/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.922438]

>James Robinson, with help from Jeremy Safran, once again compiled a list of the 50 words that most often stumped the world’s most brilliant newspaper readers.

1. inchoate
2. profligacy
3. sui generis
4. austerity
5. profligate
6. baldenfreude
7. opprobrium
8. apostates
9. solipsistic
10. obduracy
11. Internecine
12. soporific
13. Kristallnacht
14. peripatetic
15. nascent
16. desultory
17. redoubtable
18. hubris
19. mirabile dictu
20. crèches
21. apoplectic
22. overhaul
23. ersatz
24. obstreperous
25. jejune
26. omertà
27. putative
28. Manichean
29. canard
30. ubiquitous
31. atavistic
32. renminbi
33. sanguine
34. antediluvian
35. cynosure
36. alacrity
37. epistemic
38. egregious
39. incendiary
40. chimera
41. laconic
42. polemicist
43. comity
44. provenance
45. sclerotic
46. prescient
47. hegemony
48. verisimilitude
49. feckless
50. démarche

source: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/topics/topic/2010afterdeadlineblog.pdf
some observations: http://topics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/50-fancy-words/

[Anonymous No.922453]

Bro, I know over half of those.

[Anonymous No.922470]

>Kristallnacht
Really? There are people alive who remember that. Maybe they just looked it up to see what all happened during the event.

>solipsistic
I understand this stumping those who don't talk about philosophy on 4chan.

>nascent
That surprises me.

>hubris
This really surprises me. How many times was this word used during high school English classes while reading Greek tragedies?

>overhaul
Only 4 lookups per use, but it has become the new buzz word. It's only here because of the method they used to make the ranking (total number of lookups instead of the ratio of lookups to uses).

Some of the words I don't recognize, some I do but am unsure of, and the rest I don't know off the top of my head seem like they'd make more sense when used in context.

[Anonymous No.922474]

>>922435

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s y ncn ih zy ub e e e mrjeh dzz

[Stagol33t !!KahP6cLGG18 No.922480]

>>Egregious

the fuck?

[Anonymous No.922491]

>>922434
sＴｏP_ＡＴtＡＣKiＮG AＮd_FｕＣｋｉNｇ_WITH wWw.AＮＯcａRｒｏtＳTAlＫ.Ｓｅ_ｒＥpLＡCＥ_carrots ｗＩtＨ N
og ougqed ndq pgsswl whi kf rnybfg

[Anonymous No.922497]

>>922470
>Kristallnacht
>Really? There are people alive who don't remember that?

fixd, really if you don't know what kristallnacht is then you need to go back to school.

[Anonymous No.922505]

>austerity

retards

[Anonymous No.922508]

>>922497

>if you don't know what kristallnacht is then you need to go back to school.
Highschool history classes usually touch on Kristallnacht, but they don't always call it by that name. Foreign words are also a lot easier to forget.

[Anonymous No.922513]

>>922497

If you consider Kristallnacht important, you're a Jew.

[Anonymous No.922516]

>>922508
This. I was taught about the event but never by that name (Ontario high school). If I hadn't read it elsewhere I wouldn't know it either.

[None !UyhAEqbnp. No.922521]

>>922513
thats right kid, and if you don't like it you can get the fuck out

Nice list OP, I'm saving this

[Anonymous No.922525]

>>922521

Heh. I'm Jewish myself. That why I'm saying that only Jews give a fuck.

[Anonymous No.922548]

>>922513
Not a jew at all but kristallnacht is a pretty important milestone in antisemitism that should be taught when teaching about nazism.

[Anonymous No.922562]

>>922548
That's certainly the case when you're in school, but do you really care for it once you're out?

[Anonymous No.922563]

>>922516

We learned about Kristallnacht by name in my Ontario HS. Looks like your teacher was retarded.

[Anonymous No.922568]

>>922562
Did you really sit in history like most of highschool kids, as a zombie waiting for the class to end, not caring or listening for a minute. Because if you did it makes perfect sense as to why you don't remember important events in history.

[Anonymous No.922577]

Everyone here is looking at the words that they know, when they should be looking at the words everyone should know.

>egregious
>incendiary
>chimera
>provenance
>hegemony
>démarche

Really, Newspaper boys?

[Anonymous No.922587]

>redoubtable
>overhaul

What fucking paper-readers did they assess?

[Anonymous No.922606]

List is bullshit.

[Anonymous No.922610]

This just triggered an idea. Any of you guys keep lists of obscure words and their meanings in order to expand your vocabularies? We should exchange/share. Hell, we could even make a thread for the purpose.

[Anonymous No.922612]

>>922568
No. Did you have Jewish grandparents who refuse to shut the fuck up about this shit?

[Anonymous No.922625]

>>922610
why would anyone do this? retarded

[Anonymous No.922648]

>>922625

It can be rewarding to record strange words you come across.

[Anonymous No.922653]

I can speak and write in 4 languages.

who gives a fuck if I miss out on some difficult words.

[Anonymous No.922660]

>>922653

You should always strive to improve your primary language. I'd rather speak one language well than 4 languages poorly.

[Anonymous No.922664]

>>922660
my primary language is near perfect.

it's just not English.

[Anonymous No.922671]

>>922610
We could go one better and set up a temp website for listing a compendium of all the words.

[Anonymous No.922673]

>>922587

> What fucking paper-readers did they assess?

> What Asses did they readers-paper fucking?

> L O S T

[Anonymous No.922689]

I got all of these, expect the stupid ones. I was able to translate "baldenfreude," but it didn't make sense. Oh, I'm so sorry I wasn't in the loop enough to know someone had made a bad neologism. (Baldenfreude, when dissected, would logically refer to someone's happiness at being bald, rather than schadenfreude stemming from one's baldness. SO IT'S FUCKING STUPID, EVERYONE.) I was also able to translate Kristallnacht, but it didn't help me any, because it refers to an historical event. So, wait, is this a test of vocabulary or historical knowledge? Which one is it? WHICH ONE?

FUCK YOU, JAMES ROBINSON. AND FUCK YOU, OP. AND FUCK JEREMY SAFRAN TOO, BOTH OF YOU. FUCK IT.

[Anonymous No.922693]

>>922689

>So, wait, is this a test of vocabulary or historical knowledge?
Words accrue baggage with time. Vocabulary testing will always have a historical component.

[Anonymous No.922695]

baldenfreude is not a fucking word.

[Anonymous No.922702]

>>922673

[Anonymous No.922703]

BUT KRISTALLNACHT HAS NO MEANING OTHER THAN REFERENCE TO THE HISTORIC EVENT CALLED KRISTALLNACHT. YOUR ARGUMENT IS INAPPLICABLE. DROWN, DROWN ALL OF YOU.

[Anonymous No.922709]

AUSTERITY?
HUBRIS?
OBSTREPEROUS?

Holy fuck. I could understand if a normal person didn't know these, but shit. What are brilliant newspaper readers coming to?

[Anonymous No.922731]

Excellent post. This is rare to have a topic of such quality.

[Anonymous No.922738]

>baldenfreude
Is that when you feel happy to see a man has less hair than you?

[Anonymous No.922753]

>>922587

They ranked the words based on the number of times readers looked up their meanings. Because of the recent wave and jargon of Washington, "overhaul" was used so often that even only being looked up an average of 4 times per use was enough to get it in the top 50.

[Anonymous No.922754]

oh cool, archaic words. yes, I know the definitions of the majority of these words. no, that does not make me a better person for knowing them.

[Anonymous No.922763]

>baldenfreude

Only a publication as up-its-own-ass as the New York Times would consider something Maureen Dowd made up as an actual "word".

The same way they considered Judith Miller an actual "free speech martyr", rather than a propaganda hack who decided to go to prison rather than offend her good friend Dick Cheney.

Horseshit. All of it horseshit. (A word you will never see in the New York Times, because it's too honest.)

[Anonymous No.922778]

>incendiary

This just in, brilliant newspaper readers dumber than army grunts.

[Anonymous No.922800]

>>baldenfreude
It's not a word.

[Anonymous No.922820]

Sure is pretentious in here.

[Game Designer !KQAbEcB7Uw No.922834]

This list is a mix of disappointment and pic related.

[Anonymous No.922847]

I know some of those

But not all, not all at all

:(

[onionring !Rrxa7zePwI No.922886]

>>922834
need a clean version of that. text on image ruins the entire point of reaction images.

[Anonymous No.922903]

I always love
>unction
>unctious

Because nobody ever knows wtf it means and I usually have to look it up.

[Anonymous No.922923]

"Cynosure" is a good one, I have to say. Definitely a keeper.

>>922800
My hunch is that it's meant to be a portmanteau of baldness and schadenfreude, indicating schadenfreude at someone else's baldness. Can't imagine it being in widespread use though.

[Anonymous No.922937]

>>922886