Wednesday, July 11, 2007
100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know...Well OK, only 25 of them
I'm not much of a meme-r, but I love Defective Yeti, I love words, and I'm a maven. Therefore, there was no way I could resist taking this quiz and posting my results. I encourage you to try it too. If you do, leave a comment with a link to your blog. (Jen the Knitting Queen, I'm looking at YOU!)
The editors of the American Heritage dictionary recently compiled a list of "100 words they recommend every high school graduate should know."I always like to check out lists like this, and see how many of the entries I am already familiar with. The answer is, invariably, "nearly all of them." Not because I have a stellar vocabulary, but because I cheat.
Not on purpose, of course. But, when performing this exercise, I'm always struck with "well that's what I meant" syndrome. You know how it goes. You see the word, you say to yourself "that means X," you check the definition, and when it turns out that it actually meant Y, you say, "ah, well, that's I meant. And, jeeze, X and Y are practically the same thing ... so, I'm going to give myself this one." By the time I'm done, I have magnanimously "given" myself all of them, and have no idea how many I actually knew before I started.
So this time I tried something new: I wrote down my definitions first, and then compared them to the actual definitions afterwards. (and then he wrote a cool utility so we could do it, too)
from Defective Yeti
I also usually give myself more points than I deserve by saying "sure, that's it". It was fun to have the quiz keep me honest. I find it is so interesting how contextual my knowledge is. I have learned most of my vocabulary through reading, where I can get the "gist" of a word without understanding it completely. Or, apparently, with gathering the opposite meaning. The acquisition of language is fascinating to me.
Here is the overview of my results:
I knew the words in green; I did not know the words in red. In total, I knew 20 of 25.
Details of my results are after the jump...
| Word | My Definition | Actual Definition | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| abjure | to remove from the rule of law | 1. To recant solemnly; renounce or repudiate. 2. To renounce under oath; forswear. | I pulled this def out of my hat |
| abrogate | to remove from a group (opposite of aggregate) | To abolish, do away with, or annul, especially by authority. | nope |
| antebellum | before the Civil War | Belonging to the period before a war, especially the American Civil War. | yay! the only way I've ever heard this used is "Antebellum South" |
| belie | betray; undermine; contradict | 1. To give a false representation to; misrepresent. 2. To show to be false; contradict: | a favorite word of mine |
| bellicose | angry, simmering; not yelling, but stewing | Warlike or hostile in manner or temperament. | |
| circumlocution | movement, especially in a circle | 1. The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language. 2. Evasion in speech or writing. 3. A roundabout expression. | I actually knew this, but had a brain relapse. Really! |
| circumnavigate | travel around something (usually the globe) | 1. To proceed completely around. 2. To go around; circumvent. | |
| deciduous | a tree which loses its leaves in the fall and then grows new in the spring | 1. Falling off or shed at a specific season or stage of growth. 2. Shedding or losing foliage at the end of the growing season. 3. Not lasting; ephemeral. | |
| enervate | energize - give energy to | 1. To weaken or destroy the strength or vitality of. | Oops - I had totally the opposite idea |
| epiphany | amazing realization | 1. A revelatory manifestation of a divine being. 2. A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something. 3. A comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization. | |
| facetious | like sarcasm, but with more snobbery | Playfully jocular; humorous. | I'm giving it to myself, but you can disagree |
| feckless | reckless | 1. Lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective. 2. Careless and irresponsible. | but I missed the youthful nuances of the word |
| hypotenuse | long side of a right triangle (the one whose adjacent angles are both 45 degrees | The hypotenuse of a right triangle is the triangle's longest side; the side opposite the right angle. | I actually remembered SOMETHING from Geometry |
| lugubrious | slow, wearing, hard to carry or do | Mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree. | I'm giving this to myself - it was the right emotion I expressed, but I applied it to an object instead. Feel free to disagree. |
