Colour me sympathetic to the list provided.

Sometimes a new word can be just the tangent needed to spur a new interest. DS, for instance, developed an interest in Medieval life/ephemera when I taught him the word "dissident". Hardly a word a toddler would use in everyday conversation, but it spawned a fascination with other equally obscure language as "crenellated battlements" and various parts of cannons.

To some extent, I think we all delight in being fact curators. I can definitely see some young children thoroughly delighting in dictionary time. I remember how much I loved uncovering a bizarre word and trying to trick my (English major) father with it at that age. That's how I learned about schadenfreude! Imagine a good villainous scheme without schadenfreude...wait...impossible!!

What is to give light must endure burning.