Palabras de vocabulario: 23 palabras que puedes aprender ahora mismo para parecer más culto
23 palabras que puedes aprender ahora mismo para parecer más culto
Lo diré pronto: el idioma es como el amor. Se hace. O para decirlo de otro modo: se construye; y para bien o para mal lo construimos entre todos. Nuestra, exclusivamente nuestra, es la responsabilidad de acariciarlo y brizarlo (acunarlo) o de maltratarlo y triturarlo. Lo digo por la inveterada costumbre española del ‘que inventen ellos’ o de escurrir el bulto criticando y aun critiquizando (abusando de la crítica) a nuestra tricentenaria y benemérita Real Academia Española (la única de las reales academias así adjetivada, por cierto).
Nuestro diccionario ¿es sexista, racista, misógino? El pan no engorda: engordas tú. Las palabras no son sexistas, racistas o misóginas: lo eres tú. Con las palabras seducimos y hasta conseguimos una hipoteca, pero también zaherimos. Imagino nuestro DRAE como un cajón del que entran y salen palabras siendo nosotros, los hablantes, quienes con nuestro uso o desuso fijamos su suerte: entre la primera y la última edición hay una diferencia de más de 50. 000 palabras: muchas nacen y muchas mueren: nosotros las traemos al mundo, nosotros las condenamos al olvido
Es verdad que a veces la Española anda remisa u olvidadiza para incluir términos de uso más que común, cosa que, como no podía ser de otra manera, poco importa al hablante (citemos algunas palabras que no aparecen en el diccionario, pero están presentes en nuestro lenguaje habitual: madridista, chuche, ricachón o cornalada) y que otras veces encontramos palabras hijas de su tiempo, de una sociedad que –espero- ya no somos (periquear, hazana). Y también nos topamos con palabras (condenadas a desaparecer, cierto) tan absurdas como pasagonzalo, buzcorona o clinero; o con definiciones hilarantes del tipo de capetonada: vómito violento que ataca a los europeos que pasan la zona tórrida o ajear: dicho de una perdiz: Repetir, como quejándose, aj, aj, aj, cuando se ve acosada.
Tengo la impresión de que estamos dentro de un círculo vicioso: leemos mal, escuchamos mal, escribimos mal y hablamos mal.
Un vocabulario escaso nos aboca a un pensamiento romo. Opino como San Juan: al principio fue el verbo. Y a diferencia de Gandhi creo que si cuidas tus palabras cuidarás tu pensamiento.
Puedes comenzar cuidando estas 23.
1. Apotropaico, ca. Dicho de un rito, de un sacrificio, de una fórmula, etc.: Que, por su carácter mágico, se cree que aleja el mal o propicia el bien.
2. Bienquisto, ta. De buena fama y generalmente estimado.
3. Cerúleo, a. Dicho del color azul: Propio del cielo despejado, o de la alta mar o de los grandes lagos.
4. Decumbente. Persona que yace en la cama o la guarda por enfermedad. Llegó tarde al colegio porque estaba decumbente y se quedó albanado (dormido).
5. Egresar. Salir de alguna parte. Aunque todos ingresamos de vez en cuando en algún sitio, no nos atrevemos a egresar y preferimos simplemente salir.
6. Filis. Habilidad, gracia y delicadeza en hacer o decir las cosas.
7. Glabro, bra. Calvo, lampiño. Como el glabro de la lotería.
8. Hebdómada. Espacio de siete años. Las setenta hebdómadas de Daniel. También, semana.
9. Íncola. Habitante de un pueblo o lugar.
10. Jingoísmo. Patriotería exaltada que propugna la agresión contra otras naciones.
11. Leticia. Alegría, regocijo, deleite. Y letífico: que alegra.
12. Morigerado, da. Bien criado, de buenas costumbres.
13. Nesciencia. Ignorancia, necedad, falta de ciencia.
14. Ojizarco, ca. Que tiene los ojos azules.
15. Prónuba. Madrina de boda.
16. Quirurgo. Cirujano.
17. Regolaje. Buen humor, buen temple de una persona.
18. Satis. Vacación, especialmente de estudiantes.
19. Tribadismo. Lesbianismo.
20.
