Profile : Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus

Matthew H.

Subscriber since: March 2006

About Me

I enjoy reading and studying Ancient Greek (Homer especially) and Latin, I am a volunteer tutor of English as a Second Language at the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council, and I am a member of the public speaking organization Toastmasters.

I write a blog about new words called Fire New Words http://firenewwords.blogspot.com/

My Word Lists

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Favorite Word:

Nepenthes

This was an Egyptian drink or potion that makes one forget trouble or grief. The sound of the word is very soothing and poetic. The word also refers to the plant that produces the drink.

Least Favorite Word:

dude

Run your fingers down a blackboard and this is how I feel when I hear the word: "like dude", "no way dude", "awesome dude." It's overused. When this word is used more than once in a sentence, the person comes across sounding uneducated. Maybe if I drank a nepenthe this word wouldn't bother me.

Other subscribers who dislike this word:

Russell B. (Denver, CO)
Mark S

Favorite Quote:

"Words held a magical wonder for him. They represented the culmination of civilization, each in some way a repository of the past. He'd marvel at the appearance of every new scientific term that might quickly spawn a dozen other words. He described words until they shimmered with the excitement of life."

- Peter Funk in the introduction of the Reader's Digest Word Power Quiz Book (1995)