The Superior Person's Book of Words || Superior in your own mind perhaps...
Written: Oct 11 '07 (Updated Oct 11 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: I like finding new obscure, silly, and 'fun' words.
Cons: You aint never gonna use most of these in a real-world conversation..!! No pronunciations.
The Bottom Line: I suggest you read for your own guilty 'word-mining' pleasure and share your newly-found nuggets only with others as 'mad about words' as you.
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| sleeper54's Full Review: Peter Bowler - The Superior Person's Books of Word... |
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It is said that the more words you know the fewer you need to use. You often find the more thoughtful individual listening more and talking less. I often prove out that adage. Uhmmm, no, not by being a good listener but by running my mouth more than I should.
Peter Bowler wants to give you an edge in your struggle to appear as superior as you possibly can in verbal and written interactions with family, co-workers, friends, and random people in your life. 'Superior'..?? Well ...lets just say Bowler believes (somewhat tongue-in-cheek I hope) that ". . .words are not only tools, they are also weapons." Weapons to be used in civilly responding to the ". . .errant motorist, a noisy juvenile, or a noisome alliaphage."
The Superior Person's Books of Words collects five hundred words and phrases in just over a hundred and sixty pages. So you know a lot of time is not wasted on any one entry.
If Bowler likes the idea of 'words as weapons' he also confesses to thinking of them as ". . .toys (that) are fun to play with." He confesses a few entries are featured in this book ". . .because he could not resist the temptation to revive a pleasing archaism or to reveal some little bizarrerie that had caught his fancy."
An example of this 'fun' attitude is found on the very first page with the word abecedarian. It is defined, as an adjective, to mean "(i) arranged in alphabetical order; (ii) elementary, devoid of sophistication. The present book may be considered by some to fit both applications."
The very next entry is 'abecedarian insult'. Rather than define this construction he gives an example: "Sir, you are an apogenous, bovaristic, coprolalial, dasypygal, excerebrose, . . .yirning zoophyte." He immediately translates this for his reader: "Sir, you are an impotent, conceited, obscene, hairy-buttocked, brainless, . . .whining, extremely low form of animal life." Of course, his example continues through all twenty six letters with twenty six corresponding adjectival insults.
(For the record, the Epinions spell-checker has choked on 7 of the 8 words I have used from the book so far. As I suggested earlier, these are not common words.)
Obviously, if you do not enjoy this type of 'word-mining', seeking out words to define things you have never felt the need to define ...if you do not enjoy this sort of activity you will probably find this book a bit silly, an exercise in obscurity, abstruseness, and irrelevance.
But if you like finding new words, examining their origins, exploring the fine points of their use, and perhaps incorporating a few of them into your personal arsenal of 'words as weapons' or 'words as toys' you will likely enjoy this collection.
The Bottom Line
While the cover flap suggests that ". . .you will impress your friends, amaze your colleagues and baffle your enemies with this witty, charming, and clever little book" I would suggest that you simply read The Superior Person's Books of Words for your own guilty 'word-pleasure' and share your new discoveries only with others as 'mad about words' as you.
Certified 'lean-n-mean' review.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
sleeper54
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