Uxoricidio. Muerte causada a la mujer por su marido.
21. Vagido. Gemido o llanto del recién nacido.
22. Yactura. Quiebra, pérdida o daño recibido.
23. Zurupeto. Intruso en la profesión notarial. Corredor de bolsa no matriculado.
(Miguel Sosa es el autor de El pequeño libro de las 500 palabras para parecer más culto).
* También puedes seguirnos en Instagram y Flipboard. ¡No te pierdas lo mejor de Verne!
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Vocabulary test: blog
Tatar language
May 29, 2023
Together with Ildar Ayupov and the Tatar National Corps Tugan tel, a Tatar vocabulary test was developed.
Deutsche Version
17. Juli 2021
Der Test funktioniert jetzt für die deutsche Sprache.
New article
February 26, 2019
A large article has been published with data and analysis of how various background and lifestyle factors affect vocabulary. Published in magazine Bulletin of Public Opinion , which is published by Yuri Levada Analytical Center.
Redesign
October 1, 2018
Complete website redesign. Replaced Bootstrap with Bulma (to make it look a little more unique), the desktop version of the site finally looks like the desktop version, language selection can now be done by dropbox right in the header of the site, many small improvements here and there. The site’s logo appeared. Instead of a widget from Yandex, sharing is now done with regular links (for users, this saves several requests). When sharing to Facebook and VK, the result in the form of a picture is now fasting there.
Ukrainian version
April 5, 2018
Vocabulary test is now available for Ukrainian movies.
English version
February 8, 2018
The test now works for English. Since it’s adaptive, it’s good for both native and non-native speakers. The results shown at the end of the test are very preliminary so far, but with more people taking the test they will become more robust.
Complete change of algorithm and design
December 2, 2017
Meet the biggest test change since its inception! The test has been completely redone, now it works according to the IRT (Item Response Theory) and CAT (Computerized Adaptive Testing) methods. This allowed us to make the test truly adaptive – each question is asked based on a vocabulary assessment made based on the results of answers to all previous questions. This allows you to maximize the information that the test receives from each response of the respondent. Instead of 120 questions of the old version, the new test allows you to get by with only 40, while the accuracy has remained at the same level (or even increased).
In addition, a new type of questions has been introduced – with multiple answers. Such questions help control the accuracy of passing the test (in addition to trap words). They should also reduce the tendency to overestimate vocabulary that is inherent in tests with “know/don’t know” questions.
Site code rewritten from scratch according to Single Page Application methodology. Now all the work is done on the client, the server only collects, stores and processes the results.
Moving
September 18, 2017
Today the site has moved to a new hosting (Google Cloud Platform). There should be fewer disruptions to work. Also, the site should now better cope with the influx of visitors.
Press
May 26, 2016
The Vechernyaya Moskva newspaper wrote about the test and the results. Here is a pdf of the entire issue (note on page 7).
New Questionnaire No. 4
April 10, 2016
The questionnaire that is proposed to be completed after the test has been updated.
We are trying to understand how knowledge of foreign languages affects vocabulary.
New Questionnaire No. 3
February 21, 2016
The questionnaire that is proposed to be completed after the test has been updated. The results of the first two questionnaires will be published very soon.
First article
December 13, 2015
A large article about the methodology, validation and study of test accuracy has been prepared for the journal “Social and Psycholinguistic Research”
First results
August 3, 2014
Meet the first statistical data on the vocabulary of native Russian speakers. The results of more than 150 thousand respondents were processed.
More statistics, good and different
July 22, 2014
Vocabulary research is a potential Klondike not only for philologists, linguists and teachers of the Russian language, but also for sociologists. So many interesting things to discover! A new questionnaire to be completed after the test will reveal the impact of our habits – reading books, socializing, hanging on the Internet and watching TV – on vocabulary.
