# Words that you sort of know the meaning of, but not really
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 7, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172 "2008-12-07T22:12:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/1 "2008-12-07T22:12:04Z")
My examples are all pejorative adjectives. I knew that they all meant “bad” in some sense, but I didn’t know precisely why:
mendacious
meretricious
venal
specious
and that oft-used SDMB word, “egregious”
A bit of Googling reveals that these words are etymologically related to prostitutes, merchants, shiny coins, and flocks or herds (egregious, gregarious, the name Gregory).
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### Author:  [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2008, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/2 "2008-12-07T22:20:00Z")
I ALWAYS have to think about “bemused” and “nonplussed” for some reason.
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2008, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/3 "2008-12-07T22:41:15Z")
“Spendthrift” should mean “stingy” NOT “wasteful”! It has the word “thrift” in it!! I demand this be fixed NOW!
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### Author:  [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/4 "2008-12-07T22:43:06Z")
Shibboleth - no matter how many times I look the damn word up I can’t remember the meaning.
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### Author:  [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2008, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/5 "2008-12-07T22:53:17Z")
Yeah, I always want to think that a shibboleth is some burden that you must figuratively carry. “For years, he had that shibboleth on his back.” That’s just what it sounds like it ought to mean. I’m probably confusing it with some other vaguely Hebrew-sounding word like, I don’t know, “leviathan” or something. It sounds like it should be some big, oppressive thing, anyway.
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### Author:  [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/6 "2008-12-08T03:37:11Z")
Many times I’ve tried to figure out the difference between “sympathy” and “empathy”. I’ve been to all the online dictionary sites, but just can’t get it.
PLEASE EXPLAIN IT TO ME NOW!
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/7 "2008-12-08T05:25:44Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#):
>
> Many times I’ve tried to figure out the difference between “sympathy” and “empathy”. I’ve been to all the online dictionary sites, but just can’t get it.
>
> PLEASE EXPLAIN IT TO ME NOW!
Sympathy is the intellectual experience, and empathy is the emotional experience, of sensing another’s state of being?
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### Author:  [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/8 "2008-12-08T05:28:12Z")
They’re not that far apart, and since they’re words about feelings, it’s even a little tougher to explain. But I’ll try.
Sympathy: (Trying to) share the same feelings. You find these two words to be confusing, and seem to be anguished about it. I know that when I’ve felt confused, I’ve felt frustrated, even a little inadequate that I just don’t seem to understand what other people seem to have no problem with. So to some (small) extent, I can feel the same way - that is, I sympathize with you. The word is watered down a little in current usage and now often means only that the sympathy-offerer wishes general emotional support to another person having troubles.
Empathy: If I’m empathizing with you, I’m really trying to reach out and imagine what it is that you, specifically, are feeling right now. The word deals more with the emotional gymnastics of the person doing the empathizing, that they are in fact able to put themselves in the shoes of their subject and understand the subject’s feelings. But just because I understand your feelings, that doesn’t mean so much that I’m feeling the same way right at the moment, only that I understand.
That’s my sense of it.
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### Author:  [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/9 "2008-12-08T19:08:49Z")
belied – I think it’s so often misused that I no longer have the correct usage in my head.
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### Author:  [@Finally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finally)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/10 "2008-12-08T19:33:30Z")
As far as I can tell, there’s really no difference between epidemic and pandemic.
Right?
If not, can somebody explain please?
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/11 "2008-12-08T19:38:29Z")
> [@Ximenean](#):
>
> I’m probably confusing it with some other vaguely Hebrew-sounding word like, I don’t know, “leviathan” or something. It sounds like it should be some big, oppressive thing, anyway.
A lot of those Hebrew-sounding words seem to me like they should be ancient primeval monsters or part of the Cthulhu mythos or something: Rehoboth, Jeroboam, Abimelech. Yet they are quite innocuous in meaning; [Rehoboth simply means ‘broad place’](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehoboth_(Bible)).
