Every once in awhile, my mom will come up to me with a word that she heard her boss or one of her clients use at work. Without fail, she will ask me if I know what the word means, and how to use it.
Being the unofficial wordsmith in the family, I guess it makes me the go-to guy for queries like these. But the one thing about being a wordsmith is, it actually makes you acutely aware of just how superficial your command of the language really is. I often find that I struggle to find the right word to use in a situation. I just did so in this paragraph.
Today, the word was "commissariat", which my mother read off Lee Wei Ling's column in the Sunday Times. She is a big fan of the column, because she feels that it is well written and of course, it is written by none other than a member of the most important family in Singapore. I guess in some warped way, reading something written by one of their clan members fosters a kinship and a certain approachability to something otherwise remote.
She asked me if I knew what the word meant. I had to admit I had no idea in the universe what the word meant, and it might as well have been a word in a foreign language to me. But the only difference was, this time, my mom knew exactly what it meant. She just wanted to test me.
My mom recited its meaning back to me. "It's the division in the army that provides supplies to troops." And after that, she asked me why the writer's brother knew what the word meant and I didn't.
So, what's the big deal right? I guess the writer's brother just happens to be our Prime Minister. And the division that provides supplies to soldiers in Singapore's army is called S4, which I do not believe is anything remotely resembling an abbreviation for "commissariat".
Later, I went back to the article, wondering how my mom knew what that word meant. Turns out it was written inside. But at least it was a lesson well learned, and now I know a new word where I didn't know one before.