In this first Vaughan’s Vocabulary of the summer, let me say that building your vocabulary, your advanced words bank, should be as important to you as your lawn and garden, or any summer activities.
Deena Seifert’s article “Top 5 Reasons Why Vocabulary Matters” points out that building vocabulary improves reading comprehension, from newspapers to novels, to textbooks, to scholarly articles.
Seifert says that it is essential to language development. A richer vocabulary helps you to take on the role of deeper thinker. Articulating the right word makes you a more effective communicator. It will also help you to become a more effective writer. A richer vocabulary allows a writer to tap into words that are not conversational language (some words are better written than spoken).
Perhaps Seifert’s most practical reason is occupational success and cites researcher Johnson O’Connor’s finding that an individual’s vocabulary level is the best single predictor of career achievement.
Vaughan’s Vocabulary is all about motivating readers to keep investing in their banks of advanced words. The following are five you can add.
1. fortuitous (for-TWO-uh-tus)
A. supported, fortified
B. foul-mouthed
C. occurring by chance
D. newness
2. cachet (kah-SHAY)
A. a cleaver
B. a prestigious characteristic, quality or feature
C. integrity
D. an investment
Let’s see how you are doing. No. 1, fortuitous, is C. In 2017, Toronto’s Steve Pearce hit a pop fly to the right side, but the Red Sox’s Brock Holt’s drop resulted in a fortuitous couple of runs for the Blue Jays.
No. 2, cachet, is B. Ty thinks that owning a Norwegian elkhound has a certain cachet for him.
3. cadre (cah-DRAY)
A. a group whose members have a unifying relationship
B. Spanish for father in addressing a priest or member of the clergy
C. having ubiquity
D. a mission
4. “Advanced word bank” is a
A. simile.
B. metaphor.
C. synecdoche.
D. hyperbole.
5. pivot (PIV-eht)
A. a non sequitur
B. scuffle
C. a fixed point supporting something which turns or balances, or a person or thing on which something else depends
D. the effect of something
No. 3 is A, e.g., a cadre of Mozart enthusiasts.
No. 4 is B.
No. 5 is C. Thanks, Cambridge Dictionary, for the definition. Accuracy, fairness and clarity pivot journalism.
Editor’s Note: Don Rodney Vaughan, Ph.D., teaches journalism, interpersonal communication and public speaking at East Mississippi Community College and is the pastor of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church in Webster County. Contact him at dvaughan@eastms.edu.
