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

[Zack Attack]

It’s times like this I really grow to appreciate my Firefox dictionary extension. :)

[weegee]

Dead giveaway to the politics:

“hegemony”

[PAR35]

“moiety” is the sole word on this list I have never read, and did not comprehend.
After reading the definition, it is a word so rare that it invalidates the list, as all of the other obscure words are still in actual practical use.

You hang around with the wrong crowd. Lesion beyond moiety is actually a common legal principle in Louisiana and should be well known by anyone involved in property transactions.

[weegee]

Reminds me of the rebroadcast interview on Michael Medved today. It was with a filmmaker who made documentary celebrating graffitti tags on public and private property.

He (or one of his supporting callers) said something along the lines “y’know, it shifts the paradigm and stuff”.

[SAJ]

Abstemious -- describing a person who does not partake of alcoholic beverages. Also, one of the two common words in English that contains the 5 vowels, each occurring just once, in their alphabetic order.

Bowdlerize -- after some jerk named Bowdler, who advocated -- and for a time was succesful at -- substituting ''inoffensive'' words for ''ribald or suggestive'' ones in a text. Egomaniacally, the first author's works he attempted to ruin was Shakespeare. An early advocate of what we now call 'political correctness', except he was principally concerned with 'moral' 'correctness', according to his standards.

fiduciary -- as a noun, describing a person in a position of legally binding trust, as for instance the executor of a will, or an attorney charged with keeping funds intact for a trial or other purposes. as an adjective, descriptive of a fiduciary person.

moiety -- a part of, typically an indeterminate part of. rarely, used as a synonym for 'half'. ''He had merely a moiety of knowledge about the theatre, not the totality he supposed'' -- Goldsmith.

[Rembrandt]

‘It and “dynamic” (used as a noun) should go into hiding for a while.’

Some of her Thighness’ favorites, i.e. “You know” and “actually,” should join “dynamic” in hiding.

[Sloth]

I could use all but about 6 or 7 of those in a sentence.

[Alas Babylon!]

I think it rather GAY, that homogeneous is there, but not heterogeneous.

[Larry Lucido]

“fatuous”

Hey, Rosie, I saw you on TV. You’re really packing on the pounds. I couldn’t believe how fatuous!

[Larry Lucido]

xenophobe

Someone who is afraid of Xena the warrior princess.

[Buddy B]

Audio pronunciation for " jejune "

[FoxInSocks]

I don't think those words are particularly useful to a high-school graduate myself. Vital to that individual, whether he or she is entering the working environment or college, is the ability to form a simple declarative sentence with a subject and a predicate that says precisely what he or she means to communicate.

Speaking of brevity . . . : )

[sarasmom]

I paid very close attention to my former Cajun father-in-law, regarding property transactions, and he never once used that word!
LOL!
Although I have yet to purchase property, if/when I ever do so, I will pay close attention to “access rights” and “easements”, and look for “moitey”.
Thank you!

[DocRock]

bookmark

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Lesion beyond moiety is actually a common legal principle in Louisiana and should be well known by anyone involved in property transactions.

Is it a common legal principle outside of Louisiana?

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

I could use all but about 6 or 7 of those in a sentence.

In a single sentence??

[metmom]

Looks like a list from Scripps-Howard for the National Spelling Bee.

Some of those words are really archaic and obsolete, and they could cut the PC crap.

euro? Really....

[Vor Lady]

I can use most of them correctly and I can guess on the few I don’t know by looking at their roots. I do agree with you about the PhD fodder, however.

[LexBaird]

lugubrious — smarmily charming?

Sad or depressed: Droopy the Dog had a lugubrious expression.

obsequious — another one I should know. Coy, indirect?

Brown nosing behavior: My sycophants must always be obsequious.

[P.O.E.]

Norm Crosby

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