Reading dictionaries is fun. I especially like the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), along with its two companions, the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, and the Compact Oxford Thesaurus.
Seriously, this isn't nerdy at all. It's really entertaining.
For example, my brother Will told me the other day that he had an
interesting experience. He was studying the OED, and he noticed that
many of the words aren't currently in wide use around the
English-speaking world.
This intrigued me, so I went to the OED to see for myself. The truth
is, it is downright amazing how many words have gone out of vogue.
Do you know what a buhl is? Or a bourn? How about a froideur? A
ratbag? Or a virago? Maybe you know the definitions to all these words.
Maybe you use them several times a day in your ordinary language. Or
not. I'm not saying that these words were ever in common usage, except
"ratbag" among certain classes and decades in England.
But here's the one that really got to me. In the Compact OED, the
word "free" has an interesting set of definitions. Here they are:
Social Leader Weekly 
