Todays big word

Wifey-Do is studying for her GRE. I understand it is an intellectual gauntlet that even someone with a masters degree pays respect to. She read examples of the vocabulary tests, and we got into a discussion about words. I told her that there are some words, precocious for example, that I haven't used in so long that I draw a blank on their meaning. She said "Well, when you think of a precocious child, you think that child is wise beyond his/her years, so you know what that word means because you can see an example of it being acted out." True. But if you draw a blank, the precocious child does nothing. Blank understanding leads to blank action.

Because some words are rarely used in daily conversation, the workplace comes to mind, their meaning fades from my memory. I told Wifey-Do that I've become forgetful because I don't hear talk like that at work. Or the coffee shop. Or the bike shop. Or the bookstore. Come to think of it, she doesn't talk like that either.

"What a precocious child Tina has. I wouldn't expect an indolent mother and an impetuous father to be the progenitors of one such as that. An old dictum states unequivocally that the seed of an Oak tree, when descending in an earthward trajectory, does not land far beyond that tree's periphery."

"What did you say, honey?"

So, for fun, I'm going to post the big word for today. I'll even try to use it in a sentence and spell it correctly.

Today's big word is brought to you by Eileeb T. Bender, from her commentary on Joyce Carol Oats...

"Oates refuses to accept the fabulator's romantic conception of the autonomous artist-heroic isolato, radically detached from society."

A fabulator is a composer of tales, fables, or stories, especially employing fantasy.

So that's what she meant. Wow.