Words You Can Use: Improvident

Remember those SAT words you had to memorize years ago? Of course you don't! You forgot them the moment the test was over, if not sooner. Well, turns out some of those words are pretty darn useful. No grades given here. No tests. Just words you can use.

One of my very favorite quotes comes from the Babylonian Talmud:

"Who is wise? One who sees what is going to be." (Tractate Tamid 32A)

No, it's not telling us that fortune tellers are smart. Most of them probably aren't. It's teaching us something much more profound: Wisdom is judged by the ability to recognize the consequence of ones actions. What I choose today influences the choices that will present themselves to me tommorow. That's a very empowering lesson!

OK, enough moralizing. What's this got to do with vocabulary words?

I was reminded of this quote today as I read my Merriam-Webster word of the day. The word was 'improvident'.

It refers to the inability to see the future. 'Im-' is the negative prefix. 'Providere' comes from 'pro' which means 'forward' and 'videre' which means 'to see'. Literally, "unable to see forward". Here's the example sentence they give:

"Judy's bankruptcy is the result of several years of improvident borrowing with little thought as to how she would ever manage to repay her debts."

Ok, so you may never use this word as much as "that" or "whatever". But it's still good to know for at least three reasons.

1) It describes succinctly something which is rather common to human experience.

2) It's not a tongue-twister.

3) It would be improvident behavior to not know it for when the proper occasion arises.

Use it in a sentence once a day for a week and you'll remember it.