This is my first post on this forum. I recently graduated from college with a degree in econ and realized that I need to improve my ability to read, write, and speak. I'm coming to this forum to achieve those goals.
In this thread, I am going to construct some sentences with a word I just learned and I want your feedback. If I am using the word incorrectly, or could have worded the sentence in a better way, I'm hoping you will correct me.
Martinet
Definition: a strict disciplinarian
The nun from the movie Doubt is such a martinet.
My mother wasn't exactly a martinet. She didn't mind when I came home at all hours of the night, smelling of booze and perfume.
My friend Paul is such a push over. His martinet of a wife definitely wears the pants in that relationship. She insists that he only go out with friends one night a week and even gives him a midnight curfew. She won't let him watch sports in the house. On the refrigerator, she even posts a list of chores on the Monday of every week. What is he a teenager?
Fist off, welcome!
I'm set to do finance and accounting, so economics is somewhat familiar to me.
Reading, writing, and speaking skills, you'll find are important, no matter your field.
You must posess the ability to communicate with a broad audience in order to be truly effective; English is the dominant language of the world, so a mastery of English will serve your interests well.
I'm not comfortable or familiar with "martinet" that it's in my vocabulary.
Having briefly searched it, I could probably compose a few intelligible sentences with it.
The word has a military context, therefore "The nun from the movie Doubt is such a martinet." I would tentatively say, doesn't make correct use of the word.
You should make a note that the sentence is weak to begin, so I could reasonably infer that most any word wouldn't fit pleasingly.
Context is essential in English, and most higher level words are nuanced such that they only fit in the right circumstances which lay the groundwork for them to make their specialized intricacy known.
X is a ___.
Your first sentence is reducible to 4 words, if we remove the intensifier "such", which is actually doing you a service.
Joe is such a revolutionist.
Joe is a revolutionist.
Avoid using simplistic sentence structure, with a few meaningless intensifiers, to welcome advanced vocabulary words, which don't fit.
You'll often see be able to see at a moment's glance, when someone is frequenting a thesaurus; they don't appreciate the subtleties specific to each word, and it's conspicuous.
"My mother wasn't exactly a martinet. She didn't mind when I came home at all hours of the night, smelling of booze and perfume."
This is slightly better because of the context that "she didn't mind...booze and perfume."
However, martinet doesn't fit here either, becase you haven't established due justification for it.
If she didn't mind those things, she might be indifferent in being a good mother, or otherwise uncaring, but not really someone who's not a martinet.
In saying that she "wasn't exactly", you haven't "exactly" opened up to the meaning of martinet. Precision is key with technical or otherwise advanced vocabulary, and you're being imprecise.
"My friend Paul is such a push over. His martinet of a wife definitely wears the pants in that relationship. She insists that he only go out with friends one night a week and even gives him a midnight curfew. She won't let him watch sports in the house. On the refrigerator, she even posts a list of chores on the Monday of every week. What is he a teenager?"
Martinet of a wife is predictably vague.
Her mannerisms accord better with words dealing in control and excessive restriction, than martinet. Nevertheless, if I had to choose from those 3 sentences, I'd choose the last.
My sister recently suffered the misfortune of having her easygoing boss replaced by a temperamental martinet who monitors her lunch break to the minute, harasses her incessantly about "egregious misconduct" -- arriving 5 minutes late -- and generally causes all kinds of havoc; she was left nothing but to conclude that either her boss is delusional and believes the money is coming out of her pocket, or that she has endured a repressed, depressing life, causing her to become twisted, or a combination of both.
See? I used the word for the first time, but added enough context that even if it's wrong, a martinet specialized in grammar would approve.
;) Because I'm unfamiliar with it [martinet], I'll have to defer on a definite verdict.
"Martinet" is most commonly used to refer to males, although nothing prohibits its use in describing a female.
I really like this idea of posting new words, with definitions and examples in this thread. Thanks for starting it!
Thank you both! I really appreciate the advice and warm welcome.
What are some good vocab building websites?
A lot of people like those "word of the day" websites, but I find that they often teach obscure words that would be unwise to use, as most readers would not understand them. The best way to build vocabulary is to read widely, consulting a dictionary when encountering unfamiliar words. That's so easy to do on the internet! Read online books, magazines, and newspapers, using the search function to look up any unfamiliar terms. There are several Firefox extensions that make it easy to look up words without leaving the site you're reading.
Depends too, on your level of vocabulary to begin with. A site meant to improve the vocabulary of an ESL student isn't going to be useful to a native speaker with a university degree who just wants to improve his or her vocabulary, for instance. Reading widely is a great approach, because you get a sense of how the word is used in context, which can help you to determine shades of meaning that might not be obvious simply from reading a dictionary definition. Reading the dictionary helps, too. I don't mean that you should read it from beginning to end, of course, but flipping through it and reading words that interest you will build your vocabulary. The words you learn, though, might not be that useful. Mostly, it is a matter of becoming a word collector, of looking up and committing to memory all new words, even if you don't really need to look up a new word to understand the passage you are reading. Also, don't forget to use the vocabulary you build. Doing so may cost you -- speaking with clear signs of education regularly will guarantee outsider status with many groups of people -- but skills which are not practiced wither.
For fun:
Some interesting words I have learned from reading widely:
eleemosynary
prolix
Some interesting words I have picked up from the dictionary:
dybbuk
eyas
zucchetto
yataghan
darshan
atramentaceous
energumen
The list of interesting words from the dictionary is longer, but the percentage of words that I've actually seen used in real writing repeatedly is much lower. Both of the words on the first list have come up a few times since I first learned them. Only a couple from the second list have. Still, going by number of words learned that turned out to be useful, rather than by percentages, the second list comes up about the same.
Are you all aware of the phenomenon where you'll learn a new word, idea, or concept, then find it pop up in so many different places.
I'm sure those things were always there -- you just become more aware of them after having encountered them for the first time.
I agree that it's best to read widely.
You won't get anywhere fast, looking up word after word and trying to assimilate them in your vocabulary. It's much more natural and effective to read a lot and when you run across a word you don't know, especially repeatedly, look it up.
When I was back in traditional high school (I think it was 10th grade), we were required to memorize a long list of vocabulary words; something like 60 per test.
I ripped the teacher for designing such a worthless assignment, on the test itself, and challenged her that no one would remember those words two weeks later.
Two weeks later I had no idea whatsoever what 75% of those words meant (the same words I scored an A on for knowing the definition of), but I never found out for my classmates.
Are you all aware of the phenomenon where you'll learn a new word, idea, or concept, then find it pop up in so many different places.
That happens to me all the time!
My vocab list is short, tried reading a lot of vocab books. But coudn't remember it for long. Can anyone suggest how to keep remembering new words?
Even though you may feel silly doing so, seize every opportunity to use a new word in conversation, writing, etc.
Also, we know from memory research that two things aid retention: repetition and processing something through different channels. If you encounter a new word while reading, look it up, say it out loud in different settings, write it by hand as well as by typing it, put it on a flashcard so you can both look at it and hear someone else say it to you, etc.
Context helps, too. That's why it's so much easier to remember words learned while reading than it is to remember words memorized from a list. When you think back to the words you picked up from reading a novel, for instance, you can remember the passage in which the word appeared, which can allow you to figure out its meaning anew if necessary.
