Exercises in Haruspicy – And Other Vocabularian Feats

A few months ago, another website I have followed for a good number of years featured an engaging meander through the diagnosis and repair of the author’s modern but aging car. If that is the kind of thing you enjoy, you should read it. I always enjoy Jeff Sun’s writing there, but this particular piece hit me with a new word: haruspicy. And new words always remind me of my grandfather.

My grandfather was the youngest of something like sixteen children (I can no longer remember the precise number), and was raised in the small town of North Adams, Massachusetts. He was born in 1894 and remembered things like living through the turn of the twentieth century (“everyone was making such a big deal about it but it just seemed like another day”) and the first telephone in town (“it was installed in the general store – I thought it was a hoax, and that someone was talking from the other side of the wall”).

He went to work for an uncle who ran a family-owned manufacturing business, and eventually became quite successful, with all of the things that went with success in his era – Cadillacs and country clubs and big houses where cocktails were served around 5 pm every day. One thing he lacked, however, was much formal education, and that was something he always regretted. He was, however, an intelligent man who was curious about the world around him, and never missed an opportunity to learn something.

Somewhere along the line, he picked up a practice with the purpose of enlarging his vocabulary. Many times I heard him utter an unfamiliar word, then look at me and ask if I knew what it meant. After telling me, he would add “If you make it a point to use a word in your everyday conversation for a week, it becomes part of your vocabulary.”

In 1989, Granddad, as we always called him, was nearing the age of 100. He was frail and his mobility was not at all good, owing to a bum hip he should have had replaced twenty years earlier when that surgery was becoming common. His mind, however, was still at full strength. That year I made the 600 mile drive to visit him and I remember what a great conversationalist he was. While there, he asked me to get a sheaf of papers from a drawer, and I did. About an inch and a half thick, these papers represented his continuing habit of finding ten new words a week.

We looked through them a bit. I remember when he hit on the word “malaise” – “there’s a lot of that around here” he said with a little smile. He asked me if I would like to take those papers with me. I suspect he thought I might find them educational. Truthfully, I had been the beneficiary of far more education than he had attained, and most of the words were already familiar to me. But I accepted his gift just to have a reminder of the man and one of his most endearing traits.

I still have that sheaf of pages, clipped together into several bunches. Most of the words are those I already know, like extrinsic (coming from outside, or the opposite of intrinsic) or sedation (calming by use of a sedative). Others, however, are new – did you know that a gimlet is a small hand tool for boring holes larger than those made by an awl? I just thought it was a cocktail.

All this brings me back to Jeff Sun and his use of the word “haruspicy” – it is an ancient form of divination that involved reading the entrails of sacrificed animals. Some folks read tea leaves, others read your palms. I can see why those methods of fortune-telling are more common than haruspicy. Not least is that there is so much less to clean up between readings for clients, never mind worries about representatives of the ASPCA or PETA coming to your door. However, perhaps I am not giving enough credit to an experienced hiruspex (practitioner of that art). Representatives of the ASPCA or PETA surely have readable entrails too. I suspect, though, that such entrails would probably result in a reading something like “I see myself going to prison for life”, so such readings probably are not worth the trouble.

The other thing about haruspicy is that Granddad would have really gotten a kick out of that one. He would probably have been able to come up with a clever quip about it. I will confess that I have never made it a point to read every page of Granddad’s vocabulary notes – maybe haruspicy is already there. It would not surprise me. Though he has been gone for nearly thirty years, I have no doubt that Granddad is still able to teach me a thing or two when it comes to expanding my vocabulary.

24 thoughts on “Exercises in Haruspicy – And Other Vocabularian Feats”

  1. Learning new words is fun, although my actually doing so is something that mimics an animal in that zone between sacrifice and haruspicy…in other words, it’s just sort of lying there and not much is happening.

    Part of that is a goodly amount of my work orbit involves people like your grandfather – very intelligent persons who are highly creative and resourceful but most have little formal education beyond high school. Mostly my everyday vocabulary is not an issue although it has thrown a distinct few (I told one gentleman he was a devout introvert and he scowled and told me to quit using $5 words) and I have realized my vocabulary has shrank somewhat (okay, contracted).

