No, not that 100 Words … in this case, a list (from dictionary editors) of 100 words all high school graduates should know.
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.”
Now, I am known as a somewhat verbose kinda guy, well-read, with a rich vocabulary and no fear of using it. I am not only a high school grad, but a graduate of one of the finest liberal arts colleges in the nation. People poke (good-hearted) fun of me for the words I use.
And I tell you that while I recognize all of the words on the list, there are quite a number that I would only understand via context, and several I would need to look up even then —
— which, perhaps, is the Cunning Plan of those dictionary editors.
Not that I have any objection to high school grads knowing and using these words. But I suspect that there are probably some other words and concepts that I’d be more interested in their knowing (and more certain of their encountering) when they graduate than “jejune” or “moiety” or “quotidian.” All of which are fine words (and which I now must figure out a way to work into a conversation), but …
It is hubris to think that the acumen of the fatuous or feckless will begin a metapmorphosis if we merely inculcate in them a larger lexicon. Instead, we will have wrought only a moiety of students with an evanescent facility for vacuous circumlocution, having a deleterious effect on their education, thereby abrogating our fiduciary duties to our youths.
Bravo.
Though, upon consideration, I think everyone should learn the meaning of “hubris.” Endlessly useful.
A liberal arts education in action – Bravo!
Inculcate? Moeity — I have to look that one up about once a year, and I still can’t remember what it means. I think I’m okay on the rest…
This is one of those “but why?” things. People have lists of the 100 greatest books, movies, whatnot — but why words? What delight/use/control/etc. are kids supposed to take out of these things? And why stress volcabulary, per se? Why not the 100 greatest philosophies of life?
WHY NOT TEACH PEOPLE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ITS AND IT’S? Or prepositions? Or how to use the right word at the right time?
Oh, wait. Dictionary editors. They think big vocabularies are equivalent to having something to say. Riiiight.
“Short human words were never like a short Martian word — such as “grok” which forever meant exactly the same thing. Short human words were like trying to lift water with a knife.
“And this had been a very short word.”
–Heinlein.