With the kindle, things are even easier.

Words you don't know the meaning of by the Irish Samurai on 2013-04-25 12:28:00 UTC Reply

I've been thinking about this a bit recently, because I've been re-reading a bunch of the Discworld books. While I was reading them, I noticed that there was about one word per book that I didn't actually know - it was easy enough to guess the meaning from the rest of the sentence, and previously that's what I would have done. Getting up, finding a dictionary, looking the word up, was too much of a disruption for me to bother with. But these days, with a smartphone in my pocket, I can look stuff up almost instantly.

The most recent unknown word that I came across is from Soul Music, and was used when referring to the Unseen University's organ: plangent.

Apparently it refers to a sound, and either means 'loud and reverberating' or 'plaintive; sad'.

Just wondering, if you come across a word you don't recognise, do you look it up, or just guess? And what words have you found recently that you didn't recognise?

Shameless plug of stuff I like by firemagic on 2013-04-25 20:50:00 UTC Reply

My vocabulary has been helped by Shadowjack Watches Sailor Moon - it's sort of like an abridged series, but in text, and it's great. For episodes 44 and 125, he ended up writing in Shakespearean-style, and it's AWESOME.

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?479656-IWIW-Sailor-Moon-Part-2!&p=11200147#post11200147

Well, there's 'pewling stirk' , which is really an insult, 'regolith' (a kind of rock). I had to look up the exact definitions but it's pretty easy to guess at general meaning.

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?662888-IWIW-Sailor-Moon-Sailor-Math-8-Sailors-Mistress-9-Thread-11!&p=16149341#post16149341

Some archaic terms - corse and murtherer for corpse and murderer,'caitiff' (a coward), 'recusance' (refusing to obey authority), 'cozen'd' (to trick), and 'armillary' (hoops or rings, but an armillary sphere is used as a model for stars)

I like "recusance". I might use it somewhere. (nm) by Outhra on 2013-04-25 20:56:00 UTC Reply

I tend to infer as well. by Khaosity on 2013-04-25 20:31:00 UTC Reply

Though I do look them up later to be sure I've got the meanings right. To my chagrin, I usually mispronounce long or unusual words, because I almost never have the chance to use them in conversation and just read or write them.
I infer by Guvnor of Space on 2013-04-25 20:05:00 UTC Reply

I infer the meanings of words, and have always done so. When I was little, I would ask my mom, and she would tell me to look it up. Naturally, I did no such thing, and ended up increasing my power of inference. It proved useful when taking the SATs.
With the kindle, things are even easier. by World-Jumper on 2013-04-25 16:44:00 UTC Reply

If I come across a word I don't know, I just hold my finger on it, and the dictionary it has loaded onto the device gives me a quick definition of the word. I use it with Discworld a lot too, actually. The good thing is that I know what Prattchet was truly trying to say. The bad thing is, I find I don't put it to memory well. After all, why memorize it when the definition is a second away? This summer, I have to sit down with a dictionary and just put to memory all those words I should know but don't. Wish me luck.
I personally... by Karen on 2013-04-25 15:38:00 UTC Reply

Tend to infer a word's meaning from its context. If I find a word particularly interesting or can't figure it out from the context, I will look it up.

Sadly, I haven't had much time for recreational reading of late, thanks to class.