merriam webster collegiate dictionary and 11th edition and abscissa and abscisin and abscission and aba and abaca

Well, I have started my review. I have really gone through about 80 pages so far, but I want to present a few words in the first 10 pages of the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.) here. I noticed that I have fewer words I need to learn from pages 71-80 than 1-10. Perhaps that relates to a scientific prefix that might be in the first few pages (aceto---), but I think it is because I am sorting out my method as I get started. But I have many thoughts as I began the discipline of mastering the dictionary.

First Words

I was delighted that the first page started easily. After all, how can you misspell "a"? Then there are a bunch of abbreviations beginning with AA.. which are not tested, of course. I had an immediate feeling that this was going to be a breeze. Then, I ran into words I didn't know. There is aba, a garment worn by Middle Eastern men and abaca, a banana fiber. After looking at these two words, you wonder why I even put them on my list. After all, what could be simpler than aba? But I have learned through a few of the contests so far that I often am hung up by very short words that I simply do not know. For example, I blew the word "byre" (English barn) from the Oregon competition, spelling it "byar." I didn't think of "pyre" and reason from that word, like the intelligent people did. So, I need to learn aba and abaca and, I am convinced, hundreds of words like them.

I really enjoyed studying abatis, defensive obstacles in fortifying a position. The Collegiate doesn't have a picture of abatis, but the Century Dictionary has a really cute one. I won't forget it. I crack up over the dictionaries that have pictures of things that EVERYONE already knows but ignore those things that no one knows. I recall once studying a dictionary and finding the word "canoe" defined, with a big picture of a canoe. Can you imagine any sentient English-speaking person who doesn't KNOW what a canoe is? Oh well, moving on...

An abattoir is a slaughter house, and I knew the word already, but I thought I would write it down lest the subsequent words become too boring. At least in my review, then, the image of bleating cows and blood-imbrued (great word!) vats would come to mind (as well as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle). I also think I didn't strictly need to write down abbatial, pertaining to an abbey, but it sounded like such a cool word, rhyming with palatial, that I wanted an excuse to repeat it as I reviewed the words. I could imagine myself asking a monk some day, "What are the abbatial pleasures you enjoy?" Well, maybe I might not want to hear the answer!

Continuing

Ok. I love abecedarian, meaning rudimentary, and I already knew it. Why the word aberrated (aberrant) is here I do not know, since it is obsolete and even obsolete people probably never used it. Abidance means compliance, which isn't exactly obvious, and I like the words abiogenesis and abiotic. It seems to me that a really useful verb is ablate, to destroy by "cutting, abrading or evaporating," derived from the Latin "ab" (meaning "from") and the fourth principle part of "fero" ("latus" meaning "carry"). An ablation is a surgical removal; an erosion. I really wished I knew this verb when I took Latin beginning in 9th grade, for then the ablative case would have been much more understandable for me. Oh, well, can't learn everything as a youth.

I was almost confused for a second with aboral. My first inclination was to try to read the "a" as an "alpha privative" which I know from Greek as something that "takes away from" whatever follows. There are tons of words in the "a's" that will be like this--asynchronous, for example, means "not synchronous." I tried to do that here, at first pronouncing the word "a boral" and imagining it was like the word "arboral" or "arboreal" but that someone had dropped an "r." But, I was wrong. The prefix is "ab," like ablate just reviewed, and "aboral" thus means "situated away from the mouth." Here is a possible sentence: "So often did he place his foot in his mouth that the teacher was astonished to discover that the foot was actually an aboral organ for him." I don't know if that sentence is correct--probably not--but I sure loved writing it.

I can't go on to a few confusing words without making mention of abroach. This is one of the few places in the dictionary where a quotation from Shakespeare is given. The word means "astir," and the brief quotation is "mischiefs that I set abroach" from II Henry IV. But, the Merriam Webster cheated. Sorry, but I must tell the truth. It lifted this word and the example, right from the Century Dictionary without giving a word of credit. Isn't that plagiarism? Hm. In any case, the Century Dictionary has several other uses of the term abroach, including "to open, as a cask, for the purpose of letting out liquor." Maybe the 11th Collegiate edition doesn't want to give college students ideas... In any case, I lodge a minor protest here; if you are stealing someone's quotations, fess up.

Slicing it Properly

I will close this essay by distinguishing abscisin and abscission. I SO hope these words will be tested, since I now know the distinction, and I bet a lot of folks don't. In a few words, abscisin is another word for abscisic acid, a plant hormone. Abscission, however, is from the Latin abscissio, meaning to remove or cut off, and the word abscission is an act of natural separation of flowers, fruit or leaves from a plant. Oh, I didn't introduce the word abscissa here, which is the horizontal line parallel to the x-axis in the Cartesian geometric system, since I remember learning that word in 9th grade geometry [a big year for me, as you can tell].

Conclusion

Well, I think that is a pretty good start for me. I have enjoyed writing about these words. It isn't my "whole list" by any means. But I can see how learning is taking place. You too?

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