# What % of english speakers know the definition of a particular word? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 6, 2015, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192 "2015-09-06T17:54:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/21 "2015-09-07T13:57:38Z")
> [@casdave](#): > > A hansom cab is used interchangeably with famous London Black taxi cabs. Isn’t that the type of horse drawn cab that Cramer took care of while the original driver was on vacation? That would be NYC in the US of A.He fed rusty too much bean-o, causing a gaseous eruption, an abbreviated ride for George’s future in-laws, and a calamity of marbled rye restoration. Or was that a “handsome cab”? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/22 "2015-09-07T14:04:19Z")
One thing I’d like to point out is that knowing the meaning of a word and knowing a preexisting definition for it aren’t quite the same thing, nor is being able to come up with a good definition. We all know what a table (furniture) is, but asking people to define one can be an interesting exercise. No, you can’t include in the definition “has four legs”, as it excludes all those tables which don’t; on the other hand, it’s also relatively easy to end up with a definition that would include beds. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/23 "2015-09-07T14:30:44Z")
> [@Learjeff](#): > > What, nobody reads GB Shaw, Conrad, Dickens, Dumas, or Stepenson (RL or Neal) these days? They all use calumny. Twain didnt, nor did Wilde. 6 of 8 authors I checked just now on my Nook use it, most of them many times. Dickens was the least user, only in 3 works, the most well-known being Pickwick Papers. SOME people do, yes. But a lot of people hardly read at all, and of the ones who do, a significant percentage only read popular modern authors. I don’t know what percentage read the classics, but I’m pretty sure it’s a lot lower than you think. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/24 "2015-09-07T14:41:16Z")
I still think a large number of people still read Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, especially young boys. The meaning of “hansom” is clear from context. However, I agree that a spoken distinction could be easily misheard. Calumny, not so much. I can’t think of any popular literature in which the term appears. Perhaps To Kill a Mockingbird? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/25 "2015-09-07T14:51:36Z")
> [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](#): > > Calumny, not so much. I can’t think of any popular literature in which the term appears. Perhaps To Kill a Mockingbird? Do none of the writers **Learjeff** mentioned count? How about [H. L. Mencken](http://www.amazon.com/Damn-Book-Calumny-H-Mencken/dp/1604502037)? ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/26 "2015-09-07T15:56:05Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Do none of the writers **Learjeff** mentioned count? How about [H. L. Mencken](http://www.amazon.com/Damn-Book-Calumny-H-Mencken/dp/1604502037)? Those authors are all very well and good (and Mencken’s book is indeed amusing), but the OP wants to know the percentage of people who “know” the definition of the two example words–not how often those words appear in older texts. It’s not the same thing. As has been pointed out above, it’s not exactly clear what the OP (who hasn’t yet elaborated), means by “know a definition,” but in any case that would be a more productive cognitive facility than simply reading a book could establish. ---
**Author:** ![nolonger\_lurking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/41988e/32.png) [@nolonger\_lurking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nolonger_lurking)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/27 "2015-09-07T16:14:00Z")
Thanks! I knew about Google Ngram, but hadn’t noticed [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com)’s difficulty index. I tried to find more information on the calculation of the difficulty index, but came up short. I actually didn’t know that accusations of calumny were still popular in England, and my wife claimed that hansoms show up so often in period books and TV shows that more people would recognize the word. I do appreciate everyone’s attempts at answers, and for the record, I didn’t even recognize that hansom was a word until I was playing some word game with my wife. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/28 "2015-09-07T22:06:08Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Do none of the writers **Learjeff** mentioned count? How about [H. L. Mencken](http://www.amazon.com/Damn-Book-Calumny-H-Mencken/dp/1604502037)? Those works are certainly well-known, but I’m not sure they are widely _read_. The works GB Shaw, Conrad, Dickens, Dumas and RL Stephenson all seem far better known from their movie or stage versions than from the actual writings. Stage versions often don’t use the same words, and even if they do, people tend not to learn words from hearing single usages like that. I can’t prove it, but I suspect that relatively few people have actually read \*any \*Shaw, Conrad, Dumas or RL Stephenson. Less than one in 500 I would guess. Dickens is certainly more popular, but if the work in question is “The Pickwick Papers” then imagine less than one in a thousand have read it. As noted, the word hansom is used regularly in the Sherlock Holmes stories, which in my experience most “readers” have had a crack at it as children. The fact that a hansom plays a pivotal at the very beginning of the very first adventure helps the level of exposure. A hansom is also an important plot point in “The Magician’s Nephew”. While this isn’t the most widely read of the Narnia novels, the exposure from this source is huge. As I said, I can’t prove it but I would imagine that far more people have read Sherlock Holmes or the Magician’s Nephew than have read Shaw, Conrad, Dumas, RL Stephenson or “The Pickwick Papers”. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/29 "2015-09-07T22:19:18Z")
