When & Where: I actually came across this word in my own mind as I was writing an e-mail to my friend, Melissa. She had sent me an e-mail about a new Over the Rhine song she wanted me to download. For some reason, as I was writing to tell her I would download it soon, the word posthaste came to my mind. I wrote, "I will listen to your song posthaste."
Level of Familiarity: Before I wrote the word, I needed to find out if my assumption about what it means was accurate. I'm not even sure where I ever heard this word before, and I know I have never used it.
What it Means: Dictionary.com defines posthaste as "very quickly; with great speed." So, happily, I was correct.
Reflective Commentary: When I write to this particular friend, an English teacher who has been referred to by others as an "intellectual bulldog," I am always mindful of being articulate and writerly. She is the only person I know whose e-mails read like Pulitzer prize-winners, so she has set the bar very high. I think it's interesting how, in situations like this one, my mind seems to grab for "fancy" words ... ones that I never even knew that I knew! Now that I know (and know that I know) this word, I am sure that I will use it again. I sometimes think that using interesting and uncommon words isn't so much a way of being snooty as it is to be ironic and add a little "spice" to otherwise routine conversation. For some reason, posthaste makes me smile.
It is also interesting to me that this word came from my own head, yet I still wasn't sure I knew the meaning. This is a testament to the incrementality of vocabulary learning. I heard it before, I remembered it, I would likely understand it in context, but was not yet at the level where I could use it confidently.
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