Personally, if someone says a word to me that I haven’t heard, I immediately interrupt them and have them explain what it means (and then tell them about Quotidian Word, of course!). This is because I am one of those who loves learning. Asking doesn’t make you appear dumb; not asking makes you look like a fysigunkus. However, there are those who will mention a word simply so they can be asked what it means, but you’ll know who they are by the curl of smug that hangs off the edge of their lips.

What many people do not understand is that words carry a latent power, just like anything else, and their relative use and ubiquity defines their power. Also, their shade of meaning is influential in their power. For instance, everyone knows what a meteor is, but do they know what a bolide is, and what the difference between them may be? How about the difference between something hairy and something velutinous? To know these words and use them correctly empowers one as a communicator to speak descriptively and precisely.

Of course, your communicative efficiency is always determined by the vocabulary of your audience, and therein lies the rub. However, if you offer to gently inculcate them, you may find that not only are they getting smarter, but to them you become less of a, oh, what’s the word, pompous douchebag.

Why do you love new words?

As the bearer of a triune of seemingly disparate names-Chani (demonstrably a Punjabi name for males and females, but technically acquired because my parents are into sci-fi), Jo (presumably a Southern moniker affixed to my first name, but actually named for my father, Joseph), and Hodonsky (you have to scroll down a bit, but if you do, you’ll discover that I’m not Polish!)-I am often fascinated by the names people choose. Car (or hard drive, iPod, etc.) names, pet names, superhero names: anything onomastically meaningful usually catches my eye (or ear, as it were).

So if you could name someone or something (appliances, pets, and people [sobriquets only, please... if you want to name a baby, there are a bazillion other websites out there to talk about it] are all appropriate in this forum) whatever you wanted, what would you choose? Would you try to find an aesthetically pleasing combination of your favorite phonemes? Are you so sick of people getting your own name wrong that you’d prefer to go the George Foreman route and name everything in your life the same thing? Would you be willing to eternally associate one of your favorite words with a pet or musical instrument, given the possibility that it wouldn’t work out? Are you one of those people that adds a bizarre pronunciation to a previously quotidian term to “make it your own”?