How often do you come across a word you don't know?

[drspouse]

I was reading an article about making sure you look up words you come across and don't know. I was trying to work out how often this happens for me (for reference, I have a PhD so without sounding snobby I am fairly well educated). I am not sure I'd fill 20 pages in a year, but maybe I do too much scrolling and not enough actual reading?
I did see a medical term I didn't know on Mumsnet yesterday, though!

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/oct/06/the-one-change-that-worked-i-was-lost-in-the-infinite-scroll-until-a-small-ritual-renewed-my-love-of-reading

@LadyMacbethssweetArabianhand , it's not sad at all.

Not very often. I do come across words I can’t spell, though. More often now my DS has left home taking his spelling superpower with him. I discovered yesterday that the first sentence in a newspaper article was the “lede”, not the “lead”…

It depends what I’m reading. I quite often look up words I’m familiar with to check that I actually know exactly what they mean.

It depends what I’m reading. I quite often look up words I’m familiar with to check that I actually know exactly what they mean.

I've been reading Elizabeth Taylor novels on my kindle and there are lots of unusual words I have to look up. I thought of starting a thread on here with rare words and their meanings. Other books written in the mid 20thC also have interesting words.

A few times a week. Sometimes its a word I recognise but don't know what it means. I'll look up the meaning, but for some words it just never sticks.

Other times its a completely new word that I have no knowledge of.

Sometimes I do and I look it up. Then I come across it again soon afterwards.

Just five minutes ago on the internet, I came across a word I have never encountered before:

'dendrolatry'

What a splendid word. Did I need to look it up in a dictionary? No. I worked it out. I used my knowledge of 'dendro' being the prefix for tree and 'idolatry' meaning to worship an idol or object, and that was it.

Do other people do the same sort of thing with a new word?

Not as you I'm afraid. Though I sometimes score a direct hit. That's where an obsession with derivation is handy as a pp has mentioned.

A thread for unusual words sounds great pp , Daisy?

What does it mean if not copying drawings or electric train thingies?

There’s a specific meaning called ‘void pantography ’ in security printing for stuff like banknotes, ID cards etc whose aim is to prevent forgery or tampering — basically it makes patterns that are invisible to the eye but which become evident when photocopied.

Thank you - interesting.