My Aunt Irene used to have an unabridged dictionary on a pedestal in her family room.
Whenever she used a word that someone did not understand, she’d guide the seeker to the unabridged dictionary where we could look it up.
My laptop, complete with dictionary.com, weighs less than that daunting tome. This is a good thing, since the habit of looking up a word I do not recognize has stuck.
I like to think of my foraging activities as an example of usufruct.
Usufruct, according to dictionary.com means:
The right to use and enjoy the profits and advantages of something belonging to another as long as the property is not damaged or altered in any way. When I pluck a mushroom or a leaf or make excellent use of an element of nature, that’s usufruct. Can I use it in a sentence? Not yet, but here’s Michael Pollan’s:
Not just the Bing cherries, but most of the meal owed its presence on our table to usufruct, which was a fact of nature long before it became an axiom of law.
Once I prepare a meal totally from ingredients I have foraged, hunted or planted with my own hands, then maybe I will be able to use the word in a truly meaningful sentence.