BS: Vocabulary Tester

Subject: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Naemanson
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 06:33 AM

Have you ever wondered how many words you know? Interested in finding out? I just found this Vocabulary Tester which told me I have a very good vocabulary.

Check it out.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: jeffp
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 08:05 AM

I scored 493, for college graduate school level. Not bad for a college dropout.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: skipy
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 08:09 AM

I got an "excellent".
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Peace
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 08:11 AM

I got a headache.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 08:16 AM

What does vocabulary mean?

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 08:31 AM

There's some dodgy spellings in there.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Sorcha
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 09:45 AM

480. US English based, Manitas.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 09:48 AM

I got a bug.

Ah well.. try again.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Jeri
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 10:33 AM

I don't think the site itself was done by native English (of any type) speakers and there is some strange syntax in the directions. Plus the directions are vague. When you get to, "Be honestly to click the word you have seen, or studied or known before." does that mean if I've SEEN a word I should check it? There were a few in there I'd seen but to which I couldn't assign a meaning.

I scored well, but I had a college-level vocabulary when I was 9. My school was testing me because I was having problems. Too bad nobody'd figured out ADD back then.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: mack/misophist
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 10:44 AM

My browser doesn't like the site javascript security. Judy Au signed her own certificate and then let it expire.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 10:56 AM

Not only some dodgy spelling but also some real digging for ultra-obscure words used only by certain ultra-obscure folks, methinks!

466 - not bad for a high school dropout:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Jeri
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 11:24 AM

I think that's the idea - give us more words than we're likely to know, so there's a possibility of doing better than just 'good'.

I got a lot of the medical terms. I got some I'm not sure I've heard or seen before, but once you've got a hold of some Latin roots, you either get the words or you're a hooker in Juarez.

Anybody else get them all yet?

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: jeffp
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 11:33 AM

Jeri -- tsk tsk. LOL!

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Jeri
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 12:01 PM

hehehe...

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Becca72
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 12:02 PM

I guess I should have stayed in college, too. I got College graduate level also.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Ebbie
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 12:25 PM

501 here

Dodgy spelling indeed. In a couple of places it brought up the same word (I guess), like, for instance: 'linage' the first time, correctly spelt 'lineage' the second time. I have never heard of LINAGE so I didn't check it. I assume it was meant to be the same word.

And what is 'brisling'? I didn't check it because it may be a word that I don't know, instead of a typo for 'bristling'. Maybe it refers to the act of performing a bris? :)

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 12:33 PM

546 - so what. I still only like to use words like *%"$!% and _*+_) not to mention (*^%(.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 12:34 PM

but once you've got a hold of some Latin roots, you either get the words or you're a hooker in Juarez.

Shhhh! Don't tell me ma! **BG**

(Thanks to Mrs. Worcester and her Latin classes!)

Ebbie, according to google, it is a small European fish, kind of like a sardine.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Amos
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 12:45 PM

A brisling is a juvenile who has been Brised, of course. Cf. shearling. By this logic, a teenage girl who loses her boyfriend is a dumpling.




A

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: JennyO
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 12:48 PM

I can't imagine that anyone could have got them all. There is a handful of strange obscure words in each section. I felt a bit discouraged at first - I usually pride myself on having a pretty good vocabulary and I could hardly believe there were so many words I didn't know. I began to wonder if some of them were made up. But I did better than I realised.

I got scores between 50 and 54 for each section and my total was 522. It says "Equivalent education level: more than any school. Excellent!!! Well educated."

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Peace
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 12:49 PM

That site had instructions?

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Don Firth
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 01:25 PM

Trying to be as honest with myself as I could ("Don't guess! If I don't know it, I don't know it!"), I came up with 494.

Not too shabby, I guess.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Ebbie
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 01:38 PM

hahhaha A dumpling! lol

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Peace
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 01:39 PM

And the guy wot done it is a dumpster.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Ebbie
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 02:39 PM

So what is dumpster diving?   (Don't answer!)

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Homeless
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 03:46 PM

This is supposed to test English Vocabulary?
ibid.? laissez-faire?
You may have a problem to communicate in English ?

Wow.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: gnu
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 04:36 PM

I got "The page cannot be displayed......."

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: gnu
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 04:50 PM

Am I illiteratatious?

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: jacqui.c
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 05:10 PM

504. I think that some of the words included, like laissez-fare might have been included as they do tend to be used in the English vocabulary.

Some of the words I knew I wouldn't be totally sure of using in the correct context, but they were words that I had seen used previously.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 05:15 PM

Still can't get into it. Even going through the back door it tries to debug and dumps me.

That make me a dumpling?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: GUEST, Ebbie
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 05:17 PM

Being the ____ retentive person I am, I checked only the words, correctly spelled, that I could actually use in a sentence. And I'm not going back- it got a bit boring.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Janie
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 05:37 PM

535. Linage, btw, refers to the number of lines in a print ad.

Do I win a prize?

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Janie
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 05:51 PM

Beware. In spite of my pop up blocker, I just went to a news website lined in another thread and got one of those jumping up and down you win a prize click here before time runs out, which are usually blocked. I have to suspect something got downloaded to allow it when I went to the link in this thread. Running AdAware even as I type.

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 06:41 PM

*tsk*...being honest and NOT well read in medical stuff, I got 'only' 524. There were only 3-4 in the 4th columns I wasn't sure of.

