There’s a fascinating article in the BBC archive about a person who reads dictionaries for fun. No, that’s not me.
But here’s where I recognized myself:
But absorbing so much made Mr Shea lose his grasp on his normal vocabulary. He recalls being fascinated when reading the definition for the word “glove” before he realised it was a word he already knew.
“That happened frequently. I guess it gave me a useless large vocabulary and in the short-term I lost my normal vocabulary. I would go to the shop and forget the word for milk. Momentarily I’m looking for the cold, white stuff.”
My wife Teresa and daughter Gabrielle are studying for this year’s spelling bee. Last year, Gabrielle won her school’s bee, and survived many rounds of the regional championship. They keep asking me what various arcane words mean, and I keep startling them by knowing.
And yet, sometimes, I can’t remember the word for the round black thing that goes on the cars’ wheel. So it was comforting to find that BBC article which explains it, to a degree.
At least, it’s a more palatable explanation than Alzheimers.