Interesting Words

There are certain words that I found quite interesting. Here are several examples.

Oblivious - For some reason, I just can’t remember what it means. I have seen this word at least 100 times, if not 1,000. I’ve look it up on my dictionary for numerous times as well. But I still didn’t know what it meant when I saw it today. So I checked the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary again, and I couldn’t stop laughing when I realized the meaning of this word.

Leverage - This is arguably the most over-used, or even abused, word in the financial industry. “We can leverage our existing platform to deliver superior results.” “By leveraging our expertise in the credit market, we were able to penetrate other segments of the fixed income market.” Just to give you two examples. I still don’t understand why this word is so popular, since it can be easily replaced by “use” in 90% of the cases.

Synthetic - This is one tough word to pronounce!! I had such a tough time to say it without either taking 5 seconds or biting my tongue. I have practiced over and over for who-knows-how-many-hours and finally got a hang of it. Because of this word, I once even suspected that my tongue suffered some kind of DNA-related deficiency.

Sorry - This word should be on the top of the I-say-it-but-I-don’t-really-mean-it list. Doesn’t the word "sorry" entail the meaning of “remorseful”, “regretful”, or “apologetic”? However, in real life no one really means it. Let’s say when you are walking on the street, someone (she) bumps into you. She may well say “sorry” without even turning her head and looking at you. Well, you better believe it because it just happened to me yesterday morning!