chapter-19

HOW TO KEEP BUILDING YOUR

VOCABULARY

At commencement exercises, whether in elementary school, high

school, or college, at least one of the speakers will inevitably point

out to the graduates that this is not the end—not by a long shot. It is

only the beginning; that’s why it is called “commencement,” etc.,

etc.

Of course the speaker is right—no educative process is ever the

end; it is always the beginning of more education, more learning,

more living.

And that is the case here. What has happened to you as a result of

your reaction to the material and suggestions in this book is only

the beginning of your development. To stop increasing your

vocabulary is to stop your intellectual growth. You will wish, I am

sure, to continue growing intellectually as long as you remain alive.

And with the momentum that your weeks of hard work have

provided, continuing will not be at all difficult.

Let me offer, as a summary of all I have said throughout the book,

a recapitulation of the steps you must take so that your vocabulary

will keep growing and growing.

STEP ONE. You must become actively receptive to new words.

Words won’t come chasing after you—you must train yourself to

be on a constant lookout, in your reading and listening, for any

words that other people know and you don’t.

STEP TWO. You must read more.

As an adult, you will find most of the sources of your supply of

new words in books and magazines. Is your reading today largely

restricted to a quick perusal of the daily newspaper? Then you will

have to change your habits. If your aim is to have a superior

vocabulary, you will have to make the time to read at least one

book and several magazines every week. Not just this week and next

week—but every week for the rest of your life. I have never met a

single person who possessed a rich vocabulary who was not also an

omnivorous reader.

STEP THREE. You must learn to add to your own vocabulary the new

words you meet in your reading.

When you see an unfamiliar word in a book or magazine, do not

skip over it impatiently. Instead, pause for a moment and say it over

to yourself—get used to its sound and appearance. Then puzzle out

its possible meaning in the context of the sentence. Whether you

come to the right conclusion or not, whether indeed you are able to

come to any intelligent conclusion at all, is of no importance. What

is important is that you are, by this process, becoming

superconscious of the word. As a result, you will suddenly notice

that this very word pops up unexpectedly again and again in all

your reading—for you now have a mind-set for it. And of course

after you’ve seen it a few times, you will know fairly accurately not

only what it means but the many ways in which it can be used.

STEP FOUR. You must open your mind to new ideas.

Every word you know is the translation of an idea.

Think for a few minutes of the areas of human knowledge that

may possibly be unknown to you—psychology, semantics, science,

art, music, or whatever. Then attack one of these areas methodically

—by reading books in the field. In every field, from the simplest to

the most abstruse, there are several books written for the average,

untrained lay reader that will give you both a good grasp of the

subject and at the same time add immeasurably to your vocabulary.

College students have large vocabularies because they are required

to expose themselves constantly to new areas of learning. You must

do the same.

STEP FIVE. You must set a goal.

If you do nothing about your vocabulary, you will learn, at most,

twenty-five to fifty new words in the next twelve months. By

conscious effort you can learn several thousand. Set yourself a goal of

finding several new words every day. This may sound ambitious—

but you will discover as soon as you start actively looking for new

words in your reading, and actively doing reading of a more

challenging type, that new words are all around you—that is, if

you’re ready for them. And understand this: vocabulary building

snowballs. The results of each new day’s search will be greater and

greater—once you provide the necessary initial push, once you gain

momentum, once you become addicted to looking for, finding, and

taking possession of new words.

And this is one addiction well worth cultivating!

APPENDIX

SOME ESOTERIC PHOBIAS

(You will recognize many of the Greek roots on which these words

are constructed)

air: aerophobia

animals: zoophobia

beauty: callophobia

birth: genophobia

blood: hematophobia

breasts: mastophobia

burglars: scelerophobia

burial alive: taphephobia

cats: ailurophobia

change: neophobia

childbirth: maieusiophobia

children: pedophobia

colors: chromophobia

crowds: ochlophobia

darkness: nyctophobia

death: thanatophobia

depths: bathophobia

disease: pathophobia

doctors: iatrophobia

dogs: cynophobia

dying: thanatophobia

emptiness: kenophobia

everything: pantophobia

eyes: ophthalmophobia

fear: phobophobia

feces: coprophobia

feet: podophobia

female genitals: eurotophobia

filth: mysophobia

fire: pyrophobia

fish: ichthyophobia

fog: homichlophobia

food: cibophobia

foreigners: xenophobia

freaks: teratophobia

frogs: batrachophobia

ghosts: phasmophobia

hands: chirophobia

hair: trichophobia

healers or healing: iatrophobia

heat: thermophobia

hell: stygiophobia

horses: hippophobia

insects: entomophobia

knives: aichmophobia

knowledge: gnosiophobia

large things: megalophobia

light: photophobia

lightning: astrophobia

males: androphobia

many things: polyphobia

marriage: gamophobia

medicine: pharmacophobia

mice: musophobia

mirrors: spectrophobia

mobs: ochlophobia

motherhood: metrophobia

motion: kinesophobia

nakedness: gymnophobia

needles: belonophobia

newness: neophobia

night: nyctophobia

oceans: thalassophobia

odors: osmophobia

old age: geraphobia

old men: gerontophobia

pain: algophobia; odynophobia

people: demophobia

plants: botanophobia

pleasure: hedonophobia

poison: toxicophobia

poverty: peniophobia

prostitutes: pornophobia

punishment: poinophobia

rain: ombrophobia

red: erythrophobia

rivers: potamophobia

robbers: harpaxophobia

sameness: homophobia

sex: genophobia

sexual intercourse: coitophobia

sinning: peccatophobia

skin: dermatophobia

sleep: hypnophobia

small things: microphobia

smothering: pnigerophobia

snakes: ophidiophobia

snow: chionophobia

solitude: autophobia; monophobia

sounds: acousticophobia

speaking: lalophobia

speaking aloud: phonophobia

speech: logophobia

spiders: arachneophobia

stairs: climacophobia

stars: siderophobia

stealing: kleptophobia

stillness: eremiophobia

strangers: xenophobia

strength: sthenophobia

study: logophobia

sunlight: heliophobia

tapeworms: taeniophobia

taste: geumophobia

teeth: odontophobia

thieves: kleptophobia

thinking: phronemophobia

thirteen (the number): triskaidekaphobia

thirst: dipsophobia

thunder: brontophobia

time: chronophobia

togetherness: synophobia

travel: hodophobia

ugliness: cacophobia

voices: phemophobia

vomiting: emetophobia

walking: basiphobia