Word treasures going at fire-sale prices!
This space is not usually devoted to retail shopping news, but here鈥檚 a tip I have to share: January may be a great time for real bargains in a class of goods widely known as 鈥渙bscure vocabulary words.鈥澛�
The 鈥渘ew鈥� SAT, coming in March, will not include 鈥渧ocabulary students may not have heard before and are likely not to hear again,鈥� as the College Board put it in a back in March 2014. That was when the board announced its overhaul of the test formerly known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, widely used for college admissions in the United States.
The 鈥淪AT words鈥� of yore will be gone.
As explained, in the new test 鈥渢he focus will be on what the College Board calls 鈥榟igh utility鈥� words that appear in many contexts, in many disciplines 鈥� often with shifting meanings 鈥� and they will be tested in context.鈥�
Thus, 鈥淸A] question based on a passage about an artist who 鈥榲acated鈥� from a tradition of landscape painting, asks whether it would be better to substitute the word 鈥榚vacuated,鈥� 鈥榙eparted鈥� or 鈥榬etired,鈥� or to leave the sentence unchanged.鈥� The right answer, for the lifelong learners among us, is 鈥渄eparted.鈥�
Education reporters have been all over this one; it came to my attention only when I spotted a whimsical 鈥淓legy for lost verbiage鈥� in The Economist鈥檚 鈥溾�� preview issue.
Far be it from me to argue against utility or context. But my first response here was 鈥淗ey, what words are you calling 鈥榦bscure鈥�?鈥�
The words cited in the 鈥淓legy鈥� were picked from widely available sample tests rather than from an official College Board list. Cyndie Schmeiser, the board鈥檚 chief of assessment, confirms prevaricator and sagacious as words that will not be found on the new SAT. And she stresses that the new test 鈥渨ill measure students鈥� understanding of important, widely used words and phrases they will use throughout their lives.鈥�
What does it say, though, about the state of public discourse if nonpartisan is deemed too obscure a term to expect young people to know?
Another word said to be going away is . But it is such a perfect word for what people say when they can鈥檛 say what they mean: a verbal detour. It comes from Latin words meaning 鈥渁 speaking around,鈥� and how perfect that it鈥檚 five syllables long.
Alacrity is another bit of 鈥渧erbiage鈥� to be 鈥渓ost,鈥� regrettably. Derived from Latin and meaning 鈥渓iveliness鈥� or 鈥渆agerness,鈥� it suggests a whip-cracking, 鈥渓et鈥檚 get going鈥� quality.
Or what about ? From a Latin word meaning 鈥渢o oppose noisily,鈥� it鈥檚 the perfect word for someone who doesn鈥檛 go along with the program without making a racket.
These specialized words may be the spices in our verbal stew. You don鈥檛 dump them in by the cupful, or even quarter cupful; but if you can鈥檛 deploy them one judicious teaspoonful after another, the soup is likely to be rather bland.
