vocabulary

A small pleasure I enjoy is to use or hear a word that means exactly what it said. Like "defenestrate" or "apotheosis."
Each new word like that is one more tool to be used to communicate more effectively with other people. Why say "It was all, like, totally messed up and stuff" when you could say "it was chaos," or "it was pandemonium" or "it was crowded and disorganized?" Wouldn't being clear in your speech be a worthwhile goal?
I really don't like when I have to infer more of a person's intended meaning than they actually verbalize.

Given the vagueness of everyday speech and the general duplicity of conversation of my workplace, I don't get to enjoy language as often as I'd like.

Vo*cab"u*la*ry (?), n.; pl. Vocabularies (#). [LL. vocabularium, vocabularius: cf. F. vocabulaire. See Vocable.]

1.

A list or collection of words arranged in alphabetical order and explained; a dictionary or lexicon, either of a whole language, a single work or author, a branch of science, or the like; a word-book.

2.

A sum or stock of words employed.

His vocabulary seems to have been no larger than was necessary for the transaction of business. Macaulay.

 

© Webster 1913.