Vocabulary Article

[tnbob]

Cecil,
In your piece on "Does the average American student have less vocabulary today than in days gone by" (September 7, 2007), second paragraph, 4th line. Did you mean entomologist (one who studies insects) or etymologist (one who studies word origins)?

tnbob

[Indian]

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...n-days-gone-by

Blame it on little Ed.

[guizot]

Even if he had in fact meant "entomologists," it wouldn't have really changed the point. When people start telling you what the "average vocabulary" of a person is, you have to immediately question how he has arrived at such a figure.

An etymologist is going to be just as suspect as an entomologist, in my book.

[Nametag]

Originally Posted by tnbob

Cecil,
In your piece on "Does the average American student have less vocabulary today than in days gone by" (September 7, 2007), second paragraph, 4th line. Did you mean entomologist (one who studies insects) or etymologist (one who studies word origins)?

tnbob

Hard to say. Cecil has made his bones as a world-class wise-ass, and is perfectly capable of saying such a thing deliberately.

But it's probably little Ed's fault.

[bibliophage]

This question has come up before. Cecil meant what he said. See this post by Dex. Or I'll just quote from that thread so you don't have to click

Originally Posted by C K Dexter Haven

No, Cecil said and meant entomologists. Note the word "even" -- it wouldn't be surprising if the factoid were attributed to etymologists, but it IS surprising that it was attributed to insect-ologists.

You're not alone in thinking that Cecil goofed (Cecil NEVER goofs), so I actually have the source: the entomologist was named Cole Gilbert. He was cited in Harper’s August 2000 (when the factoid was again published), but for a different nearby fact on the luminescence of fireflies. An article in the Oct. 2000 in the Vancouver Sun cites him as the source of the vocabulary figures. So it was a goof on the part of the Vancouver Sun, but an amusing one.

[C K Dexter Haven]

Thanks, bibliophage, saved me the time and effort of looking it up again. I really wish that, when Cecil made these little jokes, he was more obvious -- people ask about this one fairly often.