Vocabulary Words
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As a child I enjoyed listening to my father and other great preachers bring the Word. The lessons were valuable (I’m still learning them), but what really captured my attention were the words that they spoke – and how they spoke them. The way they fit together… the subtleties, the nuance all had me on the edge of my seat.I’m pretty good at it now. A good speaker, much like a dancer, a musician or even a comedian, has a cadence to his or her delivery. If I listen closely I can almost anticipate what will be said next, how long the next sentence will be or the tone of voice that will be used. There simply are words and phrases that fit well together and match the meter of the moment.
I think that this inspired my joy of reading – often books well ahead of my grade level. This experience always led me to discover new words and to figure out what they meant; and caused me to look forward to getting new vocabulary lists and competing in spelling bee’s in the 4th grade!
In high school, I remember the Christian Brothers at St. John’s College saying that using curse words was the sign of someone with a limited vocabulary (although I never figured out why a curse word and a deep vocabulary had to be mutually exclusive). I also recall that my friend Jeff and I would use words like “vicious” and “bodacious” – often together – to describe the allure of a certain young lady or three.
In graduate school, my friends Rodney, Monica, Cheryl and I would have fun with a “word of the week” contest. One of us would stumble on an extraordinary word and drop it into our speech at an unexpected moment. Surprised and amused, the others would then acknowledge the term and have fun looking for opportunities to use the same word over the next several days.
Over the last few years I have begun to add new words or terms to my vocabulary – those attendant to the world of social media. Though most often used in the written form, terms such as LOL, SMH, OTW and LMAOROTFL permit abridged conversations with friends and coworkers in the strangest places and at the strangest times.
All of this came to mind when someone recently sent me a BBM with the term “repartee” in the message. After I figured out what the word meant (a conversation marked with witty retorts), all I could respond with was “Wow, what a great word!”
Later in the same week, I was having a challenging human resources conversation with a couple of my teammates and I caught myself reaching for the right words to convey my message. When I might have said, “Recognize that this is a part of your job and get to it!”, instead it came out as “I hope that you find this responsibility empowering and not burdensome, because it’s important.”
My business partner calls this distinction using “round words” versus “sharp words.” There is a time and a place for both, and certainly the same message can be delivered more than one way and with different effect. In either case, a mature vocabulary is required.
Verbal and written communications are powerful tools. Getting your message across via text message or telephone call, keynote speech or Starbucks conversation, letter to the editor or Hallmark card can be as much of an art form as a lyric soprano’s performance at the Met or a Degas exhibit at the High. Whether multi-syllabic industry term or the occasional expletive, it all starts with vocabulary words.
What’s your word of the week?
