Speaking with eloquence and articulation are some of the quality hallmarks of a gentleman. The vocabulary and vernacular you use in your day to day conversations is an indicator not only of education level, but also can point to your local region, or even which country you hail from.
Speech and accents are often a giveaway for which part of the world someone is from. Furthermore, you can even identify regional locales through someones speech terms, accents, and word choices. Examples of this is such as the infamous “pahk-the-cahh-at-hahvard-yahhd” of the Bostonian region. Or how identifiable an accent from New York or Texas is.
Often you can see someone is well educated by how articulate they are, the word choices they use, and the complexity of the words with which they speak. The use of certain phrases like – the ‘wicked awesomeness’ of the northeast U.S.A. Or the ‘hella coolness’ of western California show a distinct trademark to their native region. Certain locales are the home to word terminology only used in that certain part of the country. Examples of this are the interchangeable “pop/soda” or “hoagie/sub”. If you know of any other examples that you would like highlighted, please leave a comment below for our other readers!
Focus on Learning and Expanding
Speech is something which is a journey and not a destination. Daily improvement in vocabulary is possible. Our hope here is to expose you to additional words to broaden your vocabulary.
You do not need to read a dictionary from cover to cover to increase your vocab. Just make a conscious effort and emphasis to learn just one new word a month.
While improvement is the goal, it is important to remember to always be “well spoken.” And to not “speak down” to others. A true gentleman does not use their speech to belittle or make anyone feel inferior. They use it as a tool to eloquently get their point across and to effectively communicate.
This is the introduction post and first part of our series here on “Gentlemanly Vocabulary” that we will be covering on The Genuine Gentleman.
[To learn more ‘gentlemanly vocabulary‘ words we have covered click here]
The Good Book
We take our vocabulary definitions from an antique early 1900’s leather bound “Webster’s New International Dictionary with Reference History.” An interesting piece of history, which we found hand-signed and dated as a gift “For Christmas 1922.”
Merriam-Webster has a long history and has been in business making education materials and dictionaries since as early as 1828.
This dictionary tomb we use is large in size. Similar to the library reference dictionaries which stand mightily in their own place of honor. This one sits at almost 3000 pages long. But what really stands out is that it is close to 6″ inches thick!
Stay tuned for the upcoming vocabulary posts! Please join us on these posts to learn how to further your vocabulary like a dignified Gentleman!
~The Genuine Gentleman~
Tom Morgan & Blake Douglas
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