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Comment by vl | Hacker News Reader

How did you manage to remember single unused word for the 14 years? What learning technique did you use?

When studying vocab, some words stick out as words you'll never see, and because of that you may fixate on that single word. For me it's eleemosynary. Still haven't seen it used. Once.

It's in the first sentence of Tom Jones, Axiak. I thought you knew that.

An author ought to consider himself not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary at which all persons are welcome for their money.

YCNews is sort of a public ordinary if you stretch things a bit.

The dictionary doesn't seem to have that sense of the word "ordinary". By context in web results it seems to mean "tavern".

True. I did say you had to stretch things a bit. I was suggesting YC News as Paul's tavern. A public gathering place.

I'd never heard of that meaning either, but it's there.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ordinary

14. obsolete ( Brit ) a. a meal provided regularly at a fixed price b. the inn providing such meals

and here: http://www.wordnik.com/words/impecunious/

I'll start using it more, just for you. "Eleemosyne" is Greek for "charity", by the way.

Eleemosyne => "Eleos" (mercy) and "syne" (the status/state of), the whole meaning "charity" or "having mercy" in general.

For me it's gregarious (which I see used occasionally but not super often). It was used as an example for learning vocab by imagining a scene. In this one you imagined a guy "Greg Arious" who is the life of the party dancing around with a lampshade over his head.

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