# 100 Words



## MA-Caver (May 29, 2007)

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."
> ...


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## MA-Caver (May 29, 2007)

the rest of the list...  


> lugubrious
> metamorphosis
> mitosis
> moiety
> ...


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## Touch Of Death (May 29, 2007)

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


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## MA-Caver (May 29, 2007)

Touch Of Death said:


> 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:


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## Touch Of Death (May 29, 2007)

MA-Caver said:


> 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


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## michaeledward (May 30, 2007)

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?


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## mrhnau (May 30, 2007)

michaeledward said:


> 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


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## michaeledward (May 30, 2007)

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.


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## Blindside (May 30, 2007)

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.


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## mrhnau (May 30, 2007)

michaeledward said:


> 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.
> 
> ...


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


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## MA-Caver (May 30, 2007)

Touch Of Death said:
			
		

> 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. 



mrhnau said:


> 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. 



mrhnau said:


> 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.


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## Sukerkin (May 30, 2007)

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}


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## shesulsa (May 30, 2007)

MODERATION NOTE:

Threads merged.

G Ketchmark / shesulsa
MT Assistant Admin.


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## CoryKS (May 30, 2007)

Sukerkin said:


> 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.


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## Sukerkin (May 30, 2007)

Cheers, *Cory* :tup:


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## CoryKS (May 30, 2007)

Sukerkin said:


> 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.


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## zDom (May 30, 2007)

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.


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## MA-Caver (May 30, 2007)

zDom said:


> 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&#8211;40; after Thomas *Bowdler* (1754&#8211;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:


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## CoryKS (May 30, 2007)

MA-Caver said:


> 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:



MA-Caver said:


> 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 )


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## Xue Sheng (May 30, 2007)

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:


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## Sukerkin (May 30, 2007)

Ahh ... defenestration ... is there any more elegant way of winning an argument?  

As a hint to what I consider one of the better examples of cinematic defenestration, the same film contained, in the same scene, one of the more harrowing put-downs ever used by a fictionally depicted British monarch (viz "Who is this person who speaks to me as if I needed his advice?") :lol:.  Sadly, I've never had a chance to utilise that put-down other than as a 'taunt' in multi-player Age of Empires games .

Can anyone name the film I'm thinking of?


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## CoryKS (May 30, 2007)

Sukerkin said:


> Ahh ... defenestration ... is there any more elegant way of winning an argument?
> 
> As a hint to what I consider one of the better examples of cinematic defenestration, the same film contained, in the same scene, one of the more harrowing put-downs ever used by a fictionally depicted British monarch (viz "Who is this person who speaks to me as if I needed his advice?") :lol:. Sadly, I've never had a chance to utilise that put-down other than as a 'taunt' in multi-player Age of Empires games .
> 
> Can anyone name the film I'm thinking of?


 

Freedom!!!


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## Sukerkin (May 30, 2007)

Bang-on, first shot!  The prize of an Earldom in the Highlands goes to His Grace *CoryKS* :tup:.


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## bydand (May 30, 2007)

MA-Caver said:


> 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.



God help me, I knew this for some strange reason.  

I had to laugh when I got to the bottom of the first half of the list.   *loquacious.  *My #2 son, when he started Pre-school informed the teacher that he was rather loquacious.  Then went on to give her the definition because she reached for the dictionary.  She informed me of this when I went to pick him up, it didn't surprise me in the least, but about blew her away. 

I could recall about 90% of the list, but have to agree that there are several I have a hard time with being on the list as the most important words to know.  Granted your speech, and words chosen, DO have a impact on how others view your education level; but I also feel that it is a measure that more "educated" people use to try to differentiate themselves from the common masses.  I love it when I am working in an office building and those types are tossing around their $20 words and the lowly Electrician (that would be me  ) interjects a correction in usage. Gives them something to think about you know.


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## Xue Sheng (May 30, 2007)

Sukerkin said:


> Ahh ... defenestration ... is there any more elegant way of winning an argument?
> 
> As a hint to what I consider one of the better examples of cinematic defenestration, the same film contained, in the same scene, one of the more harrowing put-downs ever used by a fictionally depicted British monarch (viz "Who is this person who speaks to me as if I needed his advice?") :lol:. Sadly, I've never had a chance to utilise that put-down other than as a 'taunt' in multi-player Age of Empires games .
> 
> Can anyone name the film I'm thinking of?


