Words, Memory, and Misfires

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My friend, Lefty, has a blog entry that pops up frequently enough, called "Words." In these posts, he shares a number of words and their meanings. Typically, these words are "off the beaten path." My goal is to know in advance 50% of them or more. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I do not.

Lefty's most recent such post, a couple of words caught my attention. Here they are, along with a brief summary of why they stood out.



bilbo (n.) — a sword used in former times, noted for the temper and elasticity of its blade

This word I knew from before. I don’t know when I first learned its meaning. However, in 10th grade, I read The Hobbit. Now, we all know that one of the main characters in The Hobbit is Bilbo Baggins.

As several friends and I were sitting outside English class one day before it started, we discussed what we were reading. A friend—whose name escapes me at the moment—learned I was reading The Hobbit, and we got to talking. I wondered aloud why Bilbo’s name referenced a sword when he used a dagger. To be fair, he used the dagger (named Sting) as a sword, due to his diminutive size.

None of my friends knew the meaning of the word bilbo. They all thought it was a play on dildo, which would be completely unacceptable in the Christian school we attended. Fifteen-year-old boys do reference sex a lot. So bilbo became a Vocabulary Word that Friday for many of us.



negus (n.) — a hot drink of port, sugar, lemon, and spices

This one was a Vocabulary Word in my high school—in 11th grade. We had the same teacher as in the story above: Mrs. Davis. We learned the two main meanings: both the hot drink, and the usage of the word to mean a king or emperor in Ethiopia.

When I first saw Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and met the Grand Nagus (I know, different spelling, but similar pronunciation), I said to my wife that the writers must have lifted the name from the Ethiopian meaning. She was previously unaware of the word.



My buddy Lefty drops some off-the-wall vocabulary posts that challenge me to know at least half the words—sometimes I win, sometimes I eat humble pie. This time, "bilbo" and "negus" kicked loose a couple of hilarious high school memories, and I couldn’t help but share.








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