Test Your Vocabulary

[mercia]

yours truly scored a paltry 4,080

awesome

[LeMartinPecheur]

I got congeries too and did know what it meant. A bigger test would be its pronunciation - clue: it's Latin not French! Got around 3400 on several attempts - I blame the slow SW broadband...

Glad I didn't get bloviate though! PS Yuk: it's not an English word at all - it's American!

[jean]

I wish I'd got congeries because I did know it because it's Latin.

It's one of that select group of 5th declension nouns, like res. It wouldn't occur to me to use in in English.

But while I can understand how important a factor speed is in assessing proficiency at mental arithmetic, why is it relevant to knowledge of vocabulary?

(I ask because I only got 35something)

[french frank]

Sir V still the champ - I managed 3920 upstairs on the desktop with a bigger screen and mouse.

[Sir Velo]

But while I can understand how important a factor speed is in assessing proficiency at mental arithmetic, why is it relevant to knowledge of vocabulary?

(I ask because I only got 35something)

Well, there are probably some unscrupulous types who might be inclined to have a dictionary to hand.

[LeMartinPecheur]

WOAH! Clearly a good night's sleep helps - 3840 this morning

Has anyone analysed whether different tests give different proportions of harder/hardest words? This could presumably set a higher theoretical maximum score, so maybe Sir Velo was just LUCKY

[vinteuil]

I wish I'd got congeries because I did know it because it's Latin. / ... / It wouldn't occur to me to use in in English.

... I've always liked congeries as a word, I think because it looks as if it ought to be a plural but is in fact a singular. I blush to confess that I do use it...

Here's a useful addition -

"Often congeries is simply the Latin term for synathroesmus ("collection"). However, the Latin term seems to emphasize the emotional amplification of such an accumulation, making congeries akin to climax and grouped among both the Figures of Pathos and the Figures of Amplification (Thus Melanchthon distinguishes incrementum [climax] as a kind of congeries). If the piling up occurs by rapidly touching on one thing and then another, congeries may be considered a type of epitrochasmus.Some authorities equate congeries with synonymia (as Melanchthon 1523 D1r; 1531 D4v-E1r))"

[mercia]

their quiz definition of PIQUE is arouse - is that an American definition ?

[jean]

It's close to the original, literal, meaning, but I wouldn't have thought it was enough to cover how it's used today -even in the USA, unless it's one of those words which retain an older meaning when they cross the Atlantic. From the OED:

Etymology: < French piquer to anger, annoy (1458 in Middle French), (reflexive) to get angry (c1590 in Middle French), to stimulate, provoke (1615), (reflexive) to take pride in, boast about (1623), spec. uses of piquer to prick, pierce, sting (see pick v.1). Compare Occitan picar (relexive) to be offended, Italian piccare (reflexive) to be offended (a1342), to anger, provoke (1611), (reflexive) to pride oneself in (1615), Spanish picar to anger, provoke, (reflexive) to be offended, to pride oneself in (a1496 in the latter sense).

[eighthobstruction]

3800....SPELLING them would be my problem....

[mercia]

can I really use apropos to mean appropriate ? - he gave an apropos speech for the occasion

[Resurrection Man]

Well, there are probably some unscrupulous types who might be inclined to have a dictionary to hand.

But you would lose on speed! It is very much luck of the draw. If you get some hard words and the correct answer is A then you will shave milliseconds off the time !

Best is now 3900

[jean]

can I really use apropos to mean appropriate ? - he gave an apropos speech for the occasion

Not as a premodifier, I would say, but predicatively I think you could - his speech was apropos.

[Nick Armstrong]

... I've always liked congeries as a word, I think because it looks as if it ought to be a plural but is in fact a singular. I blush to confess that I do use it...

So how is it pronounced then? Hard 'g' like the eel, or 'con-jerries' ?

[jean]

It would be pronounced in the old (Westminster) pronunciation that prevailed in this country before the Reformed Classical took over.

Pronunciation: /kənˈdʒɪərɪiːz/

So, if I remember the IPA correctly, it's con-jerries, more or less, but with an extra i.