NYT Vocabulary

[MarkBastable]

Take a look at the vocabulary the NYT expects (http://flashcards.dictionary.com/deckprofile/view/110522/words-the-new-york-times-expected-you-to-know-on-sunday-july-24th-2011-flashcards/?__utma=1.117578321.1300819833.1311613241.13117510 00.14&__utmb=1.1.10.1311751000&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1311751000.14.4.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(org anic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=suffix%20'wise'&__utmv=-&__utmk=174224290)of its readers. Most are pretty common words, but I'm dismayed to say that there's one in there I wouldn't have known.

[iamnobody]

Do you mean melismatic? I didn't know that one.

[jajdude]

Same here, never seen it before.

[billl]

Me too on that one.

But I knew/know "souse" primarily as "drunkard". As I checked the definition on that webpage, I felt as if I had known that sense of the word as well, but I have to say I'm not sure if I would have been able to suggest it on my own. I think so, but... I probably would've said it was a synonym for "drench", which would've been only narrowly correct (Or could I say, "My friend and I were positively soused after 20 minutes walking home in the rain"? To me, it sounds like we had maybe had a bottle with us, and the idea of "immersion" seems sort of poetic at best when extended to "by raindrops").

[MystyrMystyry]

Metasmatic I've long known (a party stopper that one - especially describing Aguilera's and Houston's warblings, which in themselves are party stoppers), but I was a bit vague on nonpareil - I recall looking it up once, but never using it - some words sound puncey (that's one of them) to me, and I expect to others too, if they're not truly in everyday use, which is why we have an aversion to incorporating them into our vocab - weird, huh?

[MarkBastable]

Metasmatic I've long known....

Er...melismatic.

[MystyrMystyry]

Too much rock - not enough roll

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I didn't know acerbic, communique (I know it when spoken, never saw it written before, though, at least that I can remember), melismatic, nonpareil, souse, or schadenfreude (one of those words I've heard a bunch but never have really known the meaning).

[Varenne Rodin]

I wonder if all of these words are used in the English translated works of Umberto Eco. I see several that certainly are. "Foucault's Pendulum" is a vocabulary feast, whether a person likes the story or not. "isochronal" is a pretty pretty word.

[OrphanPip]

Me too on that one.

But I knew/know "souse" primarily as "drunkard". As I checked the definition on that webpage, I felt as if I had known that sense of the word as well, but I have to say I'm not sure if I would have been able to suggest it on my own. I think so, but... I probably would've said it was a synonym for "drench", which would've been only narrowly correct (Or could I say, "My friend and I were positively soused after 20 minutes walking home in the rain"? To me, it sounds like we had maybe had a bottle with us, and the idea of "immersion" seems sort of poetic at best when extended to "by raindrops").

I'm familiar with that use too. I think it comes from someone smelling of alcohol.

Melismatic was the only word I didn't know, but half of them were just French words anyway. Milieu, nonpareil, edifice, communique and tableau all come from French.

[Lokasenna]

I'm familiar with that use too. I think it comes from someone smelling of alcohol.

Melismatic was the only word I didn't know, but half of them were just French words anyway. Milieu, nonpareil, edifice, communique and tableau all come from French.

Same here - Melismatic was the only one that floored me. That said, I'm surprised to see such technical vocab in a newspaper...

[SleepyWitch]

6. melismatic
(n.,)an ornamental phrase of several notes sung to one syllable of text, as in plainsong or blues singing.
?????? I don't even understand the definition of this. The only other ones I didnt now was nonpareil and souse. I'd have expected a longer list, though. There must be lots more unusual words that they use.

[Delta40]

Streuth! We're not so evolved in Australia...

[MystyrMystyry]

?????? I don't even understand the definition of this. The only other ones I didnt now was nonpareil and souse. I'd have expected a longer list, though. There must be lots more unusual words that they use.

Think of Whitney Houston's rendition of 'I will always love you' (theme from the movie 'Ghost')

I-I-I-I-I-O-O-O-I-I-I will always lo-o-o-o-oi-i-i-o-o-ove yo-o-o-oououououou-o-o-o-u-u-u-u'

That's the one!

[Calidore]

Practically everyone does that with the National Anthem these days. I love it when an old pro gets the mic and does it correctly.

[Paulclem]

Do they let old pros up to sing the anthem?

[Calidore]

One football playoff game last season had Michael McDonald (Doobie Brothers), who gave a nice rendition.

One of my all-time favorites was from an NBA game way back in the early '90s; Wynton Marsalis on trumpet and Bruce Hornsby on piano did a flourish-free, purely instrumental version.

[Heteronym]

I knew most, or I'd have figured out their meaning in context, and I figured melismatichad something to do with music although I couldn't quite understand what until I read the definition.

Not a particularly challenging vocabulary, that New York Times. They should hire Cormac McCarthy to write some stuff for them. Then we'd have nouns like carrafe and verbs like lave and adjectives like discalced to make a real impression.

[kasie]

Not those sort of Old Pros, Paul - tut, tut, no respect, these youngsters.

I didn't know melismatic either but as Heteronym says, maybe in context, I might have worked it out.

Though - when I was in NY recently, the man showing us round Carnegie Hall described himself as a docent (I'm guessing the spelling) - I spent the rest of the tour trying to work out what that meant and had to ask him at the end. Do you know what he told me? It was a new word to me.

[tonywalt]

The National Review once used the lapidary and eristic in the same sentence of an article.