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/12 "2008-12-08T20:19:01Z")
Um, “pejorative.” 😃
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/13 "2008-12-08T20:59:31Z")
Inconceivable!
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/14 "2008-12-08T21:05:03Z")
> [@Ximenean](#):
>
> Yeah, I always want to think that a shibboleth is some burden that you must figuratively carry. “For years, he had that shibboleth on his back.” That’s just what it sounds like it ought to mean. I’m probably confusing it with some other vaguely Hebrew-sounding word like, I don’t know, “leviathan” or something. It sounds like it should be some big, oppressive thing, anyway.
Heh. I think of it as gray, rocky, somehow like “shale” and maybe “obelisk” combined. In my mind, it ends up looking like a base stone at Stonehenge or the big rock they use to stone that woman in Life of Brian.
Wanders off to look up the true meaning…
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/15 "2008-12-08T21:16:26Z")
> [@Smeghead](#):
>
> “Spendthrift” should mean “stingy” NOT “wasteful”! It has the word “thrift” in it!! I demand this be fixed NOW!
It also has the word “spend” in it. 😉
> [@Finally](#):
>
> As far as I can tell, there’s really no difference between epidemic and pandemic.
>
> Right?
>
> If not, can somebody explain please?
“Pan-” somethings almost always mean _everything_ gets involved (e.g., pandemonium). As I understand it, pandemics are supposed to be worse than epidemics. An epidemic provokes an emergency-situation response. A pandemic provokes no response because it’s too late.
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### Author:  [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2008, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/16 "2008-12-09T04:07:07Z")
> [@Ximenean](#):
>
> Yeah, I always want to think that a shibboleth is some burden that you must figuratively carry. “For years, he had that shibboleth on his back.” That’s just what it sounds like it ought to mean. I’m probably confusing it with some other vaguely Hebrew-sounding word like, I don’t know, “leviathan” or something. It sounds like it should be some big, oppressive thing, anyway.
Nah, a Shibboleth is the brand of automobile that you drive on Route 405 when you’re in Southern California.
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### Author:  [@Promethea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Promethea)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2008, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/17 "2008-12-09T09:18:46Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#):
>
> It also has the word “spend” in it. 😉
>
> “Pan-” somethings almost always mean _everything_ gets involved (e.g., pandemonium). As I understand it, pandemics are supposed to be worse than epidemics. An epidemic provokes an emergency-situation response. A pandemic provokes no response because it’s too late.
Without looking it up (because that would be counter to the spirit of the thread) my understanding is that whilst this is isn’t wrong, “epidemic” and “pandemic” have distinct definitions when applied to, say disease distribution and thus when X per thousand are infected, you’ve got yourself an epidemic. When you go way beyond that and hit XX per thousand, you have a pandemic. I think when it hits virtually everyone then it becomes endemic, ie the new norm?
ETA: Looked up endemic: huh - endemic does NOT mean this in disease terms but refers to a disease achieving a ‘steady state’ in a given population.
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### Author:  [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2008, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/18 "2008-12-09T09:30:45Z")
Dualism.
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### Author:  [@Breccia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Breccia)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2008, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/19 "2008-12-09T10:39:21Z")
When biologists use the term “epidemic” if means the disease is sustaining itself.
In other words if 1 individual has the plague they transmit it to greater than 1 individual, like ummm, 1.1 individuals. If the average victim is only able to infect 0.9 individual the disease will die out.
Pandemic, I think may mean “across”, like across the population…as someone said above, wide spread. I’m assuming this from PanAmerican (highway) runs across the various American nations.
I stand by, fully expecting to be “panned.”
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-sort-of-know-the-meaning-of-but-not-really/476172/20 "2008-12-09T14:01:04Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#):
>
> It also has the word “spend” in it. 😉
Yes, but “spendthrift” _should_ mean that they’re _thrifty_ in their _spending_ and nothing anyone can say will convince me otherwise.
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