Wayne State University has developed a new web site that help should
scribes and storytellers become a little better acquainted with
little-known words.
Word Warriors,
a play on words on the university's mascot, presents a dictionary of
the words we tried to learn from vocabulary books in secondary school.
They include some head scratchers, such as Yclept (Named or so-called)
and Mastication (The act of chewing). Users can submit their words they
have dragged out of the linguistic closet.
The idea is that
bringing these words back to the forefront of people's minds will give
them a valuable communication tool to express thoughts and feelings
clearly and concisely in everyday life. The project began from a casual
conversation among four Wayne State employees that included vice
president for marketing and communications, dean of the Honors College,
director of editorial services, and a journalism instructor.
Those
creators hope the web site will provoke discussion about the English
language and broaden people's communication abilities.
Source: Wayne State University
Writer: Jon Zemke
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