 
Keeping with the theme of defenestration

Be patient you will get your Chance. I always wanted to use a line from a song and one day while on the second floor of a building with several open windows I had my chance. Someone annoyed me and I said

"Pick a window" he responded with why and I responded "You're leaving"

He made a hasty exit down the nearest set of stairs.

OK What is the name of the song and the Band?


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## MA-Caver (May 30, 2007)

bydand said:


> God help me, I knew this for some strange reason.
> 
> I had to laugh when I got to the bottom of the first half of the list.   *loquacious.  *My #2 son, when he started Pre-school informed the teacher that he was rather loquacious.  Then went on to give her the definition because she reached for the dictionary.  She informed me of this when I went to pick him up, it didn't surprise me in the least, but about blew her away.
> 
> I could recall about 90% of the list, but have to agree that there are several I have a hard time with being on the list as the most important words to know.  Granted your speech, and words chosen, DO have a impact on how others view your education level; but I also feel that it is a measure that more "educated" people use to try to differentiate themselves from the common masses.  I love it when I am working in an office building and those types are tossing around their $20 words and the lowly Electrician (that would be me  ) interjects a correction in usage. Gives them something to think about you know.



Oh yeah that is so true. I mean that just because someone doesn't have a quarter million dollar education doesn't mean they don't know. A good example (oh-ok quasi-good example because it's sci-fi) would be that Kevin Spacy movie K-Pak and if you haven't seen it it's very good.


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## fnorfurfoot (May 30, 2007)

I could probably define 29 of them and I recognized 12 others but I don't know what they really mean.


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## Steel Tiger (May 30, 2007)

Xue Sheng said:


> 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:


 
You're right its not serious without these little beauties.

You know a lot of these wonderful words were actually added to dictionaries by early compilers as a sort of game.  They were trying to see if the words they essentially made up would come into usage because they were in the dictionary, and many have.  Defenestrate and fustigate (love those two) are excellent examples.


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## Sukerkin (May 31, 2007)

Xue Sheng said:


> Keeping with the theme of defenestration
> 
> Be patient you will get your Chance. I always wanted to use a line from a song and one day while on the second floor of a building with several open windows I had my chance. Someone annoyed me and I said
> 
> ...


 
I'm embarassed to admit that I had to 'cheat' on this and ask the TinterNet .  Even then I had only the vaguest notion of who the band were :blush:.


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## CoryKS (May 31, 2007)

> The problem with defending the purity of the English language
> is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't
> just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages
> down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for
> new vocabulary. - James Nicoll


 
:rofl:


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## MA-Caver (May 31, 2007)

CoryKS said:


> The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't
> just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages
> down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for
> new vocabulary. - James Nicoll :rofl:



Yep and that is so true. Ask any British university English Professor and they'll tell you how nuts we Americans are about the engrish ranguage. But what do you expect? As a melting pot of nearly every culture across the globe, _their_ language(s) is bound to end up mixed in with the dominate language. 
So pure English language yeah but I think what Mr. Nicoll was referring to is American English!


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## CoryKS (May 31, 2007)

MA-Caver said:


> I think what Mr. Nicoll was referring to is American English!


 
Was there any other kind?  *ducks*


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## Xue Sheng (May 31, 2007)

Sukerkin said:


> I'm embarassed to admit that I had to 'cheat' on this and ask the TinterNet . Even then I had only the vaguest notion of who the band were :blush:.


 
Band - Raven 
Song - Pick Your Window
Album - Life's a *****


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## zDom (May 31, 2007)

IMO, our huge vocabulary allows for two things (off the top of my head):

a) Extremely precise language. There is a difference, for example, between a stool and a chair  and we can get that information all in one word.

b) A _WIDE_ variety of word choices (not to mention syntax!) so both our prose and poetry can reflect personal choices by the author/poet.

It is like comparing a palette (think computer, not paints which can be mixed to come up with an infinite number of hues) with a dozen colors with one that has hundreds.


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