Legal Writing

What do you call your Wordhord?

By Maeve Maddox

English speakers use the word vocabulary to mean ?a collection of words.?

We distinguish between ?reading vocabulary? and ?speaking vocabulary.? Teachers assign children ?vocabulary lists,? that is, lists of unfamiliar or specialized subject words to learn.

Speakers of Old English referred to the words they knew as their ?wordhord.? In OE poetry, a common expression meaning ?He spoke? is ?He unlocked his wordhord.? Those linguistic ancestors of ours saw vocabulary for the treasure that it is.

vocabulary: n. from Medieval Latin vocabuarius, ?a list of words? from Latin vocabulum, ?word, noun,? from Latin vocare, ?to name.?
hoard: n. from OE hord, ?treasure, valuable stock or store.?
treasure: n. from Old French tresor, ?treasury, treasure.?
thesaurus: n. from Latin thesaurus, ?treasure, treasure? from Greek thesauros, ?a treasure, treasury, storehouse, chest.? The word thesaurarie was used as a title by early dictionary makers (1592). Roget put Thesaurus in the title of his reference book in 1852.
dictionary: n. from Medieval Latin dictionarium, ?collection of words and phrases,? from Latin dictionarius, ?of words,? from dictio, ?word.

Some other word words:
verb: n. from Old French verbe, ?part of speech that expresses action or being,? from Latin verbum, ?a word.?
verbatim: adv. from Medieval Latin verbatim ?word for word.?
verbose: adj., from Latin verbosus, ?full of words.?
verbiage: n. from French verbiage ?wordiness? from Medieval French verbier ?to chatter.?

Full post as published by Daily Writing Tips on September 15, 2009 (boomark / email).