    Your grandfather was onto something regardless…expanding one’s vocabulary is a tremendous goal and, for my part, using uncommon adjectives is a hoot.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • There is a kind of vocabulary I recoil against, and that is the kind of jargon I call business-speak. A couple of months ago, I sat in my office, which adjoined a conference room. Someone was in there and left the door open, so that I could hear a never-ending stream of tech-sales-talk about utilization, optimization and about a dozen others I promptly forgot.

      Lawyers can be bad at this too, but at least sometimes there is at least some precise concept that is being conveyed through the use of jargon. Did you know that there is a difference between “practical” and “practicable”? The first is more theoretical (what can be done) while the second is more real (what can realistically and actually be done). Outside of a courtroom or a legal brief, I don’t think I have ever used “practicable” in ordinary conversation.

      Like

      Reply

  2. Without ever having met him, I really like your granddad. One of my grandfathers only had a 4th grade education but was a math whiz and went on to become a machinist who could operate 11 or 12 different machines in the shop accurately.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • They were from a time when really bright and naturally curious people were randomly scattered through all walks of life. I wonder if we will ever get back to that kind of society.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  3. This entry reminds me of the story my Dad used to tell about getting a business letter from a Canadian wing of his company, that was so beautifully written, it was a pleasure to read! My Dad was from a working class family, had a college education when only about 8 percent of American adults had a college degree, and he felt like an outsider almost everywhere. This was back in an era when working class, didn’t mean dumb-assed stupid either. The world was the written word and type, and you had to be able to understand. I used to recall this story every time one of my VPs used to “accuse” me of writing in complete sentences, admonishing me to “keep it simple” with bullet points only and zero explanation? And people wonder what’s wrong with America.

    Ditto on “biz-speak”. I think sometimes that there are so many short cut usages for company specific equipment or processes, that it easy to then just fall in to the biz-speak trap. Back in the 90’s, paradigm was so over and incorrectly used, that I read that “by usage” paradigm had over 200 meanings, of course 195 of them being wildly incorrect!

    I’ve been “accused”of having a big vocabulary by more than a few people, which I find laughable, since I could never write down new words to practice and use, I couldn’t remember them! If I do have one, it’s based on me coming from a family of readers, and in a usual year, I could be reading between 40 and 75 books. Maybe that stuff rubs off on you? I will sadly say, that when I’m having a conversation with almost anyone under 30, college educated or no, many times I’m asked what specific words mean, when I don’t think I’m “high-hatting” anyone and believe the words to be in general usage? Glad I’m on the downward slope….

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I think people who read have far larger vocabularies than people who don’t. My mother grew up on a farm, but her parents were very intelligent people who were also people who read for fun. My father was brilliant, but was never much of a reader, mainly because he wasn’t very good at it. He had been educated in some fairly elite, upper class schools on the Philly Main Line. My mother told me that those schools pooh-poohed teaching kids to read by phonics. Whether true or not, Dad never enjoyed reading, but picked up his vocabulary by talking with interesting and educated people.

      I think the trick of using a big vocabulary while not coming across as an elitist snob is to use simple direct words where they work, saving the big words for where they are needed. Anyone who says “utilize” in place of “use” or “facilitate” instead of “help” or “assist” should be smacked.

      Like

      Reply

      • I have to say, I’ve seen some just beautiful prose on the back of photographs from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, and mostly from rural communities, where it was unlikely people had m

        Liked by 1 person

      • It is very true that in many places an 8th grade education was pretty good, and that those farming families were intelligent and resourceful.

        Like

      • This morning I had a conversation with a 28 year old barista, and I had to define “perturbed” to her….I was perturbed….is perturbed a big vocabulary word? There’s a big difference between trying to “snob” someone out, and taking exception to simplifying your conversation to the nth degree because your are speaking with illiterates… in the olden days, feeling like your vocabulary wasn’t up to par is what motivated you to improve it. Now the idea is to let morons and imbeciles not feel bad about themselves, especially if it results in not making a profit!

        Liked by 1 person

  4. The way I would learn new words–which was relaxing, fun, and didn’t feel like work at all: I would open a dictionary to a random page and just start scanning through the entries. Every time I saw a word of interest–one I had never seen or one that I was previously unsure of the meaning of–I would read that entry. Then you go on to other pages for as long as you like. It’s amazing how much you learn!

    I would recommend this method to college students I was teaching, but I’m not confident any of them tried it out. College students today are not much interested in reading physical books. A local college is liquidating its library because last semester a total of 12 students took out books, and the college leadership now considers shelves of books that no one reads to be a waste of space. I rescued some great books that would have otherwise gone to the dumpster!

