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Open Phones: Your Most Useful Words
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Do you know the meaning of moiety, pecuniary, ziggurat? The American Heritage Dictionary thinks you should know these and 97 others by the time you graduate high school. What words are the most "useful" words on your list? Let us know in the comments and on the air.
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I would nominate the word literally. I hear this word misused all the time, even by the media. People seem to think that literally means extremely.
Pejorative.
In Robert Greenman's book Words That Make a Difference, which features excerpts from the New York Times, he states that "pejorative" is a formerly neutral word that has taken on a negative connotation. Is this true?
Miss WNYC... Happy to listen online!
Please add the word RESPONSIBILITY to the list of the top 100. Maybe if our young people learn it they can teach it to the parents that neglected to impart this wisdom to them in the first place.
I work in the customer service industry (call centers, yes there are still some here in America!)and customers are constantly blaming everyone else for errors they have made.
Keep up the great work!
I would nominated three: there, their, and they're. These three words all have entirely different meanings, but they are often mistakenly used interchangably because they sound the same.
Words for graduating high school seniors:
(actual definitions, not inferred or supposed)
extradition
democracy
theocracy
sedition
enemy combatant
clandestine
nullification
judicial review
facisim
neo-colonialism
neo-imperialism
Knowing these definitions will aid in the democratic and judicial processes and can help our youth understand the what and the why of many of our leaders decisions (past, present, and future)
how about verdant, green with growing trees.
inveigle
flummoxed
sardonic
truculent
parochial
zeitgeit
acriminoious
insouciant
doppelganger
avuncular
These are some of my favorites.
Word every graduate should know
- Iconoclast -
because quite frankly, we would all benefit if more individuals began to strive to live out this definition. Buck the system at all costs! Carve out your own path. Unthinkable now, PERHAPS, but this life WILL eventually end. Go boldly.
I'd have to say that all of these words can be used at one time or another... when do we not use any one word? Someone... except for maybe ziggarat.... who really uses that word commonly?
I tutor SAT prep. Most students don't have a grasp on much simpler words, such as "lucid," and can't tell the difference (or see the common root) among words like "equanimity," "equitable," and "equivocal."
--- OUTSOURCING ---
Verifiability - an important word to understand and use, when science has become such an important part of public life. A word that sets the difference between what can be proven true or false and what cannot is a very valuable word.
Unique
You are either unique or you are not
No qualifying words needed
The difference between "less" and "fewer."
The word "less" is used constantly instead of "fewer." (All they need to be told is that "fewer" is used when you can count items, e.g., fewer calories vs. less weight.
kleptocracy - see also haliburton, carlyle group, bush administration, congress
Good point Tom. My brother struggles with such common root words (although luckily he is just entering high school). I think a requirement of at least 1 year of basic Latin for all high schools would really help to correct a lot of these language inconsistencies.
"per se" - by, of, or in itself or oneself or themselves : as such
i hear this constantly used incorrectly - if you can't replace "in and of itself" rather than generally, necessarily, etc...
Funny you should be talking about these because my friend Scott and I have recently started selling onesies for babies called SATees placing "SAT" adjectives on the shirts to describe you child:
puerile (childlike)
recondite (difficult to understand)
dilatory (tending to cause delay)
extemporaneous (without much planning)
you get the idea. I myself have learned several new words. You can check them out at http://www.cafepress.com/satees.
Great show! Always!
I'd take comfort in knowing that people know the meaning of "habeas corpus." Maybe if they did, there would be more of a fight when this principle gets threatened.
Some of the words I include are "concepts" and some are words that ought to be known for all of their definitions. My list would include:
Conservative (vs.)
Conservation
fundamentalist (in all applications)
nationalism (vs.)
patriotism
Medicaid and Medicare (including their history and applications and importance)
littoral (vs.)
literal
etc. -- More important than saying, "I know the definition of a word," a high schooler should be able to say, "I know the definition and what the definition really means!"