| mitosis | cell reproduction and division (somatic cells only) | 1. A process that takes place in the nucleus of a dividing cell, involves typically a series of steps consisting of prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase, and results in the formation of two new nuclei each having the same number of chromosomes as the parent nucleus; 2. Cell division in which mitosis occurs. | Random fact: this process in gametes (sex cells e.g. sperm and eggs) is called meosis and undergoes a slightly different process, leaving a haploid cell (cell with 1/2 the chromosomes of the parent cell). that's how we get genetic dispersion! yes, I'm a nerd. |
| nihilism | belief that nothing matters; we're all doomed, so what? | 1. An extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence. 2. A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. 3. Rejection of all distinctions in moral or religious value and a willingness to repudiate all previous theories of morality or religious belief. 4. The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement. 5. A diffuse, revolutionary movement of mid 19th-century Russia that scorned authority and tradition and believed in reason, materialism, and radical change in society and government through terrorism and assassination. | Who cares if I got this one right? |
| omnipotent | all-powerful | Having unlimited or universal power, authority, or force; all-powerful. | a basic Sunday school word. Also, quite useful in describing Dick Cheney |
| paradigm | way of seeing things; avenue of thought | 1. One that serves as a pattern or model. 2. A set or list of all the inflectional forms of a word or of one of its grammatical categories: the paradigm of an irregular verb. 3. A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline. | According to my paradigm, I'm gonna give myself a "yes" here |
| reparation | the making of amends in a tangible, often monetary, form | 1. The act or process of repairing or the condition of being repaired. 2. The act or process of making amends; expiation. 3. Something done or paid to compensate or make amends. 4. Compensation or remuneration required from a defeated nation as indemnity for damage or injury during a war. | |
| soliloquy | long speech where one is not addressing anyone else, or is addressing a rhetorical person | 1. A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener. 2. A specific speech or piece of writing in this form of discourse. 3. The act of speaking to oneself. | I'm not talking to myself, I'm soliliquizing! |
| subjugate | put under authority | 1. To bring under control; conquer. 2. To make subservient; enslave. | Too bad I can't subjugate the weeds in my yard |
| suffragist | someone who wants or works for the right to vote | An advocate of the extension of political voting rights, especially to women. | have you seen Mary Poppins? |
| tautology | one's set of beliefs that guide their actions; their moral rules | 1. Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy. 2. An instance of such repetition. 3. An empty or vacuous statement composed of simpler statements in a fashion that makes it logically true whether the simpler statements are factually true or false; for example, the statement" Either it will rain tomorrow or it will not rain tomorrow." | Totally missed this one. Like this word, but keep forgetting the definition. Maybe it will stick now. |
| vortex | swirling center of a whirlpool, or the middle of a black hole - the center of many fascinating principles of physics | 1. A spiral motion of fluid within a limited area, especially a whirling mass of water or air that sucks everything near it toward its center. 2. A place or situation regarded as drawing into its center all that surrounds it. | With the grades I got in physics, I'm gonna take this as a resounding "yes" |
| winnow | to sort and pare down | 1. To separate the chaff from (grain) by means of a current of air. 2. To rid of undesirable parts. 3. To blow (chaff) off or away. 4. To blow away; scatter. 5. To blow on; fan: a breeze winnowing the tall grass. 6. To examine closely in order to separate the good from the bad; sift. 7. To separate or get rid of (an undesirable part); eliminate: winnowing out the errors in logic. 8. To sort or select (a desirable part); extract. | A process I need to do more of in my life. |
Who am I?
Comments
I knew about 5% of the words. I am not linking this post to my blog becuase I your primary audience they would tire of my tautology.
Posted by: Gordon | July 12, 2007 03:36 PM
Ok Miss Maven McSmarty-pants--I got 16 out of 25. I would post my results, but I don't know how in this comments thingy. Clearly I am the product of the Seattle Public School system!
Jen
Posted by: Jen | July 12, 2007 06:55 PM
I am such a numbskull because my last sentence was supposed be "I am not linking this post to my blog because your primary audience would tire of my tautology." But I guess that highlights my tautology!
Posted by: Gordon | July 12, 2007 09:32 PM
I am such a numbskull because my last sentence was supposed be "I am not linking this post to my blog because your primary audience would tire of my tautology." But I guess that highlights my tautology!
Posted by: Gordon | July 12, 2007 09:33 PM