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Some Words And How I Learned Them
I cannot use any of these words without remembering where I learned them.

Gather (i.e., to apphrehend): Heard a character say it on my mother's soap opera, "Guiding Light." "I gather you'll be staying for dinner."

Ludicrous: During a visit when I was three, My Aunt Mary kept saying, and I picked it up. The entire visit, everything was "loooo-dicrous!" according to me.

Malicious: My parents had college students rent our house when we were out of town. One time, a girl accidently started a fire on the stove. My mohter, discussing the incident with my father, said, "She's not malicious, just clumsy."

Hedonistic: Embarrassed to admit I didn't learn this one till college. A friend used it in an email to describe a drunken evening she'd had.

Buttgunner (i.e., a homosexual): One day in 6th grade, a bunch of kids were calling me this, and I eventually "gathered" its meaning.

Obsequious: Learned it from Catch-22 in high school.

Obviate: From the Loud Family song "Why We Don't Live In Mauritania"

Sedulous: From Infinite Jest. The only dictionary I could get my hands on while reading IJ was abridged, and didn't contain many of the words DFW uses.

Surfeit: From The Merchant Of Venice.

Avenge: At the end of an episode of "The Transformers," Megatron says, "I shall be avenged!"

Perspicacity: In the "PTA Disbands" episode of "The Simpsons," Lisa says, "I'm losing my perspicacity!" (To which Homer responds: "It's always in the last place you look!")

Moribund: There's an old Peter Gabriel song called "Moribund The Burgermeister."

Bigot: In a very special episode of "Diff'rent Strokes," Kimberly dates a boy who she eventually discovers is racist. At the end of the show, she calls him a bigot, and we all learn a very important lesson.

Jingoistic: In high school, Wes wrote a letter to our school paper decrying a recent motivational speaker, who invoked Jesus Christ several times during the course of his speech at a public high school. Wes also called the man's message excessively jingoistic. In the wake of the letter's publication, whenever anyone asked Wes what the word mean, he said it was the technical term for "the soft underbelly of a sheep."

Pretentious / Ostentatious: In an episode of "The Real Ghostbusters," Peter Venkman describes an old mansion as "Ostentatious, without being pretentious."

Superfluous: In high school a friend sent me a letter with a magazine clipping she described as "superfluous."

Yaw: At the end of the James Bond videogame Goldeneye for N64, 007 must adjust the Goldeneye satellite?s yaw.

Prototype: In elementary school, Chuck and I were playing with Legos when he built a Lego vehicle that he described as a "prototype" for more vehicles yet to come.

Cynical: In 6th grade, Chuck accused me of being cynical. After looking up the word, I didn't dispute him.

Succour: From the King Crimson song "Book Of Saturday."

Lucidity: Just guess.

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