Pimp My Lexicon!

I discovered something on the New York Times website today. I have known for a while that the website has a feature which allows users to double-click on a word to get a definition. What I didn't know until today is that they publish a list of the top 50 clicked words. You can see it here (pdf).

That gave me an idea: I would see how many of the words I could define, with no context or help. I offer the same challenge to you - read on to see the words, and how I did.

The Words

Note that some of these are not English, and one (baldenfreude) is a nonce word. However, all of them were used and clicked on in the New York Times.

inchoate
profligacy
sui generis
austerity
profligate
baldenfreude
opprobrium
apostates
solipsistic
obduracy
Internecine
soporific
Kristallnacht
peripatetic
nascent
desultory
redoubtable
hubris
mirabile dictu
crèches
apoplectic
overhaul
ersatz
obstreperous
jejune
omertà
putative
Manichean
canard
ubiquitous
atavistic
renminbi
sanguine
antediluvian
cynosure
alacrity
epistemic
egregious
incendiary
chimera
laconic
polemicist
comity
provenance
sclerotic
prescient
hegemony
verisimilitude
feckless
démarche

My results?

I defined 22 of the 50 words to my satisfaction, and a further 6 words incorrectly, but in the ballpark of their real meaning. (The ballpark words: opprobrium, apostates, soporific, obstreperous, sanguine, and chimera.)

I failed at the Latin terms (sui generis, mirabile dictu), which isn't terribly surprising. I did fairly well with the historical and cultural references (Kristallnacht, crèches, renminbi). The rest of the terms ranged from terms I feel very comfortable with (egregious, overhaul, prescient, ubiquitous) to words I'm not sure I've seen before (atavistic, antediluvian, laconic).

I also recorded which terms I felt confident on, and which were guesses. I was confident on a few I got wrong: redoubtable, putative, sanguine, and provenance. I attribute this to learning vocabulary from context. I think it's understandable that I thought redoubtable meant trustworthy, putative meant emerging, sanguine meant appearing at peace, and provenance meant kind fate - their real meanings can be used in similar contexts (a sanguine look, divine provenance) without significantly altering my understanding of the text.

Finally, Grandpa Jim will be proud that I correctly defined peripatetic.

Any other takers?

I'm interested how one's knowledge of this vocabulary would vary across generations and in my own, so if you feel like wasting an hour or two, do it yourself! If you feel like a less arduous task, you can skim the list and report the number you feel you are aware of, which is hopefully a similar number.