thinking of....

the dictionary!

haha. i just love the dictionary and the thesaurus. i know some of you wouldn't believe this but i used ( and still, if i have the time) to read the dictionary for an hour or so.

yups, so when i decided to check up meanings for a few words i have been coming across. i was delayed as usual by the array of new and interesting words that ASSAULTED me while i was idly fipping through that thick Longman dictionary.. haha, i was checking up two words actually.

which are:
Incumbent
(which has been repeatedly appearing on ST because of the Presidential Elections.. which is by the way quite disheartening. i'll talk about that later. i digress :P)

and

Pleonastic
(Laura's blog url)

hehe. the meaning for incumbent is somewhat like the person presently holding the official position of e.g. President of S'pore. ( yah, i know you clever people are probably laughing at the ignorant me now. when i first came across incumbent, i thought ST was trying to insult President Nathan. cos incumbent sounded somewhat like cumbersome :P tsk tsk language and their similarities....)

the meaning for pleonastic or pleonasm is the usage of too many words/ adjectives to descride something. in short, OVERKILL. haha, sounds like Laura and her flowery, super complicated and confusing usage of english language which never fails to confound and confuse me :) seriously, laura is the personification of pleonastic ( a compliment. i have great respect for people with bombastic vocab. they knock me off my soles :P)

welll, i also came across a bundleful of interesting words to add on ..

example;

incubus (man who has sexual relations with many woman), propitiate(trying to please someone who harbours nagative feelings towards you), prosy (boring style of writing) and ossify (to root a concept firmly into place; eg. hardliners in USSR)

but the one i like best is proselytise (which is to persuade someone to join an organisation; religious or political)

haha, i feel like such a proselyte, someone who is persuaded to join :)

alright, on a more serious note

the lack of the presidential elections is rather a let-down. i was looking forward for the holiday okay? haha. actually, i think s'pore will benefit from a more compeitive political armosphere. i mean best man wins right? i have no qualms that if there was an election, incumbent (grins) President Nathan will probably win a secong term but it is still good to have a little compeition. i mean the political scene is a little too tame, wouldn't you say? especially after i read the sunday times headliner news today. haha. the correspondent had wrote.... " in the past 3 presidential elections. there have been no compeition for 2 as opponents were not awarded the certificate of elgilibility thus allowing the government-endorsed candidate to stand with no compeition." that's the gist of it anyway.

how are other nations going to view s'pore when we still have such a tame political scene where the government selects candidates and virtually secures a place. not that it is bad or i'm complaining. i must admit our government has done a good job this past 40 years. however if we are to remain like that...

the key question is WHEN and not how will we mature and progress as a nation???

i wonder....