Winter Reading Vocabulary

I decided to jot down each new word (and a short definition) that I came across in my reading during the Winter Reading Challenge. [Addendum: Rather than keep bulky dictionaries in all my reading spots around the house, I have a Franklin Electronic Dictionary (that speaks!) beside my morning reading spot. Because this dictionary is so handy and easy to use, I look up more words than I would if I had to drag out a print dictionary. This tool has been so useful that I bought another one recently for my nightstand.]

This would be my only hope of adding new vocabulary to my old, tired mind. Maybe, I thought, if its written down and I look at it often enough, it might just make its way to my mouth in usage. If not, at least I would be more familiar with the word than I am now.

Then I decided this might be a good exercise to encourage others to do. I use a large 5 x 7 inch index card. It is stiff enough to hold up over the year that I will use it.

Here are the words I've accumulated so far during this year's reading:

periphrasis — use of longer phrasing in place of a shorter form of expression

prolix — unduly prolonged or drawn out; wordy

redactor — editor

redact — to put into writing

vitiate — to make ineffective, impure, corrupt, faulty

gnomon — the pin of a sundial

cetology — the science of whales

vacuity — emptiness

perfidious — dishonest; faithless

gam — a school of whales

penultimate — next to the last (like a chapter in a book)

nociception — the perception of pain

nefarious — wicked

provenance — origin;, source

transmogrify — to alter greatly

modicum — a bit; tiniest amount

instantiation — a philosophical term describing the relation between a substance and a property

diddle — to cheat

noumenon — a fixed object or event as it appears in itself independent of perception by the senses

My memory is so poor now that when I next read or hear one of these words, it will "ring a bell," but the bell will have to ring many times before the door of my mouth opens to use the word easily.

How do you learn and use new vocabulary?