02/08/02 - The word of the day is ... Sagacious. Everytime I see that word, which isn't all that often, it calls to me. But I always have to look it up. My dictionary says that sagacious means having or showing acute mental discernment and keen practical sense. There's something very unsagacious about not being able to remember what that word means. It probably has something to do with those two other words that are found in the definition ... acute and keen. Further looking up shows me we are in the realm of sharp perception and mental alertness. Why in the world does that word call to me then? Why me? It's too much pressure. Oh, I do have some perception and I'm even mentally aware at times, but never keenly or acutely. However, I seem to be a bit intuitive ... the power or faculty of knowing things without conscious reasoning. Yep, I can do unconscious.
I enjoy words. It must be the writer in me. I'm not great on vocabulary though, and my memory is far from acute. My dictionary is an extension of my arm while reading or writing. I'm pretty good at spelling though, amazingly so. I impress myself at times.
Yesterday The Child showed me a note from school saying he needed to stay late because he had been selected to participate in the first round of the school's spelling bee. When he returned from school, I was waiting and excited to find out how it went. He had a glazed look in his eyes. He said it was the last word that really did him in. He even had to ask for the country of origin. France, he was told. That clue was no news to me. I spelled the word for him and the glazed look turned to awe, or should I say awww, he had blown it. I told him he should have known. Doesn't everyone know the French for our sw is soi? The correct spelling is s-o-i-r-e-e. As soon as he left I went to the dictionary. Yep, the spelling was right, but what about ... Oh my, an evening party, but of course.
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