I nominate prescribe and proscribe.
I found an interesting book at Morningside Heights NYPL recently: "The Lexicon - A cornucopia of wonderful words for the inquisitive word lover",
by William F. Buckley Jr., 1996, published by Harcourt Brace & Company, A Harvest Original imprint.
Falsifiability - an important word to understand and use, when science has become such an important part of public life. A word that sets the difference between what can be proven true or false and what cannot is a very valuable word.
Yes, that's the word I meant, actually. Just goes to show we all could do with a some brushing up, I guess.
(moderator, feel free to just correct my previous comment)
Oxymoron
disinterested, which is different from uninterested
enervate
Annual
Percentage
Rate
How about "per se"?. Perhaps the most misused phrase in English.
ask, as opposed to axe
enormity. Seems to be misused 90% of the time.
"student loans" and "Annual Percentage Rate"
inference
implication
credibility
Enormity. This word seems to be misused at least 90% of the time.
Ubiquitous
Using this word has opened some doors for me, no joke.
"compound interest" so we do not continue to be a debtor society.
neocon
imperialism
oligarchy
"just war"
Happiness and fulfillment. Deep understanding of these words will serve young people well. There is so much emphasis placed on money- and while quite important- lives can be much more rich if young people are given the opportunity to reflect on what they enjoy doing.
Peruse. So many people think it is to browse lightly, when in fact it means to study carefully.
Inane.
Young people enjoy using negative words to describe things, and this one gives a lot more nuance, and goes with the "whatever" attitude pervading pop culture.
Thanks!
Peace
refugee
occupation
democracy
imperialism
mentor
just know the definition!
Exacerbate! Because I'm tired of hearing people use "exasperate" instead, and not knowing there's a difference.
THEORY - specifically the difference between theory as speculation in everyday use scientific theory.
My word:
Zaftig
A complementary and gentlemanly way of referring to a lady.
In the same vain of there, their, and they're. How about two, to and too.
effect and affect.
Before learning big words, high school grads should learn to NEVER use the expression "free gift". (What the heck is a gift that is not free?)
There should be fines for grads who grow up to use the expression (same as there, they're, their, and together with correct use of its, to come before iconoclast and such.)
thanks - drora.
I would nominate experiment. Students use it for any scientific lesson, even if it is not truly an investigation. Just dying some cells green is not an experiment, for instance.
Ironic - ALWAYS misused! not to mention a fun word to use!
The words student loan and debt.
equanimity
eminence grise
meritocracy
ephinate. the difference between men and sheep is that man can ephinate and in that one moment, an totally, unexpected idea that changes a person fo rever....
they could only come up with 100 words??
Assimilation, Integration,
PARADIGM
Understanding this word is important because it requires (or reflects) a level of abstract thought that is important to serious discussions of modern issues.
I find it helpful to view or think about the totality of other peoples beliefs, thoughts or approaches to various things.
I will second Christian's list and add 'terrorist.' As for my own
suggestions, I would love for people graduating high school to know
the proper use of the apostrophe and quotation marks. While we're at
it, let's be sure they know how to pronounce NUCLEAR.
pusillanimous - cowardly
a guest on yesterday's show used the word "ophelia" as a noun. I'd never heard it before.
My word is 'ironic.' Know lots of adults who don't use it correctly.
They're there to make their voices heard.
Ashraf
They should have the correct definition of 'quasar' --any of a class of celestial objects that resemble stars but whose large redshift and apparent brightness imply extreme distance and huge energy output
How about jingoism? Mindless patriotism is a problem that impedes thoughtful analysis.
Also as a chicken owner, I would like to see people use lie and lay correctly! Who needs zigguarat?? Really!
I don't have words to post, but I have enjoyed this exercise in determining what's on the audience's mind. These are effective words to further the debate on political and national issues; these words accomplish much more than the overused terms "liberal," "conservative," and "support."
sophomoric
The word complacent or complacency is most useful in describing this nations current state of affairs. Wake up America!
specious
Everyone needs to know "Habeas corpus" these days.
