{"quotes":[{"text":"Vocabularies are crossing circles and loops. We are defined by the lines we choose to cross or to be confined by.","author":"A.S. Byatt","tags":["vocabulary","words"],"id":275,"author_id":"A.S.+Byatt"},{"text":"Metaphor isn't just decorative language. If it were, it wouldn't scare us so much. . . . Colorful language threatens some people, who associate it, I think, with a kind of eroticism (playing with language in public = playing with yourself), and with extra expense (having to sense or feel more). I don't share that opinion. Why reduce life to a monotone? Is that truer to the experience of being alive? I don't think so. It robs us of life's many textures. Language provides an abundance of words to keep us company on our travels. But we're losing words at a reckless pace, the national vocabulary is shrinking. Most Americans use only several hundred words or so. Frugality has its place, but not in the larder of language. We rely on words to help us detail how we feel, what we once felt, what we can feel. When the blood drains out of language, one's experience of life weakens and grows pale. It's not simply a dumbing down, but a numbing.","author":"Diane Ackerman","tags":["language","metaphor","vocabulary"],"id":1649,"author_id":"Diane+Ackerman"},{"text":"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.","author":"James D. Nicoll","tags":["english","grammar","humor","misattributed-terry-pratchett","vocabulary"],"id":8673,"author_id":"James+D.+Nicoll"},{"text":"Loving your language means a command of its vocabulary beyond the level of the everyday.","author":"John McWhorter","tags":["language","loving","vocabulary "],"id":9011,"author_id":"John+McWhorter"},{"text":"Architecture is restricted to such a limited vocabulary. A building is either a high-rise or a perimeter block or a town house.","author":"Bjarke Ingels","tags":["building","house","vocabulary "],"id":14623,"author_id":"Bjarke+Ingels"},{"text":"Here's my using dickwad in a sentence. Greg is such a dickwad, he locks his car in the Pagoda Pizza parking lot. (No. That isn't a real Vocab word.).","author":"A.S. King","tags":["humorous","vocabulary"],"id":15545,"author_id":"A.S.+King"},{"text":"To enjoy and learn from what you read you must understand the meanings of the words a writer uses. You do yourself a grave disservice if you read around words you don’t know, or worse, merely guess at what they mean without bothering to look them up.For me, reading has always been not only a quest for pleasure and enlightenment but also a word-hunting expedition, a lexical safari.","author":"Charles Harrington Elster","tags":["literature","reading","vocabulary"],"id":32663,"author_id":"Charles+Harrington+Elster"},{"text":"All of us possess a reading vocabulary as big as a lake but draw from a writing vocabulary as small as a pond. The good news is that the acts of searching and gathering always expand the number of usable words.","author":"Roy Peter Clark","tags":["reading","reading-habits","vocabulary","vocabulary-building","writing","writing-advice","writing-craft"],"id":37671,"author_id":"Roy+Peter+Clark"},{"text":"My only defense is the acquisition of vocabulary.","author":"Margaret Edson","tags":["defense","self-protection","vocabulary","words"],"id":58037,"author_id":"Margaret+Edson"},{"text":"There are two words that I believe could be completely eradicated from our vocabulary – “I can’t.” These two words are so definite that they leave absolutely no room for hope. Instead, I suggest we use the phrase, “How can I?","author":"Daniel Willey","tags":["can","definite","eradicate","how-can-i","i-can-t","motivation","motivational","optimism","optimistic","pessimism","pessimistic","vocab","vocabulary"],"id":60630,"author_id":"Daniel+Willey"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":74,"pages":8,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}