One of the amazing things about Mom is her vocabulary. She had one-year of business school training after high school, and she did not seem to be an avid reader. So, I would always be impressed when she would use some word that I had never heard of before. Now, she was someone who always won at Scrabble, so maybe that should have been my clue!
In addition to knowing unique words, she often knew the derivation. I remember how she would sprinkle words during the simple mealtime conversations at Granite Ledges Assisted Living. Not sure if she did that to impress her tablemate, Tellis, who had a Ph.D and patents! One dinner conversation we were trying to come up with the word for a special serving-size dish. I could not remember it at the time, but I did say I thought it came from a French word. She chimed right in and said it was a 'ramekin.' Wow!
More recently, I noticed that her hair was getting very long, and I said she needed a haircut. She replied that she was "in need of some tonsorial attention." I said, "What?" She said, you know tonsorial, pertaining to barbers and the like. I told her that I had never heard that word before. I kept thinking tonsils. I made sure I looked it up when I arrived home. Sure enough there it was: "Of or relating to hairdressing; of or relating to barbers and barbering." Amazing.
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