, it doesn't mean any of those things. Apparently, precocious means:
Manifesting or characterized by unusually early development or maturity, especially in mental aptitude. (from www.dictionary.com).
So, for all of those years, I was being complemented -- the negative inflection mere sarcasm, not damnation.
Now, I came to that recognition a while back, but I have also been reading an excellent book called "Words that make a difference" and was surprised at how little I understood the meanings and etymologies of the words I use.
Because so many people learn words through informal usage and imprecise definition their "meanings" tend to be tied to how they were first used (which, of course, perpetuates their continued usage in that vein). As I come across some wordy wisdom, I'll try and put some examples up on the blog. I think some people might be surprised at the meanings behind the words they use. Of course, it could just be me who uses words without knowing their full meaning...
As an aside, the word precocious and the word apricot both come from the same Latin word. That why and how of that linkage is left as an exercise to the reader.
-Ed
ps:
Of course, this means it is equally possible, growing up, that I was being told:
"Eddie, you are an apricot" or "Eddie, stop being such an apricot."
posted by Ed at 11:49 PM
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