How many of these words do you know?

When I was about 12 years old I developed an unusual hobby of sorts.  I would pick up a dictionary, pick out a word that I wanted to add to my vocabulary, and the next day at school, my self-imposed challenge was to find three opportunities to use the word in conversation.  By that evening, the word was one I would never forget, and I would be able to use them all the time.

Once my friends realized what I seemed to be doing, they would try to figure out what the definition of the word was from how I used it, and pretty soon we were all coming to school with new words.  I know ... it sounds like we were a bunch of nerds, and maybe we were.  We were a group of about a dozen who did earn excellent grades in school, but we also had lots of outdoor fun and played sports.

I started thinking about those days the other day when someone complimented me on my vocabulary.  Apparently I use words that I think everyone knows, but many people don't.  Now I feel a bit self-conscious, because I do not want to be perceived as one of those nasty people who deliberately use their vocabulary to intimidate others.  I think the trick is moderation, which I think I do.

Anyway, I remember some of the words that were on my list of new daily words all those years ago.  How many do you know?  And what would you think to have a 12 year old kid using them in regular conversation?

Threap

Claptrap

Quincunx

Kerf

Mélange

Saccade

There were, of course, many others, but those are ones I recall of the top of my head as being ones I came to school with.  I think I had the most fun with claptrap, both because of its meaning, and because it was just fun to say.

So how many of these words do you know?

I'll give the definitions in a comment.  How about taking any of them that you don't know and seeing how often you can work it into a conversation?  Or find a different one in your own dictionary search and start using it, and see how much fun it is to increase our vocabularies.  I'd like to learn some of yours too, so please share.

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