Some good words I’ve noticed today…

Thursday, January 18, 2007 | 2:30 pm

…and must remember to casually slip into conversation at some point.

(Pardon my split infinitive.)

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4 Responses to "Some good words I’ve noticed today…"

  1. rootietoot says:
    January 18th, 2007 at 4:51 pm

    I’m fond of exacerbate, meself.

  2. Queer Dewd formerly known as ( ) says:
    January 19th, 2007 at 7:59 am

    ha. i read the word inchoate in Michael Burawoy’s book, Ethnography Unbound. It was about how to build theory from the type of work anthropologists do: close observation of and interviews with people as they live their daily lives. A lot of people think you can’t build theory — generalizable theory that applies to social in general from the observation of small groups of people. Burawoy made the case that you can and then went on to say that, whereas the other kind of theory building works from testing a theory already established (e.g., jackass’s theory in your previous post about single parenting), this kind of theory building can and often does start from ‘inchoate’ ideas we have in our heads. So you go out and ask about the theory, revising it constantly due to what you are finding when you closely observe and talk to people.

    I thought “inchoate” was a perfect word to describe what swirls around my head ’til I’m forced to articulate it and/or put it up against the world when I try to pull back and remain objective.

  3. Jason says:
    January 19th, 2007 at 10:11 am

    When I see inchoate, I think of the inchoate offenses in criminal law. Per Black’s Law Dictionary:

    inchoate offense: A step toward the commission of another crime, the step in itself being serious enough to merit punishment. The three inchoate offenses are attempt, conspiracy, and solicitation.

  4. Alex says:
    January 21st, 2007 at 1:07 am

    Some scholars are still pedantic about split infinitives. Others point out that the reason we don’t do it is because you couldn’t split the infinitive in Latin, so it was a fucking non-issue for them! And thus say don’t worry about it.

    I think we all know which side I’m on.

    …The side of Star Trek. Obv.