    I like the word “perforce”–I’ve read the definition, but I have trouble using it in a sentence. It’s sort of like “therefore”. I was going to drop it into a Curbside Classic article–but would people know what I’m talking about? “Cars in the ’50s became bigger and heavier, thus harder to steer, perforce power steering was offered, which limited road feel.” Huh?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Reading through the dictionary was where Granddad got most of the words he wrote down on his weekly lists. You are right, it is a great method.

      Perforce is a great word, but you are right that it borders on the archaic. I like to use the word “inflammable”, mainly out of stubbornness. But people only understand if I use “combustible” instead. I refuse to use “flammable” – because it is just wrong, even though it is commonly understood.

      When my kids were young, my wife and I read to them a lot. I loved Beatrix Potter’s Tale of Peter Rabbit, especially the way it was not dumbed down for kids. I have never forgotten the place where Peter got caught in a net, and some birds came along and “implored him to exert himself”. THAT is what we should be reading to kids!

      Like

      Reply

  5. Hmm – JP, how did you sneak this post in on a Wednesday and I missed it? I just wondered why you didn’t post today, so went back in Reader. For once, I’ve stayed caught up. My boss is a lawyer as you know and his father was a probate lawyer, still practicing at age 83 when he suddenly became ill. My boss told me that when he and two his brothers were growing up, their father was never around much. As a solo practitioner, he came home for dinner, then went back to the office. When he came home for dinner, he didn’t just bring his appetite – he brought Xerox copies of a page out of the “Oxford English Dictionary” – one copy for each of his sons. If you’ve ever seen the “OED” it is an oversized book, with each letter of the alphabet getting its own volume, except X, Y and Z. The boys were to memorize each word, its spelling and use for the next evening when he’d quiz them on random words in the dinner hour. The boys all became wordsmiths because of this exercise. My boss likes to use unusual words even now – he especially likes “kerfuffle” and quite honestly overuses it. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I had this one ready to go but somehow failed to schedule it. I had to hit the “publish now” button on Friday morning when I realized my error. I had not noticed the date, but that was probably the day I had last edited it. Thanks for that, I have changed it now.

      Your boss’s childhood was certainly educational. I don’t think I would have liked that kind of a dinner hour very much, if I’m being honest. But then again, maybe it was done in a way they found fun.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • Okay, now I understand JP. I could not figure out how I missed it Others who received the post are likely your e-mail subscribers then.

        I understand from my boss that while they learned a lot of new words, all three boys worried they would be asked to spell/define a word which they had “glossed over” and did not study hard enough and their father would be angry at them. Also the OED has British spelling (Oxford English) which might have made it tough. He used to buy flash cards to learn new and unusual words and sayings.

        I was typing this comment and the wooden chair I was sitting on made a big crack and collapsed … next thing I knew I was on the floor with scratches on my leg and blood pouring out and hopefully I didn’t break anything.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Ha ha – you do have the best quips JP. I am okay – thanks for asking. I feel lucky. I fell hard and that wooden kitchen chair fell apart. It had a broken rung for a while and quite honestly, I didn’t think the rung was all that important – it just was loose at one side – woodn’t you know it – turns out I was very wrong.

        Liked by 1 person

  6. I’m wondering how the heck your grandfather used “haruspicy” in “everyday conversation for a week” without his friends and acquaintances thinking about getting him professional help. But I’m glad you shared the word’s definition. Otherwise my guess would’ve been “what you say to a bottle of hot sauce before you buy it”.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Haha, I like your alternative explanation. Actually, hiruspicy was not one of my grandfather’s, but one I stumbled across that reminded me of him. Which words one should choose from a large dictionary is a practice with all the clarity of hiruspicy. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  7. For me, the best part of expanding one’s vocabulary is in learning of a word or phrase that gives a name to a concept you were aware of but didn’t think there was a name for. Sometimes, it’s a brand new word (I had experienced the emotion of “schadenfreude” at various times in my life since I was young but did not know there was a term for it until I was 25). Sometimes it’s a familiar word used in a new way (I just recently learned what “stonewalling” meant when applied to interpersonal relationships). Knowing the way to articulate things like that can go a long way towards managing them the right way.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment