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Trevor graduated at about the same time the acquisition closed, so in the course of 4 days he went from impecunious grad student to millionaire PhD. In 1998, I
by chops 15y ago
Trevor graduated at about the same time the acquisition closed, so in the course of 4 days he went from impecunious grad student to millionaire PhD.
In 1998, I had made an effort to do the whole "once a day, learn a random new word from the dictionary". I did that for exactly one day. The one word I learned was "impecunious." Up until now, I've never, ever, seen or heard that word used.
So in 1998, independent, near simultaneous events (Viaweb being acquired, and me learning a single word) were set in motion that would culminate 14 years later in me reading for the first time an actual legitimate use of that word, resulting in a very self-satisfied grin. Consider my day made.
It means "poor" btw.
- vidar 15y agoThats a great word! I'll be sure to use it from now on.
- notaddicted 15y agoWhenever I see the word "pecuniary" I'm reminded of this inspirational quote from David Copperfield: http://books.google.ca/books?id=8GAXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA380&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U2UtAmgJkbeHPF-a05hQsbzGRcJCg&ci=66%2C142%2C882%2C307&edge=0 http://books.google.ca/books?id=8GAXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA380...
- gregdetre 15y agoForgive the plug: http://www.memrise.com/item/3190/impecunious/ http://www.memrise.com/item/3190/impecunious/
- vl 15y agoHow did you manage to remember single unused word for the 14 years? What learning technique did you use?
- axiak 15y agoWhen studying vocab, some words stick out as words you'll never see, and because of that you may fixate on that single word. For me it's eleemosynary. Still haven't seen it used. Once.
- andrewl 15y agoIt's in the first sentence of Tom Jones, Axiak. I thought you knew that. An author ought to consider himself not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary at which all persons are welcome for their money. YCNews is sort of a public ordinary if you stretch things a bit.
- dmoney 15y agoThe dictionary doesn't seem to have that sense of the word "ordinary". By context in web results it seems to mean "tavern".
- andrewl 15y agoTrue. I did say you had to stretch things a bit. I was suggesting YC News as Paul's tavern. A public gathering place.
- nandemo 15y agoI'd never heard of that meaning either, but it's there. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ordinary http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ordinary 14. obsolete ( Brit ) a. a meal provided regularly at a fixed price b. the inn providing such meals
- phodo 15y agoand here: http://www.wordnik.com/words/impecunious/ http://www.wordnik.com/words/impecunious/
- StavrosK 15y agoI'll start using it more, just for you. "Eleemosyne" is Greek for "charity", by the way.
- dextorious 15y agoEleemosyne => "Eleos" (mercy) and "syne" (the status/state of), the whole meaning "charity" or "having mercy" in general.
- omarchowdhury 15y agoHere's another word for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity
- itmag 15y agoThat's actually quite common in the self-help community. google site:stevepavlina.com/blog synchronicity for instance.
- foxit 15y agoI only know what it means because of Impecunious Davis. http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/hasm_b0714/ http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/hasm_b0714/
- Gigablah 15y agoHere's another word I have yet to see in the wild: "condign". Where did I pick that up from? One of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels.