I can remember the first time I heard the word "penultimate". It was on my tenth-grade vocabulary list one week, and I was scornful of it. I wanted to know why in the world it would be needed when "the next to the last" would work just as well. My teacher just smiled and shook her head and told me it would have it's uses. She was right -- since then, I've used it who-knows-how-many times. It's a wonderful word!
Saturday, my husband popped his head up from the book he was reading to say "antepenultimate, hmm" in a musing tone. I knew immediately what the word meant, but I had never encountered it. What a super fantastic addition to my vocabulary!
How about you -- did you already know it? And have you heard any other great words or phrases this past week?
*"Word of the Week" is a meme hosted by the Plain-Spoken Pen on Mondays in which we share a word that we find entertaining, enlightening, edifying, or just plain fun to say!