New algorithm for determining vocabulary
July 22, 2014
Today, a very serious change took place in the depths of the site, completely imperceptible from the outside – the algorithm for determining vocabulary has changed. The new algorithm is unique – none of the tests I know uses it. Its essence is as follows. Let’s arrange all the words in decreasing order of their frequency (from the simplest to the rarest). Each word will then correspond to its ordinal number, or rank. A person’s vocabulary can be described as a function of the probability of “knowledge” of a word depending on its rank. The form of such a function follows from general considerations: for simple words – one, for complex ones – zero, in the middle – a smooth decline. Each question in the test is a measurement of this function. If there are a sufficient number of measurements, they can be approximated by this function and its parameters can be estimated (for each person being tested, they will obviously be different).
To estimate the vocabulary, the resulting function must be integrated.
The new algorithm has resulted in the following improvements. Firstly, test words are now much less likely to repeat (that is, when passing the test multiple times, the probability of getting the same word twice is lower). Secondly, the frequency of vocabulary assessment, on the contrary, increased – the standard deviation of the assessment fell from about 6% to 4%.
Collecting statistics and word traps
June 1, 2014
How fast does vocabulary grow in children? Does growth ever stop? How much does education affect vocabulary? The statistics that this site collects will allow you to answer these questions. To do this, after passing the test, it is now proposed to fill out a short form, indicating your native language, age and level of education.
To make the results of the study more reliable, it is necessary to identify people who take the test not very carefully or completely honestly.
To do this, trap words were added to the test, which are not in the Russian language. If a person marks such a word as familiar, its result will not be taken into account in the final study.
Growing pains
May 16, 2014
Today something happened that I did not expect at all – instead of the usual 20-30 people a day, about 80,000 people took the test! The amount of data obtained is enormous, and very soon I will present the first results. Unfortunately, the hosting was not designed for such a flow of visitors, so the site was in a state of shock all day long. A team of hard-working gnomes spent the night building a new data center, where the site successfully moved today. I hope that there is now enough capacity for everyone who wants to take the test.
Vocabulary Nests
May 12, 2014
If you know the word “resolute”, then it is very likely that you will also understand the words “decisiveness” and “resolutely”. We can say that these words form a “vocabulary nest”.
In general, the nest includes words that can be formed from each other according to simple rules with the help of prefixes and suffixes, and there is no unexpected change in the meaning of the words. In other words, knowing any word in a nest, and with some linguistic sense, one can guess the meaning of all the other words in that nest.
Today, the frequency dictionary used in the test has been regrouped according to the dictionary nest principle. This will allow you to determine the vocabulary more accurately, since now low-frequency derivatives are automatically included in the assessment if the main (highest-frequency) word from the corresponding nest was marked as familiar.
Also, the list of test words has been expanded (up to 1200). Thanks to such an impressive number, the test can be taken many times, and the test words will be repeated quite rarely.
Let’s go!
April 13, 2014
So, the site is working, the test evaluates vocabulary. There are still many changes ahead – the evaluation algorithm will gradually improve, the number of test words will increase, but the main thing is behind us.
It’s time to answer the question – what is the test for and why was it done?
Firstly, this is the first Russian vocabulary test with an adequate scientifically based methodology. There are several similar tests for English and other languages, but none for Russian. It’s somehow wrong. Vocabulary is always of interest to those who learn a language; native speakers who are bored at work are also not averse to measuring their vocabulary with a colleague. This site will help both.
Secondly, I am not aware of any serious study assessing the average vocabulary of a native Russian speaker. To conduct such a study, you need two things – to decide on the methodology and collect large statistics. An online test is the best way to collect such statistics. For each visitor, a file is created, where all questions (test words) and the answers received, , as well as passport data , are recorded. Even if the calculation algorithm changes (and this may well happen), the saved questions and answers will allow you to recalculate the vocabulary score for each subject, and, accordingly, refine the assessment of the average vocabulary of a native speaker.