A Vocabulary Event

When VP Joe Biden used the word "malarkey," it set off what linguists call a "vocabulary event." In this text, Jesus has some choice words for self-righteous poseurs.

For those of a certain age, the word "dictionary" conjures up images of a massive book kept on a low shelf at home or in the school library. When struggling through English lit or trying to impress a teacher with a paper, that weighty volume was the go-to place for learning how words like "paroxysm" (a sudden attack or fit) and "vexation" (the state of being worried or annoyed) are used in a sentence.

You looked up these words because it's much more sophisticated to say that your friend has "periodic paroxysms of vexation" than to say "He gets annoyed every so often."

In a world where we've shrunk our correspondence to 140 characters or less, we've neglected large segments of English vocabulary. In the digital age, however, the dictionary has adapted to an online format that enables people to identify the definition of a word at the touch of a finger.

Say you're reading through a book on your e-reader and you come across a word like "capricious." All you have to do is highlight it and...