What does Nick compare the words in the article to in Andrew Clements' Frindle?

In Andrew Clemets' Frindle, on his first day of school in fifth-grade language class, Nick Allen asks what he likes to call a "thought-grenade" to try and distract his strict teacher and hijack the rest of class period. Nick's "thought-grenade" is where words come from and how the dictionary came to be written. However, rather than devoting the rest of the class period to answering the question, Mrs. Granger assigns Nick to do the research himself and give an oral report. Nick's "though-grenade" and research feed his idea to invent his own word, an idea that develops the story's conflict and resolution. While tackling the research, Nick stumbles across many words he doesn't understand, and he compares those words to chemicals he knows nothing about.

Nick is hoping his research into the origin of words and the development of the dictionary will be easy, but he comes across material that is much more difficult to understand than he has previously encountered. The first thing he does is read an article in the introduction of the red dictionary Mrs. Granger had recommended for the class. The article is titled "Words and Their Origins." But upon reading the article, he finds it is so full of words he is unfamiliar with, such as "unparalleled etymological detail" and "superb lexicographic scholarship," that he does not understand the article. He reads it twice and still does not understand it. He compares the words in the article to "ingredients on a shampoo bottle" because such an ingredient list is full of complex names of chemicals and organic compounds that would be completely meaningless to Nick if he doesn't already know something about the names he is reading.

However, his inability to understand the first article doesn't stop him. He continues with his research by reading articles in the set of encyclopedias for children found in his family room and even by reading more articles in the encyclopedia set for adults. By the time he is done with his research, he has enough information to give a very lengthy report and a plan to hijack a great deal of class time by reading aloud the difficult article found in the red dictionary.