100 Words

[MA-Caver]

Ok, ok there's the first fifty, but that's only because I didn't want to make the post too long. (see part 2 for the other 50).
Some of these I know and some I recognize but am reasonably sure of the meaning, and others I recognize and am vaguely sure about the meaning and the rest... :idunno:
Find it interesting that these words were chosen by the AMD as the top 100 most important words (we) should know.

100 Words That All High School Graduates — And Their Parents — Should Know http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/booksellers/press_release/100words/
BOSTON, MA — The editors of the American Heritage® dictionaries have compiled a list of 100 words they recommend every high school graduate should know.

"The words we suggest," says senior editor Steven Kleinedler, "are not meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language."

The following is the entire list of 100 words:

abjure
abrogate
abstemious
acumen
antebellum
auspicious
belie
bellicose
bowdlerize
chicanery
chromosome
churlish
circumlocution
circumnavigate
deciduous
deleterious
diffident
enervate
enfranchise
epiphany
equinox
euro
evanescent
expurgate
facetious
fatuous
feckless
fiduciary
filibuster
gamete
gauche
gerrymander
hegemony
hemoglobin
homogeneous
hubris
hypotenuse
impeach
incognito
incontrovertible
inculcate
infrastructure
interpolate
irony
jejune
kinetic
kowtow
laissez faire
lexicon
loquacious

 

[MA-Caver]

the rest of the list...

lugubrious
metamorphosis
mitosis
moiety
nanotechnology
nihilism
nomenclature
nonsectarian
notarize
obsequious
oligarchy
omnipotent
orthography
oxidize
parabola
paradigm
parameter
pecuniary
photosynthesis
plagiarize
plasma
polymer
precipitous
quasar
quotidian
recapitulate
reciprocal
reparation
respiration
sanguine
soliloquy
subjugate
suffragist
supercilious
tautology
taxonomy
tectonic
tempestuous
thermodynamics
totalitarian
unctuous
usurp
vacuous
vehement
vortex
winnow
wrought
xenophobe
yeoman
ziggurat

 

[Touch Of Death]

Wow; good thing I was taught to use the word around some of these to figure out what they mean.:ultracool
Sean

 

[MA-Caver]

Wow; good thing I was taught to use the word around some of these to figure out what they mean.:ultracool
Sean

Yeah but I forgot to add... how many do YOU know... (this is to everyone of course)... no cheating ... :uhyeah:

 

[Touch Of Death]

Yeah but I forgot to add... how many do YOU know... (this is to everyone of course)... no cheating ... :uhyeah:

17 off the top of my head but I always seem to know what they mean when I read the others in a text or novel.
Sean

 

[michaeledward]

Now, if one was compulsive, he (or she) might grab this list of words, and start using that 'search' feature on the message board.

How many times do you think the word "circumlocution" has been used here on martial talk?

 

[mrhnau]

Now, if one was compulsive, he (or she) might grab this list of words, and start using that 'search' feature on the message board.

How many times do you think the word "circumlocution" has been used here on martial talk?

I'm not compulsive enough to do those searches, but just looking at this list of 50, I can imagine perhaps 7 words that appear somewhere other than this thread. They are words you simply don't use in normal conversations, at least not on a regular basis.

Interesting lists though... not meaningful really, but interesting

 

[michaeledward]

Just thinking out loud here - I'm certain I have used 'hubris', 'impeach' and 'lassez faire' (although probably spelled wrong).

I used 'acumen' over on Kenpotalk yesterday, or the day before --- before reading this list.

'abstemios' - this would require a trip to m-w.com

'churlish' may have made and appearance. As perhaps 'fatuous'.

I will not be compulsive. I will not be compulsive. I will not be compulsive.

 

[Blindside]

I didn't know abstemious (though I think I do from the root word), jejune (I do know its a french borrow word), and bowdlerize (no idea).

My wife hates playing Scrabble with me.

 

[mrhnau]

Just thinking out loud here - I'm certain I have used 'hubris', 'impeach' and 'lassez faire' (although probably spelled wrong).

I used 'acumen' over on Kenpotalk yesterday, or the day before --- before reading this list.

'abstemios' - this would require a trip to m-w.com

'churlish' may have made and appearance. As perhaps 'fatuous'.

I will not be compulsive. I will not be compulsive. I will not be compulsive.

LOL

well, here are the ones I use on a somewhat regular basis... perhaps not here, but in various places I think MT has several. I'll stick MT by those LOL

abjure
acumen (MT)
auspicious (MT)
belie
chromosome (MT)
enervate
enfranchise
epiphany (MT)
equinox (MT)
euro (MT)
evanescent
facetious (I use this one all the time!) (MT)
filibuster (MT)
gamete (MT)
hemoglobin (MT)
homogeneous (MT)
hubris (MT)
impeach (MT that one is all over the study! LOL!)
incognito (MT)
incontrovertible
infrastructure (MT)
interpolate
irony (MT)
kinetic (MT)
laissez faire (MT)
lexicon
loquacious

I'm not going to waste time searching... but geez, already wasted enough time on this thread LOL

 

[MA-Caver]

17 off the top of my head but I always seem to know what they mean when I read the others in a text or novel.

