100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know [moiety???]

Houghton Mifflin ^

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

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

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

[Old Professer]

And Safire passed on.

[Old Professer]

Just fake an accent; veg ah taables...

[Old Professer]

I got a chicle out of that.

[Old Professer]

Good grief; you ought be enervated.

[ReignOfError]

You did notice that sesquipedalian was not on the list?

Nor was perspicacious. I guess that would have been too self-referential.

There are appropriate uses for long and obscure words, but there are also self-important jerks who use them to intimidate other speakers. A dumb idea doesn't become less dumb if you call it a paradigm.

My favorite retort is "While I'm nonplussed by your sesquipedalian perspicacity, that dog don't hunt." The juxtaposition of wordy and folksy usually just makes their heads explode.

[ReignOfError]

Actually, when I’m uncertain how to pronounce a word, I just mumble. Use a word so easily and casually that it comes across as second nature; the worst thing you could do is try too hard. In Southern (Southeastern US) English, the accepted pronunciation is usually the laziest one, so that works.

[ReignOfError]

Oh, and “sphygmomanometer” didn’t make the cut. Pity. I like that word. Bit difficult to work into casual conversation, though.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

That’s moiety wight of U.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

We, the United States have had to abjure ourselves of the tempetuous nihilism based paradigm of islam by sending our xenophobic sanguine troops armed with nanotechnology to enforce our hegemony of the global kinetic infrastructure while supercilous, churlish, totalitarian democrats wax loquaciously and attmpet to kowotow to our enemies as they try to gerrymander their disctricts, impeach the President and ennervate our nation.

[Billthedrill]

You did notice that sesquipedalian was not on the list?

LOL! Yeppers, first thing that crossed my mind. Well, the seocnd. Well, after I googled the word, that is.

These are sad times. I remember learning lots of words in Boot Camp that I'd never heard before. And new usages as well - I sort of knew what garters were, for example, but I'd never heard of anybody's guts being used for them. Or genitalia being used for a bowtie. Kids these days just don't have the opportunities we had...

[Centurion2000]

Good grief; you ought be enervated.

Oh, like wow, what an epiphany; your precipitous and churlish chicanery at my hubris and incognito filibustering is uhm so .... feckless and guache ... dude.

Uhm, are you endeavoring to usurp my lugubrious oligarchy of the facetious supercilious order of the vehement suffragists?

*BONG HIT*

[Old Professer]

What are you, a janitor in a thesaurus printing company?

They need to get a sharper shredder.

[Centurion2000]

What are you, a janitor in a thesaurus printing company?

I would attempt to vacuously elucidate my position for your consumption my bellicose associate; I am but an incontrovertibly yeomanlike corporate worker skilled in the arts of circumlocution, precipitous chicanery and manufacture of deleterious documentation. I diffidently execute the vortex of information security while unctuously enfrachising the proletariat workers with their expurgated entertainments when they should be vehemently working and gaining financial renumeration. :)

[Centurion2000]

And while your are enjoying all the reading ... try the veal, I'll be here all week :)

[aruanan]

[moiety???]

Sure, as in "the carboxyl moiety".

[aruanan]

So... How many of these words can you use in a coherent sentence?

You mean in a single sentence?

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

You mean in a single sentence?

Yup... See some of the gems above offered by Centurion2000.

[Dinsdale]

I believe it was from a speech.

I doubt they paid by the minute.

Besides his point was he got paid seven cents for short words, same as long ones. He wouldn't use some big words even if he got paid by the letter.

Rereading my post, Twain said it much better.

[bluefish]

Ahh.. thanks.

So they have some influence on “modern” day architectual development? I thought that may be the case. Dictionary.com or the site I looked the word up on didn’t bother to mention that!

It is sort of ugly, but at least interesting I guess.

If they possess magical properties like pyramids, I could be swayed to approve. If I keep my razor-blades in one, will they stay sharp indefinitely? Do people working in that building in your pic live to be 150?

Nevermind.. it is just ugly! : )

[Keli Kilohana]

33 Names of Things You Never Knew had Names
1. AGLET - The plain or ornamental covering on the end of a shoelace.
2. ARMSAYE - The armhole in clothing.
3. CHANKING - Spat-out food, such as rinds or pits.
4. COLUMELLA NASI - The bottom part of the nose between the nostrils.
5. DRAGÉES - Small beadlike pieces of candy, usually silver-coloured, used for decorating cookies, cakes and sundaes.
6. FEAT - A dangling curl of hair.
7. FERRULE - The metal band on a pencil that holds the eraser in place.
8. HARP - The small metal hoop that supports a lampshade.
9. HEMIDEMISEMIQUAVER - A 64th note. (A 32nd is a demisemiquaver, and a 16th note is a semiquaver.)
10. JARNS,
11. NITTLES,
12. GRAWLIX,
13. and QUIMP - Various squiggles used to denote cussing in comic books.
14. KEEPER - The loop on a belt that keeps the end in place after it has passed through the buckle.
15. KICK or PUNT - The indentation at the bottom of some wine bottles. It gives added strength to the bottle but lessens its holding capacity.
16. LIRIPIPE - The long tail on a graduate's academic hood.
17. MINIMUS - The little finger or toe.
18. NEF - An ornamental stand in the shape of a ship.
19. OBDORMITION - The numbness caused by pressure on a nerve; when a limb is 'asleep'.
20. OCTOTHORPE - The symbol '#' on a telephone handset. Bell Labs' engineer Don Macpherson created the word in the 1960s by combining octo-, as in eight, with the name of one of his favourite athletes, 1912 Olympic decathlon champion Jim Thorpe.
21. OPHRYON - The space between the eyebrows on a line with the top of the eye sockets.
22. PEEN - The end of a hammer head opposite the striking face.
23. PHOSPHENES - The lights you see when you close your eyes hard. Technically the luminous impressions are due to the excitation of the retina caused by pressure on the eyeball.
24. PURLICUE - The space between the thumb and extended forefinger.
25. RASCETA - Creases on the inside of the wrist.
26. ROWEL - The revolving star on the back of a cowboy's spurs.
27. SADDLE - The rounded part on the top of a matchbook.
28. SCROOP - The rustle of silk.
29. SNORKEL BOX - A mailbox with a protruding receiver to allow people to deposit mail without leaving their cars.
30. SPRAINTS - Otter dung.
31. TANG - The projecting prong on a tool or instrument.
32. WAMBLE - Stomach rumbling.
33. ZARF - A holder for a handleless coffee cup.


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