(I used to get 98th percentile in the language section of Federal Entrance Exams, and there they made you choose correct usage of terms....but they didn't use some of THOSE words.)

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: folk1e
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 08:36 PM

I got "Equivalent education level: more than any school. Excellent!!! Well educated." ...... so, I did better than any shool, but how?
Regardless it was fun ... then boring .... then interesting to know the score!

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 09:03 PM

Well, it said 548 for me. But I started out language oriented, and I've been in what might be called "the word business" all my working life.

There were a number of words that seemed familiar root-wise, but which I couldn't say I knew, and I passed them by. A few questionable (dodgy?) spellings, like "simpatico", which I understood but would have thought to be spelled "sympatico", so I passed it by. I wonder if there were any "trap" words, made up for the occasion in order to suck the reader in. I suspected a few. And if so, I wonder if there was a penalty exacted for claiming to know a word that really didn't exist. What I read of the instructions and scoring didn't seem to suggest that was the case.

Someone above commented that the spellings (or maybe only some of them) were American usage.   I saw a number of non-American things like -our endings where an American would use -or.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Mrrzy
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 10:41 PM

"more than any school?"

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 11:22 PM

It wanted to load a java app - when I tried the alternative entry - it told me I didn't have the right flavour java support... My Fedora does have that support, so I'm just gonna leave it alone...

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 02:38 AM

That explains it then. It won't load for me because it's got a piggybacker and our computer is blocking it. Ah well.


I would have scored amazingly well, based on the fact that my IQ is greater than Manitas' and I know what habeas corpus means.

And aphasia.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 09:40 AM

"habeas corpus"

term which originated during the Black Plague - "bring out your dead."

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Jeri
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 10:08 AM

Nice try at an urban legend, Bill. Were they singing 'Ring Around the Rosie'? Haha.

From Wikipedia:
Blackstone cites the first recorded usage of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum in 1305, during the reign of King Edward I. However, other writs were issued with the same effect as early as the reign of Henry II in the 12th century. Blackstone explained the basis of the writ, saying:
"The King is at all times entitled to have an account, why the liberty of any of his subjects is restrained, wherever that restraint may be inflicted."

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Amos
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 02:12 PM

Bill:

With all due respect, that explanation is a crock in both English AND Latin.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Emma B
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 02:16 PM

don't ya love etymology :)

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 02:43 PM

(actually, I stole the latin joke from an compilation called, I believe "Literal Latin"....be durned if I can remember any more now)

but of COURSE it's on a web site!

yep...etymology is fascinating

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 02:46 PM

and even in Wikipedia, a history "Henry Beard"...haven't heard that name in ages!

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Flatpick
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 06:30 PM

456 - art school dropout - a good few years back. I'm happy

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Bert
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 11:57 PM

Isn't a brisling a fish?

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: JennyO
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 12:01 AM

Etymology - isn't that the study of ants and stuff? :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Slag
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 02:50 AM

563 for what its worth. A sesquipedalian delight! Spell Check doesn't know sesquipedalian ! Several words I recognized, having seen them before, but without context I couldn't remember the meanings. I tried decocting them from the Latin and Greek but wasn't sure.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Schantieman
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 10:08 AM

" Linage, btw, refers to the number of lines in a print ad.

Do I win a prize?

Janie "


Fraid not: that's 'lineage'.   No idea what linage is. Maybve it's what lines are made from?

503 - and I didn't tick the words I'd heard/seen and might more easily recognise in context, or those spelled incorrectly. Or perhaps I should say 'unfamiliarly'. Or maybe not - it's not an easy word to say...

We have, I should think (although I'm no expert) a larger vocabulary of understood words than those we use.




Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Schantieman
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 10:08 AM

...or what lins are made from?

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 10:29 AM

Linage
: the number of lines of printed or written matter

Lineage
1 a : descent in a line from a common progenitor b : DERIVATION
2 : a group of individuals tracing descent from a common ancestor; especially : such a group of persons whose common ancestor is regarded as its founder

Janie wins.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: Ella who is Sooze
Date: 06 Aug 07 - 06:53 AM

544,

Interesting how they have Latin, French, English slang and others there.

Subject: RE: BS: Vocabulary Tester
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 06 Aug 07 - 08:05 AM

567. I didn't click some words that were misspelt, as honestly I knew the word spelt right, but not that word. I also passed on some ords that I thought I knew the meaning of, but couldn't honestly say that I'd met them before. I wonder if there was a negative factor for invented words- this would be a good way of weeding out liars. However, the meaning of some of the words can be guessed at pretty accurately (as accurately as most people know the meaning of words they consider part of their vocabulary) if you have a smattering of Latin, Greek and Germanic roots, so the coining would have to be subtle.

The trouble is that you can invent a "non-word", but it can then acquire a meaning and pass into the language. And conversely, the Victorians made great use of the fact that "the Greeks had a word for it"- any combination of Greek (or Latin) roots is a sort of virtual, pre- existing word, just waiting for someone to write it to give it automatic entry to the OED.

So here are a couple of mine:

Monippopolis - a small settlement
Euchronephebe - a good time girl
Archaeohoplitagonistic - playing the old soldier
Necrochristadelphophagous - very hungry, as in "I'm that hungry I could eat a dead Christian Brother".