Lolita.

Am reading Nabokov's infamous novel. It's pretty terrifying and/or terrific, except I have to keep a tab open to Merriam-Webster Online at all times. Full immersion is nearly impossible when I have to keep checking definitions.

Nabokov is ridiculous, writes like a really pedantic thesaurus (which, I guess, all thesauruses are), and sometimes uses words that are only included in Merriam-Webster Unabridged. I present a list of vocabulary I have learned so far (70 pages into the novel)!

1. solecism: a breach of etiquette or decorum.
2. cognomen: name, especially : a distinguishing nickname or epithet.
3. philistine*: a person who is guided by materialism and is usually disdainful of intellectual or artistic values
4. opalescent: reflecting an iridescent light
5. sibilant: having, containing, or producing the sound of or a sound resembling that of the s or the sh in sash
6. manqué: short of or frustrated in the fulfillment of one's aspirations or talents —used postpositively
7. meretricious: of or relating to a prostitute : having the nature of prostitution; tawdrily and falsely attractive
8. favonian: of or relating to the west wind
9. phocine: of, relating to, or resembling seals
10. concomitant: accompanying especially in a subordinate or incidental way

*Okay, admittedly I should have known this one. But I never took the time to fully understand it, and I only knew it as a vague insult. Whoops.