May
17
Update: You guys did good! Some knew it, like Kim who’s been a nurse and Claire, who’s in med school! And I think the rest of you knew it had something to do with the eyes.
exophthalmic: abnormal protrusion of the eyeballs, protrusion of the eyeball caused by disease or injury. Claire emailed me all the technical stuff! In a disease like hyperthyroidism there is always a hormone being made that leads to deposits behind the eyeballs and pushes them out to give the person a “bug eyed” appearance.
The book I’m reading is The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg. The character was looking at houses & about to ring a doorbell & hoped she didn’t look overeager. The sentence: “I thought surely I would look at least somewhat exopthalmic.”
I probably should have figured it out but it wasn’t happening when I read it at midnight!
I saw where sis Stacy and blog friend Debi both did posts yesterday about words they had run across reading. I think I did one quite a while back about it also. I usually keep a list of words while reading to look up when I get the chance, sometimes I have to do it right away if I can’t quite make out the meaning from the sentence. Last night I started a new book and almost immediately ran across a word I don’t think I’ve seen before but it was too late and I was too tired to look it up then! After looking it up today I might should have been able to figure it out but I don’t think I ever would have. So I’m feeling especially dumb today! Used to think I had a fair vocabulary; I’m a college graduate you know and did teach school for a year or 2 before kids! (Ok, so it was only kindergarten and that doesn’t make me a rocket scientist). Since my kids have been away at school the last couple of years I’ve been reading a lot more than I used to, because I can and because I have the time. I thought reading was good for you but it’s making me feel so, I don’t know, inadequate somehow! Who knew there were this many words out there!
Now that you know I’m not very good about keeping my emails cleaned up, I guess now you’ll see that I may not be very smart either! Because you may all know this word already and then I’ll feel even dumber!
Here’s what I ran across last night:
exophthalmic
Tell me what you think it is! I’ll post the definition later on tonight or early in the morning; that way you’ll have time to show your knowledge and expertise. 😀 I’m sorta hoping though that there’s one person somewhere that will be like me and not be familiar with it!
May 17th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Ya got me! It looks like a medical or physological term. Wish I knew more about Latin root words.
May 17th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
It was new to me too. Feel better? I looked it up and won’t spoil the definition, but it makes sense now that I know what it means. I wouldn’t have thought that before reading what it is though… good word.
May 17th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
ps you are not dumb, or dumber
May 17th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Ok yes! I feel a bit better! Thanks Annie and Karen.
I won’t spoil it yet either in case anyone knows it but it did make a bit of sense to me after I looked it up. And it was after midnight when I read it BUT…I wouldn’t have known it at 12 noon either I don’t think!
May 17th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
You’re too funny! I feel the same way and the more I read, the more I feel like my vocabulary isn’t nearly as good as I thought it was. In fact, I’m sure of it now.
What’s really funny is that I made a post when I read that book back in January, and this is one of the words I outlined that I didn’t know, and about how I had no idea what it meant! That original post is here! Along with a few other words you might actually run across in that book. Hope that helps!
P.S. Enjoy the book, I love that one. In fact, so much so that I own it, hehehe! 🙂
May 17th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
I would guess it has something to do with eyes, but I have no idea!
May 17th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Maybe having to do with something on the outside of something?
This is a lot like balderdash. You might have an idea here for a bloggy balderdash type game. :v)
May 17th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Ok, so I’m clueless. I, too, thought it might have something to do with the eyes, but I really haven’t a clue. I always start a list of words to look up when I read through a book, but quit with the list atleast halfway through! 🙂 I didn’t know you taught Kindergarten…learned something new about you. I’m actually debating going back to school for my teaching degree. Anyway, can’t wait to go look up the word…I didn’t want to cheat! 😉
May 17th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
I do know this word, but I was a nurse way before I was a mom. I guess that’s sort of cheating. My mom is also a nurse, so I knew lots of medical words and didn’t realize they weren’t words used by everyone. When Brenna was four, she hit her knee at preschool and told the teacher that she had “injured my patella.” The teacher thought it was hilarious.
May 17th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Well, since I’m in medical school I kind of have to know what this means…so I won’t go spoil the definition either, but several people are hitting on the right paths!
May 17th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
PS – If you want…I can even tell you why someone would be exophthalmic!
May 18th, 2007 at 5:44 am
Don’t think I’ve ever run across the word either. I’m going to guess it has something to do with “outer eye” though, from the word roots. But that’s as far as I could get…and maybe I’m totally off track anyway.
May 18th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Gosh, I wish I had seen this yesterday. I had no idea, so I would have been in the same boat with you. At least, we would have been together! 🙂
May 18th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Oh, BTW, congratulations on winning over at Nan’s!! Let us know what you think.
May 18th, 2007 at 11:43 am
Hey Stacy!! You are one of my WINNERS for the 6 months of free Netflix contest! :^D If you want to see all my answers they are posted on my blog now. E-mail me and I will send your info. to Netflix to get you going!
I’m happy for you! Thanks for coming over and playing yesterday!
Nan
May 18th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Very interesting. THis reminds me of Akeelah and the Bee – all those crazy words the kids knew. I like words but some of them are pretty out there! Fun post.
May 18th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
I didn’t know what this word was until reading this post! And my half-uncle actually had this condition! All I knew is that his condition was related to hyperthyroidism…
I really think that writers look up a lot of their words during the writing process, so don’t feel bad! 🙂
May 19th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Learn something new everyday.