> [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](#): > > I still think a large number of people still read Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, especially young boys. The meaning of “hansom” is clear from context. However, I agree that a spoken distinction could be easily misheard. > > Calumny, not so much. I can’t think of any popular literature in which the term appears. Perhaps To Kill a Mockingbird? They’re both obscure, but I would have thought hansom more obscure – maybe because the thing it represents doesn’t exist any more. Both are words I understand in context. I might possibly use calumny in writing. Probably not in speach. I can’t imagine wanting to use hansom. ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/30 "2015-09-08T00:32:56Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > They’re both obscure, but I would have thought hansom more obscure – maybe because the thing it represents doesn’t exist any more. > […] > [@](#): > > Just outside the Plaza Hotel and Central Park in Manhattan you’ll find one our New York City’s favorite attractions - Carriage Rides in Central Park! Carriages, traditionally called “Hansom Cabs”, are fun, romantic and create lasting images and lifelong memories. Operating year-round, the Central Park Carriages are a “must” for every one visiting New York City.[…] From [nyctourist.com](http://nyctourist.com). ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/31 "2015-09-08T02:01:05Z")
Nitpick: Carriages of the type seen in Central Park are not, in fact, “traditionally called ‘Hansom Cabs’”. A Hansom (named after the designer, Joseph Hansom) is a two-wheeled carriage with a compartment for passengers which is either fully enclosed or, more usually, open to the front only. The driver sits outside, above and behind the compartment. The carriages you see in Central Park are barouches. [Hansom cab](http://www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk/images/hansom.jpg). [Barouche](http://www.centralpark.com/updata/Image/tours/horse___carriage/horse-carriage-05.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/32 "2015-09-08T02:09:10Z")
Damn those New York liars! ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/33 "2015-09-08T03:27:46Z")
> [@GoodOmens](#): > > I’ll admit to only knowing “calumny” due to Pirate of the Caribbean. I know it because of being a Catholic kid in the 1950s. We knew the names of lots of sins. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/34 "2015-09-09T06:03:10Z")
Whenever I think of hansoms, I remember this story. An upper class patron who was leaving London’s Savoy Hotel mistakenly thought that lyricist William Gilbert (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame) was a doorman, this is what is said to have unfolded: “Call me a cab, sir.” “Certainly sir. You’re a four-wheeler.” [Another type of cab popular at the time.] “How dare you, sir!” “Well, you asked me to call you a cab and I certainly couldn’t call you hansom.” That might have been an example of calumny. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/35 "2015-11-09T17:08:35Z")
Reviving this to mention that _Slate_ wants to revive calumny as a common word. They wrote a [full article](http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2015/11/05/calumny_is_a_useful_word_for_libel_slander_defamation.html) singing its praises. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/36 "2015-11-09T19:08:32Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > What’s your criterion for “knowing” a word? Before looking it up, I knew that a hansom was a type of horse-drawn conveyance (from reading about it in the Sherlock Holmes stories, and perhaps [other sources](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansom_cab#In_popular_culture)), but couldn’t have told you exactly what separated it from other types of horse-drawn conveyances. > [@guizot](#): > > I’ll add to what I said above, however, that the occurrences are so low with these two words, that I wouldn’t even try to estimate comparative percentages of English speakers in general “knowing” either word, and that, for any word, **Shagnasty** is correct that there is no resource for coming up with some kind of _absolute_ percentage… Right. I also recognized “hansom” as a kind of carriage, but am not exactly sure how it differs from a cabriolet or stagecoach. In any event, I could likely “pass” a reading comprehension test that used “hansom”. Trying to define what it means to “know” the definition to a particular word is more complex than it seems on its surface. If someone knows that “oxygen” is a gaseous element that is essential to human life but can’t remember how many protons and electrons it has, can they really be said to “know” the definition of oxygen? If someone knows that Warren Harding was a president of the USA but can’t remember the year in which he was elected, what party he belonged to, and how many children he had, do they _really know_ who Warren Harding was? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/37 "2015-11-09T19:21:20Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Do none of the writers **Learjeff** mentioned count? How about [H. L. Mencken](http://www.amazon.com/Damn-Book-Calumny-H-Mencken/dp/1604502037)? How about Shakespeare? “Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go.” (Hamlet) ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/38 "2015-11-09T20:10:38Z")
**nolonger lurking** , I just want to say that you and your wife are my new heroes. I would love to sit around the breakfast table having conversations like that. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/39 "2015-11-09T20:38:46Z")
Read enough English historical fiction and you’ll learn that the Brits are always committing calumnies against each other between trips to the Royal Albert Hall in their hansom cabs ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192/40 "2015-11-09T20:41:56Z")
I only know hansom cabs from reading Sherlock Holmes stories. I knew that word on sight. I did now know “calumny” except that I knew it was something “bad”. I probably read it in context in some story so it was in the back of my mind. These are definitely obscure but to me hansom less so. (My favorite obscure word ever is “defenestration”.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-of-english-speakers-know-the-definition-of-a-particular-word/730192.md?page=3)