INSOUCIANT:
Peter Schjedahl (spelling?) used this in describing contemporary artists in the first Greater New York show at PS1. I read in while in London and thought: Wow he nailed it. That is the word for many young artists' attitudes.
**************************************
See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
DEBT !
I nominate the word “disingenuous” because it is very useful for helping people notice when they are not being genuine.
Lee
They're over there with their dog.
(All three in one sentence . . . thanks to my junior high Language Arts teacher.)
sycophant
: a servile self-seeking flatterer
I love this one
HOPE
Hi Brian
Both these words should be listed as tools for survival.
CREDULITY v.
Disposition to believe too readily
NEXT TO HYDROGEN THE MOST COMMON THING IN THE UNIVERSE
REASON v.
To determine or conclude by logical thinking.
I think they should know "utilitarian" - since most of them are "green"ies - or at least they claim to be. Utilitarian = form follows function (Bauhaus motto) NOT = "ostentatious"; & should keep them from being "conspicuous consumers"
etymology, synonym, antonym... Because if you teach a man to fish...
Externality, or externalized cost
Economic theory claims that markets rationally allocate resources, because sellers make decisions based on the value of production or acquisition of their goods, and buyers make decisions based on the utility and value of the product to them. Hence, both buyers and sellers only make deals that benefit each of them.
However, there are often costs that are borne by third parties rather than buyers and sellers, and these are referred to as externalities or externalized costs. Pollution that damages the health, water, or land of third parties is such an externalized cost, and is well illustrated in the case of the oxides of sulphur and nitrogen from midwest power plants that fall in the Northeast.
The solution is to require the power plants and their customers to internalize these costs into the price paid for the electricity. This of course can only be done by public policy that requires the consumers to pay the true cost of their power.
Some free market ideologues will say that this is illegitimate political interference with market rationality. Once the concept of externalized costs is understood, however, such policies are clearly a way of correcting market failure and seeking to provide a more rational outcome.
Few students in my college policy courses have encountered this term, and the AHD doesn't include this use of the term. Please send this one to the AHD to consider including in their next edition. BTW, Wikipedia has a rather good discussion of it.
Dave's posting of "ephinate": The word isn't in the OED and that would seem to disqualify it for the list we are discussing.
I suggest three words, and the meanings thereof, and a caution from the world's oldest historian about the use of words.
MAGNA CARTA -- The earliest document in Anglo-Sason govenrment which included limits on the power of the State. How to arrange and manage limits has been a long debate, and it is the proudest achievment of the American approach to govenrment and society that mechanisms (which have, though honored in the breach too often) more or less worked. That the current adminstration has been busy finding ways to ignore and evade a thousand years of progressive increase in limited government, checks on government power, and so on, beginning with Magna Carta, is one of the saddest and desparing signs of our times. By doing the technical work of thsi undermining our legal profession has covered itself with shame.
FALSIFIBILITY -- already suggested by Richard above. It is the core of the difference between science and what it does and is, and faith and what it claims. An understanding of this by all high school students would go far toward defusing the high heat and little light wars over such things as evolution and the use of government power to enforce matters of faith on those not of that faith. Central to the American approach to government, society, and life.
REIFICATION -- the (mis)taking of an abstract category or classificaiton as actually existing in the real world. Proceeding on such a basis leads almost always to to problems, and often to horrors. McCarthy, the Red hunters of Attorney General Palmer's time (and most of J Edgar's time as well), the myth of Cponfederate Cavalier gallants in the face of Northern drudges meaning anything with regard to the significance of that War, the genocides in Darfur, Cambodia, Uganda, Naxi Germany, Argentinain and Uruguayan and Chilean and Brazilian disappearances, extraordinary rendition (and kidnapping here and there and whereever), and much else, are examples. A reasoning fallacy which has deluded many into unacceptable behavior. Mere rhetoric is not mere.
