I've just finished R. J. Archer : Tractrix (Seeds of Civilization) (2004). I only noted one unfamiliar word.

vigesimal: based on or relating to twenty

Jon

About to start: David Gerrold : The Man Who Folded Himself (1973)

Of course, most English words that are unclear to me are just common knowledge for people from English speaking countries - but it is sometimes reassuring that words that are obvious to me, can be unclear to people who speak English daily...

(I won't start a thread in this forum, as the list of unfamiliar words from one book would probably be too long to post - but from time to time I will try to tell something about the origins of a word mentioned here, as I do love ethymology. Vigesimal is derived from the Latin for twenty, 'viginti'.)

I should have known vigesimal. I had three years of Latin in school, but that was long ago and I never really used it. Occasionally I'll know what a new word means because I recognize it's Latin root. It also helps me spell correctly sometimes. For example, I sometimes see the word "benefit" misspelled as "benifit", and I realize if the speller knew it was from Latin "bene" they would have spelled it correctly.

Jon

I can't say that I was familiar with either of these words. But then again, I can't think of an instance where I might actually use them!