Yeah same here. My father paid me $100.00 when I was around 14 or so to read through an encyclopedia and mein gott I had to look up a lot of words. But now as I read something "heavy" I can go through it without (mentally) stumbling over those $15.00 words that'll crop up. Learning how to read and learning how to pick out "root" words within words goes a long way in helping one understand what they're reading.
I try to improve my own vocabulary as much as possible. I know my reading level is fairly high, probably around junior or senior in high-school, but it could be better I think.

I'm not compulsive enough to do those searches, but just looking at this list of 50, I can imagine perhaps 7 words that appear somewhere other than this thread. They are words you simply don't use in normal conversations, at least not on a regular basis.

This is true, and one has to ask WHY is that? I'm guessing that it's because the reading level (again) of the general populace has a lot to do with it. We start using these "$15.00 words" around people and we'll get odd looks and a lot of "huh? whuzzat?" So we simplify things; instead of saying "why don't you just circumnavigate the block to find your car?" we just say "why don't you just walk around the block to find your car?"
I think we as a society should teach our children to up their vocabulary in their writing/reading... if not in their speech.

Interesting lists though... not meaningful really, but interesting

I think it was meaningful... meaningful to the point that it says a lot about me when I read the list and find out how much I don't know.

 

[Sukerkin]

I don't know whether to be embarassed or proud that the only one I couldn't assign a meaning to right off the bat was "antebellum". I know the word but can't place it . Oddly I associate it with American history - who can fathom how your memory works :lol:.

Another minor thing that occurs to me is that "bowdlerize" and "expurgate" are so very similar in meaning I'm surprised that they're both on the list ("bowdlerize" being a specific term for the act of over enthusiastically "expurgating" something (usually written works)).

It is one of the words that, to my knowledge I've never either spoken or written - "jejune" is the other on the list to have similar 'virgin' status (until now that is ).

EDIT: In the second tranche p), "moiety" is a new one on me - time to head for the dictionary ... {scampers off}

 

[shesulsa]

MODERATION NOTE:

Threads merged.

G Ketchmark / shesulsa
MT Assistant Admin.

 

[CoryKS]

I don't know whether to be embarassed or proud that the only one I couldn't assign a meaning to right off the bat was "antebellum". I know the word but can't place it . Oddly I associate it with American history - who can fathom how your memory works :lol:.

Means pre-war. Usually used in reference to the US Civil War and the architecture preceding it. But you'd have to be antediluvian to know that.

 

[Sukerkin]

Cheers, Cory :tup:

 

[CoryKS]

In the second tranche p), "moiety" is a new one on me - time to head for the dictionary ... {scampers off}

I'm with you. Of the 100, this is the only one I didn't know. Moiety...sounds kinda nasty.

 

[zDom]

I've gotta say:

Ya'll have GREAT vocabularies. I find mine exceeds most people's by a significant margin, but there are several words on that listd that I have never used (nor missed ) More than a couple I had to look up.

I think this list is a bunch of bull, though. Many of those words just aren't used frequently enough to make them important enough to be on that kind of list to make room for some that ARE used and are generally not understood my most HS grads.

I mean, bowdlerize? Come on There are a dozen better and better-known synomyms available.

 

[MA-Caver]

I mean, bowdlerize? Come on There are a dozen better and better-known synonyms available.

True, but as Carlin would say: Language always gives you away. What you use and how you use it tells alot about yourself, your education, your state of mind and level of intelligence. Now of course this is not to say that those who don't understand the meaning of those $20.00 words are stupid... far from it. But it does help to denote the level of education that they've received. They may not use those words themselves but they'll know what it means when they read it or when they hear it.
Also sometimes a big word better describes something/someone than a synonym. And also sometimes it's useless or unnecessary. Such as bowdlerize (dictionary.com says) [Origin: 1830–40; after Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825), English editor of an expurgated edition of Shakespeare]. Ole' Tom must've done a job on that edition to get a word named after him for what he done. :lol:

 

[CoryKS]

True, but as Carlin would say: Language always gives you away. What you use and how you use it tells alot about yourself, your education, your state of mind and level of intelligence. Now of course this is not to say that those who don't understand the meaning of those $20.00 words are stupid... far from it. But it does help to denote the level of education that they've received. They may not use those words themselves but they'll know what it means when they read it or when they hear it.

It can be, and often is, used as an intelligence signifier, but I don't find it to be a very accurate one. I know quite a few college edumacated folks with extensive vocabularies who at times can't seem to grasp the concept of cause and effect. I like the point you made above:

But now as I read something "heavy" I can go through it without (mentally) stumbling over those $15.00 words that'll crop up. Learning how to read and learning how to pick out "root" words within words goes a long way in helping one understand what they're reading.

To me, this is the whole point of developing vocabulary - when you finally learn enough words that you can figure out the rest of them. (Hmm... I'll leave it for others to draw the MA parallel from this )

 

[Xue Sheng]

I'm sorry but I just can't take a list such as this seriously if it does not include

Antidisestablishmentarianism, Defenestrate, Fustigate, Sesquipedelian, or Xanthochroid

:uhyeah: