Skip to main content

Word Wednesday: Perspicacious


per·spi·ca·cious
adj \ˌpər-spə-ˈkā-shəs\

Definition of PERSPICACIOUS
: of acute mental vision or discernment : keen
— per·spi·ca·cious·ly adverb
— per·spi·ca·cious·ness noun
— per·spi·cac·i·ty noun

Origin of PERSPICACIOUS
Latin perspicac-, perspicax, from perspicere
First Known Use: 1640

Use it in a sentence!
People who don’t enjoy Harry Potter obviously lack perspicacity.
I might kill myself if my children aren’t perspicacious.
People with telepathy absolutely possess great amounts of perspicaciousness.

Incidentally, Word’s spellchecker doesn’t recognize perspicaciousness as a word. I hate when it tells me I’m wrong when I know I have spelled something right. It makes me feel like I am going crazy and then I end up typing, deleting, and re-typing the same word about ten times before deciding to move on.
I received this word in a “Word of the Day” email a loooong time ago. It has always stuck with me because it sounds so much like a really sophisticated insult. It’s not really insulting, in fact, it is complimentary.
I used it once in a conversation with my husband. He asked me what it meant and I told him to look it up for himself. Instead, he has just started throwing it in here and there, in different contexts, in attempts to discover its meaning:
Me: “I’m feeling tired.”
Norris: “Or, are you feeling perspicacious?”
Me: “You are being such a dork right now.”
Norris: “So I’m being perspicacious.”
Every time I tell him that he doesn’t have it quite right and admonish him to look it up online. Every time, he refuses. And every time it makes me laugh.
So there you have it. Call someone in your life perspicacious today, and watch their face light up!

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. Hanna C. HowardOctober 12, 2011 at 4:13 PM

    This is a very Hermione-ish word. Not necessarily because she would use it (though she might very well), but because it makes me think of her.

    On the downside, I was unable to find an email subscription to your blog. It's possible I'm just dense, but it's also possible that you need to get yourself an email widget (may I recommend Feed Burner?) and then notify me immediately when you have done so.

    You're so perspicacious. (Which also reminds me of Mary Poppins.)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Zumba Night!

Okay, so, I haven't updated my blog about my weight loss every Tuesday night like I planned. But I am proud to report that not only have I continued to go to the gym at least thrice a week, I even convinced N to join it with me! The exercise thing is going a lot better. Today I even looked at myself in the mirror while I was zumba-ing! I don't think that I will ever be the kind of person who loves, loves, loves going to the gym, it does feel kind of good, kind of virtuous to get all sweaty and be able to tweet, "I am at the gym doing zumba!" For those of you who don't know, Zumba is the new fitness craze. I guess if you were to totally simplify things you would call it a type of aerobic class, but it is really so non-aerobic-y. There is not a lot of pumping, or jumping. It is 100% dancing. A little bit of salsa, a little bit of hip-hop, and tonight, even a little bit of ballet. It gets the heart rate waaaay up, and I always end up drenched in sweat, and best of ...
5 comments
Read more

Words on Wednesday

I am too chatty to confine myself to no words on Wednesday. So instead I have decided that every week I will choose one special word to highlight and adore. Something obscure but useful. Something constantly misused. Maybe just something that sounds cool. I am starting off easy. This week's word is IRONY. iro·ny   noun \ˈī-rə-nē also ˈī(-ə)r-nē\ plural iro·nies Definition of IRONY 1 : a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning —called also Socratic irony 2 a : the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b : a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c : an ironic expression or utterance 3 a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2) : an event or result marked by such incongruity b : incongruity be...
3 comments
Read more

Word Wednesday: Gelid

Definition of GELID : extremely cold : icy < gelid water> gelid reserve — New Yorker > — ge·lid·i·ty \jə-ˈli-də-tē, je-\ noun — gel·id·ly \ˈje-ləd-lē\ adverb Origin of GELID Latin gelidus, from gelu frost, cold — more at cold First Known Use: 1599 Related to GELID Synonyms: algid , arctic , bitter , bone-chilling , chill , chilly , coldish , cool , coolish , freezing , frigid , frosty , cold , glacial , ice-cold , icy , nipping , nippy , numbing , polar , shivery , snappy , wintry ( also wintery ) Antonyms: ardent , blazing , boiling , broiling , burning , fervent , fervid , fiery , glowing , hot , igneous , molten , piping hot , red-hot , roasting , scalding , scorching , searing , seething , sizzling , sultry , sweltering , torrid , ultrahot , warming , white-hot Examples of GELID : “The look she gave him was intensely gelid and he shied away from its frost.” “I like my coffee gelid in the summertime.” “Hey dude, that car is totally gelid. Can I drive it...
3 comments
Read more