And the caution about the consequences of the misuse of words is from Thucydides, 3.82, in his discussion of the origin of the conflict in Corcyra. The Caldwaell translation is best, and can be found on the Web (eg, at MIT classics). The relevant extract in Caldwell (a few hundred words), begins with "And words were forced to change their meanings...".
One's skin should horripilate (sp?) in resposne.
i like the word obfuscate, something that unfortunately goes on too much.
I wanted to put in my two cents on the 100 important words issue, but I was driving north on the Henry Hudson Parkway with no convenient place to pull over. Also, I've never called in on a radio show, but might have made an exception this time. Anyhow, in the early 1970s I used to drive my two sons and a couple of their friends from Manhattan to the Fieldston School in Riverdale. (I'm a reverse commuter --- NYC to Scarsdale). Not satisfied with the intellectual level of their conversation, I bought a copy of a book titled, as I recall, "Thirty Days to a Better Vocabulary" and put it to use, one word per day. My passengers complained bitterly, but in later years thanked me --- one, in a nice letter, particularly recalling the word "obsequious". That is the word I would have volunteered, and by happenstance it turned out to be the last word you had time for on your program.
I was also struck by your "one word" for our times ---"outsourcing". I've been serving on a National Academy of Engineering committee that deals with that topic, but I believe that the one word high school seniors really have to worry about is slightly different, and oh so menacing --- "offshoring".
Be that as it may --- good show.
From a Robert Moses speech played on Brian Lehrer a few months ago: "mendicancy"
The defintion of "peruse" is indeed pretty broad (which was news to me), but according to the OED it has ever been so: "Modern dictionaries and usage guides, perh. influenced by the word's earlier history in English, have sometimes claimed that the only ‘correct’ usage is in reference to reading closely or thoroughly (cf. senses 4a, 4b). However, peruse has been a broad synonym for read since the 16th cent., encompassing both careful and cursory reading; Johnson defined and used it as such. The implication of leisureliness, cursoriness, or haste is therefore not a recent development..."http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/display/50176426?keytype=ref&ijkey=.R4haOmZ/vBws
Burke
In its figurative use (from the OED): To smother, ‘hush up’, suppress quietly. Also, to evade, to shirk, to avoid.
It's the etymology I like:
[f. Burke, the name of a notorious criminal executed at Edinburgh in 1829, for smothering many persons in order to sell their bodies for dissection.]
http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/display/50029695?keytype=ref&ijkey=rsKuIY2HKYNZc
Final one. It's late in France after all.
Sybaritic (adj.) From the OED:
Characterized by or devoted to excessive luxury; effeminately luxurious.
From:
Sybaris, an ancient Greek city of southern Italy, traditionally noted for its effeminacy and luxury.
1849 THACKERAY Lett. (1887) 56 It was a Sybaritic repast, in a magnificent apartment, and we were all of us young voluptuaries of fashion.
Some words that I think every high school senior should understand and embrace are:
please
thank you
compassion
humility
empathy
sympathy
I think these are fairly simple words, but not enough of us incorporate them (and their meanings) into our lives.
LL said someone posted all the definitions on Digg.com. But I've searched the site up and down and can't find the article. Has anyone seen it? Would you give me a keyword to search. Thanks.
Here's the link, I got it from digg.com.
http://www.wandyteeth.com/naimulsblog/2007/05/100_words_every_high_school_gr.html
Here's my contribution:
sequacious...meaning to "Unthinkingly following others".
--The BL Show responds:
And here's the original Digg post (featuring the definitions that a Digg user looked up):
http://digg.com/offbeat_news/100_Words_Every_High_
School_Graduate_Should_Know
I totally agree with Arlene responsibiliy is key!!
And to add a note - Arlene - contact me....it's Sondra from NYC!!!!!!!! sondraen06@yahoo.com
I have been trying to find you!!!
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